LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Sample Student Final Exam 2005

Betsy Barnes

Time Log:
Sunday 2:30-3:30
Tuesday 7:00-9:00

A Crossing of Texts and Cultures

I leave this class having learned, or at least having tried to learn, two important lessons. The first lesson is regarding dialogue between multiple texts. In most literature classes that I have taken, texts are looked at rather independently of each other. There might be a theme suggested by the course title, but essays and tests were written by looking at each text separately. I have found this difficult at times because my thinking process naturally connects things. Sometimes I connect things that really have no connection, but I have somehow convinced myself that the connection is there. When I realized that this course would involve so much intertextuality, or crossing of texts, my excitement began to grow. I realize that it can be easier to keep texts separate, but because making connections is more natural for me, I was ready to take this challenge head on.

I actually received a sort of double-dose in intertextuality this semester. I am also taking Literary Theory, where the main paper and the final require that texts have some common thread. Well, it was not exactly required. It was more of a strong recommendation that I took as a requirement to ensure a higher grade! Nevertheless, I am grateful for this semester’s lesson in connecting texts.

The second lesson I learned is concerning the crossing of multiple cultures, and can be discussed by using what I learned in lesson number one. This was exemplified either by a person being a descendant of two cultures, like Derek Walcott, or of a person being submerged in or exposed to a culture other than his/her native culture. Each of the texts we have read this semester includes this crossing of cultures in some form of another. A Passage to India, A Train to Pakistan, and Lucy each center on a person or group of people who have left their native culture and are either living in or visiting another culture. Derek Walcott is the only example of true hybridity, while the others are of one culture faced with another culture.

A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster, is concerning the relationship between people from Great Britain, and people from India. A group from Great Britain visits some British friends in India, and the lives of the Indians and British collide. One of the main themes in the novel asks if the British and Indians become friends. Aziz and Mr. Fielding seem to be accomplishing this task. Aziz tries very hard to fit in with the British, and to form bonds of friendship. Mr. Fielding seems to accept Aziz, and honestly want a friendship with him. However, after Aziz is falsely accused of assaulting Mrs. Moore, he decides that he no longer wants the friendship with the British. That includes his friendship with Mr. Fielding. In the end, Aziz and Mr. Fielding meet once again in humorous circumstances. They discuss whether or not the two cultures can be friends, but it is decided that it cannot be done then.

The clash of these two cultures, and the ending result of no friendship, shows how difficult it is for someone to assimilate into a different culture. The British scoffed at the Indians for their perceived lack of knowledge, which illustrates their desire for the Indians to be like the British. It is not that black and white. The British could not assimilate into the Indian culture, so it should not be expected of the Indians to assimilate into the British culture.

In A Train to Pakistan, there are three cultures that are involved; the Muslims, the Sikhs and the Hindus. The story takes place after the British have left India, and the partition is taking place. The novel centers on one village in particular, which includes all three cultures living peacefully together. They hear of the calls for partition, and the killings that are taking place, but it does not seem to be reaching them. However, things change when a group of boys goes to the village and asks if they “know how many trainloads of dead Sheikhs and Hindus have come over” (Singh 148). Now the village knows the fear that their country has been dealing with. 

The destruction and bloodshed that ensues goes to demonstrate the difficulty of multiple cultures living together. The one village is successful at living in harmony until the devastation that is taking place around them finally leaks in. This seems to be inevitable. Just as in A Passage to India, A Train to Pakistan illustrates the difficulties and inabilities of multiple cultures forming lasting friendships.

Kincaid’s Lucy also concerns a cross of cultures. Lucy is a girl from the West Indies who is sent to be a nanny in the United States. She and her family plan on her going to school as well. Lucy seems to arrive in the United States with the mindset of rejecting it. She does not necessarily want to be home, but she is not enjoying the U.S. Perhaps it is her youth that makes her reject both her home, and where she has been sent to live. There is obvious tension between her and her mom, which seems to stem from the blame that Lucy puts on her mom. If only her mom had been strong against the dominating cultures, Lucy would not have to be sent off. But, she cannot forget her mom, or her home country. It is ever present with her.

The U.S. is cold, and the people are very different than what Lucy is accustomed to. This is illustrated when she wakes up the first day after arriving to her new home. She looks out the window and sees that the sun is shining. She assumes that this means that it will be a warm day, so she puts on a light dress. When it turns out to be a cold day, Lucy realizes just how different things are going to be.

Lucy seems to not even necessarily want to fit in to the new culture that she has been faced with. She has such reactive feelings, that it becomes difficult for the reader to figure out exactly what Lucy wants. This is probably because Lucy does not know what she wants. Again, the complication of crossing two cultures is seen. How can someone from a completely different culture fit into a new one?

The intricacy of the answer to this question can be seen in Derek Walcott’s poetry. He is the descendent of two different cultures. The complications are furthered because one culture colonized another culture. The colonized half of Walcott is angry at the colonizers. They destroyed the culture that was once in place. He cannot not now go back and see what his ancestors had built, and the culture that they created. It has been forever changed.

At the same time that Walcott is angry at the colonizers, he realizes that he is also the colonizer. The colonizer half of Walcott sees the development that was brought. There is now more education, and a better health system. Kimberly Jones writes that “Derek Walcott’s poetry depicts an individual who is desperately attempting to find his place in between the two worlds—one of original cultural ideologies and one tainted by an imperialistic nation”. The example she uses is from Walcott’s poem, “A Far Cry From Africa”. Here, Walcott writes “Between this Africa and the English tongue I love? Betray them both, or give back what they give? How can I face such a slaughter and be cool?” (18). This is his struggle. He cannot choose one culture over the other, because to choose only one is to reject part of himself.

His poetry is full of this conflict, and his struggles in dealing with this conflict. He cannot choose, yet sometimes has feelings that he must choose. The question of someone fitting into a new culture is answered by Walcott’s struggles. They will have struggles of their own, and it is not always possibly for two cultures to cross into each other’s paths harmoniously. There will always be resistance.

As I go onto different classes, and eventually teach my own, I will take with me the lessons of crossing texts and crossing cultures. I believe that these lessons will aid me in understanding other texts in other classes, and in connecting texts. This connection will allow for deeper analysis of texts, which will broaden my writing skills.