Reflection Paper
Instructions
For the Unit 7 Reflection Paper, consider the idea of Orientalism and the role of identity in our literature from this unit. Choose two fiction readings — however, not “Lorry Raja” — and use them to explain Orientalism and identity. Be sure to provide examples from each work and explain how the examples support your claim.
Your submission needs to follow all MLA guidelines and should be 2-3 pages
ANSWER
Orientalism in The School Days of an Indian Girl and The Man Who Was Almost a Man
Orientalism can be described as a stereotypical way of seeing things that hugely relies on the perception of one culture against another. The two short stories, The School Days of an Indian Girl by Zitkala-Sa and The Man Who Was Almost a Man by Richard Wright, portray these kinds of notions.
Sa’s short story emphasizes the damaging and traumatizing effects of assimilation of culture. She notes down the shortcomings of a society that has one oppressive and domineering culture against the other minority ones. The Indian girl in the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota is introduced to European-Americans who are her teachers at Quaker Missionary School. From the moment she walks into the classroom, everything conflicts with her culture and what had been familiar to her, including the language the other kids speak. The fact that she could not speak the way the rest spoke or do some of the things the other did and the fact that her hair is different from the white kids in her class leaves her ostracized, terrified, and fearful. In Wright’s story, the persona, Dave, struggles with the idea that he was not man enough and needed to do and achieve particular things in order to fit into the category of manhood introduced to him by white people in his community. The story takes different turns, trying to demonstrate Dave’s struggle to gain the town’s respect and his vicious criticism of himself when he fails to achieve this. In one instance, he accidentally shoots a mule, and he feels as if the whole town is laughing at him and that he would never achieve manhood despite his attempts.
The idea of Orientalism and its role of identity in the two personas can hardly go unnoticed. It defines who they are and the things they try to achieve right from the moment they are introduced to these foreign ideas. Rather than grow naturally to become adults supported by their own originality, the two characters are stuck trying to achieve and fit into other’s definitions of beauty, success, and adulthood. For instance, in Sa’s story, the Indian girl learns her long and heavy hair has to be cut after she joins the school. In her culture, the only people who got their hair cut were the unskilled warriors who were captured in battle. It was of high cultural significance that she kept her hair intact, but when it gets cut, the Indian girl confesses to having lost her spirit. In Wright’s story, Dave has to struggle with the standards set by both his society and the white man’s imposition on what it means to be a man. This constant obsession leads him on the path to violence and love for guns to match up the white men he admires, all of which comes to a tragic end, while in frustration, he shoots at a house and ends up killing his own father.
Orientalism, as demonstrated by the works of the two authors, suggests that if human beings are not left to their own cultures and traditions, the result can only be pain, strife, and anguish. The expectation of people to conform to a certain way of living as subjects of a superior culture that perceives itself as more intelligent and dominant is oppressive.
References
Wright Richard. 1961. The Man Who Was Almost a Man. Retrieved on 4th December 2020 from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR2/wright.htm
Zitkala-Sa. 1996. The School Days of an Indian Girl. Retrieved on 4th December 2020 from http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/zitkala-sa/stories/school.html
