Cristen Lauck

December 10, 2011

Colonialism: A Changing Experience

When thinking back through how much I have learned this semester, I am astonished at how much I have gained with this course. As I mentioned in my mid-term, I knew nothing about colonialism before I had taken this course. This new understanding for what colonialism is and why I knew so little about it before has been the most rewarding aspect of the semester. I am thankful we touched on Objective 3 which is concerning "American resistance to or ignorance of postcolonial criticism". Not only have I learned about colonialism, but I have also come to understand why I was so ignorant of it in the first place.

At first, I was bothered by how little I knew about this subject.  I can associate with  Paula Tyler who wrote in her Final exam of 2009 that she has “always been interested in diversity and the way people see one another, whether it be positive or negative.” It was because I am so interested in other people that I was so upset that I knew so little about this genre of Literature. But as I began to investigate my lack of knowledge, I began to realize that there is a reason for this lack of knowledge.

I first understood this lack of knowledge to be a sign of how America was settled. I noted in my midterm that “since the United States is considered a settler colonization, meaning when settlers came, they were here to stay and wanted less to do with the mother country.” I questioned that “perhaps this also accounts for why there is so much American ignorance of larger world issues of colonization”. While I understood this lack in American education, I still was not satisfied that that was the entire reason for my lack of knowledge. It was not until I started my Research Post that I began to understand.

I found through doing my Research Post that another reason for the lack of understanding about Colonialism is because sometimes we never hear the native’s perspective. In cases like the colonization of Mexico, we do not hear the native’s voice and therefore we do not really hear much about any of the colonization. We do not hear know what the colonized think because their voices are silenced by the colonizers and we also do not hear much from the colonizers either because they do not want to put any emphasis on how they overtook country. As I noted in my Research Post, “these articles gave great incite to why there is so little we know about what the native Yucatan people thought about the invading Spanish colonizers. This lack of voice is partly due to how some cultures use historical myths. Some stories change based on the interests and needs of a culture.” As I discovered my lack of knowledge was partly due to a lack of perspective from the natives, I began to think there is still another reason why we know so little about colonization. That reason is because even the colonized natives cannot agree on what they think about being colonized.

Toward the end of the semester, I realized that the reason for my ignorance of colonialism did not change but was enhanced because I realized even the natives themselves had different attitudes about the settlers coming in. When I read Things Fall Apart, it was apparent to me that the attitude of the colonized varied greatly from that of Jasmine. Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart could not accept the changes the settlers were bringing. He adamantly and even violently rejected anything new the missionaries were introducing. Whereas, Jasmine embraced the opportunity of change America brought her. She openly wished for the freedom to change her life. These two stories opened my eyes to realize even the natives had differing opinions on the colonizers. It is no wonder I lacked understanding of colonialism, even the colonized themselves did not know what was going on.

Now that I have a reason for why I knew so little before, I can start to investigate how I can overcome these obstacles for my students in the future. I can further agree with what I said in my midterm that “I think it is a blessing that Literature can bring such awareness to different views and give people a voice in which to express their feelings.” I can incorporate the differing views of the natives to show that no one has absolute knowledge as to what goes on around them and that is ok. Even though our opinions may be different, we can still communicate and have a dialogue between us and perhaps we can even learn from each other. That is why I enjoyed our discussions in class so much. I liked hearing what others thought and how they could pick up on different aspects of the texts I may have overlooked. I agree with Paula Tyler when she wrote in her Final Exam that “the discussions and presentations in class were where [she] learned and connected the history and literature the most.” It was in a conversation with others that I was able to understand how everyone can think about things differently.