LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Sample Student Final Exams 2008

Essay 2: Compose a dialogue between our four novels since the midterm. (Objectives 1, 2, and 3 + others)

Cory Owen

 Defining the Self and the Other to Shape Identities

The very basis of colonialism and even postcolonialism is rooted in defining "the other."  For the colonist, it became a justification.  For the colonized, it became a stigma.  Within the novels that we've read this semester, the self-other dynamic is evident in all the relationships and becomes the motivating factor for much of the plot development.  With every self, there needs to be an other and each of the novels presents the other in relationship to how they see themselves.  By having this dichotomy of the self-other saturating the novels of this period, we're seen how actions can be justified and how identities are formed. . . .
            With the emergence of postcolonial texts as a genre, there is an increasing effort to create an identity for the recently colonized people.  This passion for discovering who they really are is crucial to these narratives and is exemplified in both Train to Pakistan and Lucy.  Within both these novels, the effects of being colonized saturate the culture and influence the actions of the heroes.  While some of the formerly colonized choose to embrace this hybridization of the cultures, some rebel against the influence and bridle against any further influence from "the other".  Now that the narratives are told from the perspective of the colonized, the self-other dynamics are switched and we're left with a narrative that is intent on self-discovery while trying to find the balance between their old world of traditions and the new world of European influence.
            By having two seemingly opposite characters as the heroes of Train to Pakistan, Singh allows us to see how the British rule had affected the Indians in different ways.  Iqbal is the scapegoat of the novel with the town untrusting of his strange ways.  In the same way that this foreign behavior was used as a justification to colonize India, we're shown the same situation with different characters.  With Iqbal as someone who embraced the changes, he is ostracized from his own community and is actually turned into "the other" by his own people.  As Larry succinctly stated in his presentation, "Train to Pakistan shows how a country can dash the hopes and dreams of a culture to bits with a sudden realization of freedom and the want for control with so many religious sects. It also shows the prejudiced feelings a country can have toward its own people, ones they consider better than themselves because of the education they received in a foreign country. Iqbal ran into the same prejudice feelings on his return from England."  Though the British rule is over, the effects of being colonized are not gone and without the British to serve the role as "the other", their representatives (meaning those who embraced the European influence) are substituted into this role.
            Though Lucy can be considered a "third wave" novel, the effects of postcolonialism are prevalent throughout the book.  With the poignant scene in the garden when discussing the poem that she was forced to memorize, we get a glimpse into Lucy's disdain and hatred for the way her people were bastardized.  When Maria seems envious of Lucy's history, she responds, "you're welcome to it if you like" (19).  The colonization of her people has shaped who she is and how she views the world.  For her, "the other" shifts during her stay.  Depending on her situation, this oppositional force is represented as Mariah, her mother, her boyfriend and even herself.  This sliding definition of "the other" was also seen in Passage to India as Aziz sides with other religious groups in India in order to have a joint effort against the collective other.  Lucy’s narrative shows how the struggle to find an identity in the changed world without a clear “other” makes it that much more difficult to define the self.
            While the self-other is not a concept unique to the colonial and postcolonial texts, the effects are very evident since it is this very concept on which the movements are based.  Defining the self is done by finding the relationship to the other.  In the case of many of the texts that we read this semester, we're even shown how the definition of one group can alienate another causing long lasting effect.  While the colonial texts are concerned with justifying their actions, the postcolonial texts are focused on redeeming their sense of self in light of the freedom from colonial reign.  In the end, since a self needs an other, what we're shown is a time line of shifts with the definitions of self and other.  While the colonizers had an obvious other (the colonized), in the postcolonial texts, there is more ambiguity.  The colonized, now free from European rule, can choose to define the other as their previous captors (such as Lucy's response to the British when remembering the poem), those who are sympathetic to the colonizers (as seen in the response to Iqbal), and those who find an other within their own group (such as the religious factions found in India).  While the self-other dynamic may not be the same throughout the novels, there is a necessity to have an opposition to define oneself against.