Nora Ventura 

Contemporary Issues in Postcolonial literature

The new wave of transnational migration has trained the American psyche to see diversity as the new America. Whether we accept that or not, for the purposes of this paper, is irrelevant. The concern of this paper is to remind postcolonial readers that transnational migrants are not representative of homogeneous home cultures, but rather a single representative of a complex culture. The postcolonial reader would do the genre a disservice if the diversity within the novels in not acknowledged and analyzed. Postcolonial studies celebrate the culture dynamics, the cultural particularities, and the individual contributions to humanity. If we leave the course thinking that we know the plight of Indian-American women because we “met” Jasmine, or that we know pre-colonial Africa because we read Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness, then we have sacrificed the writers’ attempts to illustrate the complexity of the cultures they write about.

In Things Fall Apart, Achebe includes a conversation between the villagers where they discuss the differences in cultural practices in other tribes (73). “All their customs are upside down,” says Okonkwo. By the time we read that, we have likely already gasped at the wife-beatings, child kidnapping, and purposes of the Evil Forest in their village. We have already thought that their customs are upside down. Understanding that we live in different moral worlds allows us to humanize the other. The reactions of either shock or admiration to the actions (or inactions) of the characters speak of our morality, not theirs. We are able to look back at our own cultural issues, such as classism, religious bigotry, and sexism, by analyzing the reactions we have towards the novels. 

Classism is a human characteristic. The writers studied during the course included examples of classism within the novel, thus illustrating the diversity of socioeconomic status in the communities they write about. In Jasmine, the reader understands that Jyoti lives in what an American would consider poverty, but her family has a maidservant. The maidservant and her daughter do not have a significant role in the novel other than to remind us of the class layers revolving around Jyoti’s village. Potatoes-babu had toilets, another detail offered by Mukherjee to add to the socioeconomic layer within Lahore. But Mukherjee also navigates the social classes in America, turning a village Jyoti into an urban Jasmine and then to a rural Jane. American readers from different social classes are able to recognize their own lives at different times in the novel, making it more likely that the reader will be able to identify with the heroine. Both Achebe and Singh also integrated classism in their writing. Achebe’s Okonkwo is the personification of the rags to riches story that Americans glamorize, but ultimately Okonkwo’s wealth does nothing to make the reader admire him. “In a country which had accepted caste distinctions for many centuries, inequality had become an inborn mental concept. If caste was abolished by legislation, it came up in other forms of class distinction,” writes Singh. Singh illustrate these class distinctions through the ways in which the villagers interact with Iqbal, the educated city boy, compared to Jugga, the illiterate villager. Jugga is undoubtedly of greater moral worth, but classism places Iqbal above Jugga. 

Reading these novels in a time when religion is being exploited for political means, it is necessary to note the use of religion by Achebe, Mukherjee, and Singh in their works. The Igbo were not exposed to Christianity, per say; they were exposed to two different Christian priests with different interpretations of how they should interact with the villagers. In Train To Pakistan, Mano Majra exists as a community where different religions are accepted as inherited values, not threatening morals. It is only when outside political influences recreate religion as a threat that the social harmony is disturbed. In Jasmine, it is also the corruption of religion that allows terrorists to justify their acts. The novel allows us to see beyond the veil of religion and recognize the human qualities (or flaws) of the characters as primary to their actions; religion in all the works we read is secondary to the motives of the characters.

During the course, it was gender issues that caused the strongest reactions from most of us in the class. However, as Dr. White noted, the voices of women were underrepresented in discussion. Paula Tyler (2009) noted in her final essay that in the last four novels we read, the “women are left voiceless to reveal the subservient role through oppression and learned ignorance hidden under the guise of protection.” Although their voice was limited, I believe their roles in the novels were just as vitals in the stories as the roles of the men. It is because of a woman (his aunt) that Marlow is able to go on the journey we read about. Also, I found it rather radical that Achebe’s Ekwefi leaves her husband to be with Okonkwo, and even more radical and courageous that Ekwefi defies both Okonkwo and the Priestess Chielo and follows Chielo when Ezinma is taken to the cave. I do not mean to ignore the violence against the women in the novels, but I respectfully disagree with Tyler’s interpretation of Jasmine. Tyler writes that Jasmine is “too weak to think for herself… Jasmine shows just as much weakness as the women in Train to Pakistan who are not given a choice because she is given a chance to make her own way in the world and instead, still chooses to conform and let men think for her.” I consider Jasmine to be the most courageous and assertive of all the characters we read, both male and female. I came to understand Jasmine as someone who compulsively refused to conform and was determined to “re-position the stars.” I would have wanted her to go and influence Nooran, Ekwefi, and all other women whose existence was marginalized. Again, I believe that the diversity in the roles women played in the novels (i.e. priestess, lover, rape victim, and prostitute) allows us to examine the roles women are allowed to play in our society.

            Postcolonial studies allows us to learn about cultures remote from our own, but what I try to offer in this paper is that our emotional reactions to the cultural differences we encounter in these novels allow us to open a dialogue not only between the novels, but a dialogue within our classrooms to address issues within our society. We may be appalled by Okonkwo’s violence towards his wives, but what good is it if we are not willing to or able to address the violence against women within our communities? We are uncomfortable talking about religion, classism, and sexism, but if we take the opportunity given by the diversity of issues covered in postcolonial studies, we can learn not only about others, but also about ourselves.