LITR / CRCL 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Sample Student Final Exam 2003

April Davis
Literature 5734: Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Dr. Craig White
June 27, 2003
Final exam

                                    The Identity of an Exile

            According to Aristotle, the man ‘who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god,’ (Watt 87).  How would Aristotle react to the current generation of thought, which purports that the individual is the supreme power in nature?  Again and again characters in colonial and postcolonial literature suffer a crisis of identity in the absence of a strong traditional culture, which leads to either a physical or a psychological feeling of exile.  In his article about the rise of the novel, Ian Watt asserts, “Just as society has made every individual what he is, so the prolonged lack of society actually tends to make the individual relapse into a straightened primitivism of thought and feeling,” (Watt 88).  In spite of the negative consequences, the march toward individualism continues today.  Ironically, the individualist of the twenty first century is more connected with others than ever thanks to the advancements of technology.  Unfortunately, communication with others does not ensure feelings of identification or belonging.  Watt theorizes, “An inner voice continually suggests to us that the human isolation which individualism has fostered is painful and tends ultimately to a life of apathetic animality and mental derangement,” (Watt 88).  This isolation is often described in terms of exile.  Both colonial and postcolonial literature explore the effects of exile on the identity of the individual.

            Robinson Crusoe is an interesting example of the colonizer as an exile.  Not an exile by force, Crusoe suffers from a type of self imposed exile that results from his adventurous nature and dissatisfaction with his condition.  Psychologically, Crusoe proves to be an exile no matter where he is because he is never satisfied with his lot.  When he is at home he wishes he were at sea.  When he is on the island he wishes he were at home.  Ultimately Crusoe conquers his sense of psychological disconnectedness when he is confronted with true physical exile that is beyond his control.

            Crusoe’s accidental exile, the result of his shipwreck, is the logical continuation of his psychological exile.  It severs his ties with society leaving him alone to ponder his place in the world.  It is only then that Crusoe realizes his strong sense of identification with his homeland and begins to truly appreciate his heritage.  He regrets disobeying his father and sees himself as somewhat of a reflection of him.  After all, Crusoe has done the very same thing that his father did when he was young.  At this point Crusoe trades his psychological exile for physical exile.  Ironically, he no longer feels like an outcast in his homeland and longs to return there now that return is no longer possible.  Nonetheless, because he is alone on the island his identity becomes even more highly individualized.  When he is confronted with humanity, Friday for example, Crusoe allies his sense of self with his homeland which is in opposition to the other of non-white peoples.  This contrast serves to strengthen his sense of self.   

             Crusoe’s strong sense of self in opposition to the other lends itself to his role as colonizer.  In order to validate his identity, he attempts to impose his values on others.  This is first evident in his attempts to recreate his homeland on the island and later manifests itself in his interactions with Friday.  He gives Friday a name, teaches him English, teaches him religion, clothes him, and generally tries to make him English.  Crusoe’s reasons for doing this are two fold.  First, he is lonely and wants company.  However, perhaps his greater motivation is to justify his belief in the superiority of self. By attempting to elevate Friday from his nonwhite status, Crusoe falls into the mentality of civilizing the savage.  Crusoe has no illusions about actually raising Friday to an equal level because he is not interested in creating an equal, but validating the superiority of his own identity.

            Like Crusoe, Lucy also suffers the effects of psychological as well as physical exile.  The difference is that Lucy’s sense of isolation is a result of growing up in a colonized land with a divided culture.  Lucy wishes she were far away when she is at home, but longs for home when she is far away.  She does not feel comfortable in either place.  Unlike Crusoe, Lucy does not lose her feeling of psychological exile from her homeland when she physically exiles herself.  Even though she does tend to have romanticized memories of home, deep seeded resentments prevent her from wishing to return.  This idea of never being able to return to the homeland is echoed by the speaker in the Walcott poem “Exile.”  Like Lucy, the speaker’s romanticized visions of his homeland are marred by the effects of colonization.  Both Lucy and the speaker in “Exile” attempt to forage an identity by living in the very lands that destroyed their native cultures.  According to Dendy Farrar’s dialogue between Robinson Crusoe and Lucy, “…Lucy is given the invitation to choose between self-torment at home and violence of an alien metropolis and she refuses to accept [that] these are the only two choices.”  Rather than overcoming her sense of exile, Lucy seems to nurture it.

            Lucy has a negative self concept from the onset.  Because she is named after Lucifer her view of ‘self’ is not necessarily a positive thing.  Couple that with her split heritage on a colonized island and you get an angry and confused identity.  Whereas Crusoe tries to bring England to the island, Lucy rejects the island, the past, and her mother in an attempt to forage a new identity.  She tries to define her self in terms of the other, but the other keeps changing.  At first Lucy’s other is her mother who she despises because she feels betrayed. Lucy attempts to define herself in terms of what her mother is not. After leaving the island, Lucy projects her contempt for her mother onto Mariah, who acts as a surrogate mother.  Mariah has the double stigma of not only being a mother figure but a colonizing figure as well.  Once she is separated from her mother, Lucy’s self concept begins to revolve around the contrast between herself and any direct descendant of the colonizing race. Once she has some distance from her mother she begins to see that she is a reflection of her mother rather than in opposition to her.  Lucy muses, “I was not like my mother – I was my mother.” (Kincaid 90).  This acceptance allows Lucy a solid thread with which to weave the strands of her identity.

            Ultimately Lucy rejects society in favor of individualism.  Like Crusoe, Lucy remains an exile in a foreign land and her relationships with others only work when others do not ask for anything from her.              However, Crusoe’s actions are based on his desire for power and monetary gain – typical of the colonizer – whereas Lucy is motivated by feelings of low self esteem, betrayal, and fear – which is more typical of a colonized identity.  Lucy grows tired of her relationships – with Mariah, Peggy, and her boyfriend - whenever the other person starts to have expectations.  Lucy fosters very conditional sorts of relationships in which she does not give much of herself and therefore runs less risk of being hurt or rejected.  This tactic also keeps her from being forced to re-examine and re-define her concepts of self and other.  When she and Mariah start to get close and Mariah needs her support Lucy moves out.  She ignores her mother’s letters and does not go home after her father dies.  She begins to dislike Peggy after they get closer and move in together.  At the end of the story we can see her pulling away from her boyfriend as well.  Lucy’s identity is so highly individualized that it is as if she feels threatened by any intimate contact with ‘the other.’

             Conversely, Aziz from A Passage to India attempts to reconcile two cultures until he is forced into exile.  His first bout with exile is forced by the English because of the supposed rape.  This betrayal leads Aziz to a self imposed psychological and physical exile from the English after he is cleared of the charges. Unlike Lucy, Aziz does not reject his mother culture and has an identity that is based on his kinship with other Indians.  Once he rejects English culture he allies himself with Indians in opposition to the English other.  Like Lucy he feels tremendous animosity towards the colonizers.

            Initially Aziz attempts to create an identity based on hybridity and substitution – that is he takes what is good from the English culture and adapts it to his own culture.  In addition, he is embarrassed by some aspects of his own culture.  On several occasions he fears being embarrassed in front of the English and treats the English better than his fellow Indians.  This is reminiscent of the speaker in the poem “Exile” who attempts to distance himself from the other immigrants on the ship.  Sometimes attempts at hybridity lead to the rejection of some aspects of the mother culture.  Though the speaker in “Exile” is a victim of colonization, he does not initially take on the role of victim.  He attempts to reconcile the two cultures into an identity for himself.  However, the colonizing culture does little to help the speaker or Aziz to reconcile the two.  In Aziz’s case, Mrs. Quested destroys the very threads that weave his hybrid identity together.  In turn, Aziz asserts a new identity based on his total rejection of the colonizing culture. 

            Ultimately Aziz rejects the colonizing power and defines his new identity in terms of self and other with the English as the evil other.  Aziz does not entirely reject others in favor of total individualism, he has a more traditional concept of himself in relation to his fellow Indians.  What he does do that negatively affects his identity is project his ideas about the English onto all English – even the grandson of Mrs. Moore and his friend Mr. Fielding.  Aziz’s blind hatred of the English lead him to betray his friend Mrs. Moore by ill treating her grandson.  Furthermore, Aziz’s rejection of Mr. Fielding shows the depths of his resentment of a race.  He loses a good friend who supported him in his darkest hour.  Sadly, Aziz is limited by his own narrow mindedness.  After he was betrayed, he gives up part of his identity and is unable to recognize his full potential as a human being.

            Perhaps Estha from The God of Small Things is the most extreme example of an exile.  Initially Estha’s identity is supplemented by and merged with the identity of his twin, Rahel.  There is no sense of self and other between the two – the two make up one self while everyone else serves as the other.  However, when Estha’s forced exile takes him away from his sister, his identity is lost.  He is incapable of reforming it in relation to others because it is as though half of his self was taken away.  Estha exiles himself from the world by giving up all communication with others.                   

            Estha has no sense of individualism, he has no concrete sense of self and other.  When Estha stops speaking it is as though he loses his sense of self and becomes one with the other.  He substitutes oneness with nature in place of his oneness with his sister.  It is as though he cannot distinguish himself from anything else.  According to Suganthi Senapati’s 2001 Dialogue between A Passage to India and The God of Small Things, “Since there is an essential kinship between the soul of man and the indwelling soul of the universe, since the external world and the mind of man are exquisitely fitted to each other, communion between the two is possible,”(Senapati).  Estha’s silence is a sort of reverse individualism in which he attempts to merge with the universe.

            Estha’s interactions with others are very minimal.  He blends into the background and is not an active force on others.  Curiously, others do not seem to exert any impact on him, either.  Rather than having conditional relations with others, Estha opts for no relations with others and escapes from society into a world of silence.  This somewhat mirrors the speaker in the Walcott poem “Exile” who attempts to escape into his writing.  However, just as society still attempts to penetrate Estha, so it penetrates the mind of the speaker in “Exile.” When the speaker attempts to escape to his homeland through his writing, memories of the colonizers inevitably infringe on his memories.

            Whether self imposed or forced, the feeling of disconnectedness which results from physical or psychological exile has a great impact on the formation of identity.  It seems to affirm individualism to the point of rejecting serious relationships with others.  In terms of colonial and postcolonial literature, feelings of exile seem to be common among the colonized as well as the colonizers. 

Log times:  Sunday June 29, 2003

            2pm-3pm

            3:30-4:30

            5:30-6:30

            9:00-10:00

Total: 4 hours