Cristen Lauck

October 2, 2011

Essay 1: Dominance and Obsession

When looking at colonial and post-colonial texts, it is apparent that they are distinctly different. Not simply because these genres have come about in two different ways, before or during colonization and after but also that they are inherently different by coming from opposing viewpoints. Specifically, I am referring to the attitudes of the authors about those that are colonizing. It seems as though the people who are colonizing feel a sense of entitlement over those that are being colonized, while the people who are being colonized are consumed, sometimes obsessed, with the idea of being controlled.

To be more specific, I am referring to the attitudes and beliefs expressed in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in contrast to those attitudes in Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy.  There is a dialogue between these two works which shows that, in Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe has the outlook from the colonizer’s perspective and expresses it repeatedly by demonstrating a sense of entitlement and privilege over his companion Friday while Lucy in Jamaica Kincaid’s novel has the mentality of a victim because her people were the ones colonized.

Readers see an example of Crusoe showing his dominance over Friday when he refers to him as his slave. Directly after Crusoe saves Friday from his captors, he immediately establishes the master/ servant relationship by teaching Friday to call him master. He says, “I likewise taught him to say Master, and then let him know that was to be my name; I likewise taught him to say, Yes, and No” (Defoe 163). Before Crusoe even saves Friday, he already has the mindset that he is going to capture himself a slave. He says, “now was my time to get me a servant” (Defoe 160). Crusoe assumes not only that he will conquer and master Friday but that he has a right to as well. He never stops to think that maybe Friday didn’t want to be controlled or that he has no right to. Instead, Crusoe assumes that because, in his eyes, he is superior to the natives, that he is entitled to have dominance over them. Furthermore, he actually believes Friday is happy to be his slave. Crusoe recalls his initial encounter with Friday saying, “taking me by the foot, set<ting> my foot upon his head; this seems, was a token of swearing to be my slave for ever” (Defoe 161). Crusoe assumes that Friday willingly accepts him as his master because he gives him a sort of gesture that he takes as his submittal. Perhaps it is because Crusoe comes from the point of view of the colonizers that he assumes he has a right to control those he encounters and that they are beneath him or a “savages”.

In comparison to this superiority complex, Lucy in Jamaica Kincaid’s novel of the same name gives the opposite perspective; one of someone who sees things with a colonized perspective. In contrast to Crusoe, Lucy and her people are the ones being colonized and have a powerless, defeated attitude. By having this mindset, Lucy is obsessed with the idea of being dominated and controlled. She repeatedly focuses on this mentality in everything she sees. For instance, Lucy immediately notices how Mariah is more carefree than her because she has the power. When reflecting on Mariah, Lucy questions “How do you get to be the sort of victor who can claim to be the vanquished also?” (Lucy 41). Lucy immediately sets herself apart from Mariah because she feels Mariah is her superior.

Likewise, Lucy believes she is destined in life to be inferior to others. Lucy thinks everyone else thinks they are above her. She changes this belief in the novel but she starts out believing her lot in life is to be controlled. She recalls learning at an early age that she will always be inferior when she says, “That is how I came to think that heavy and hard was the beginning of life, real living; and though I might not end up with a mark on my cheek, I had no doubt that I would end up with a mark somewhere” (Lucy 25).  Even from an early age, Lucy believed she would grow up and be subjugated. Perhaps it is because her people were the ones colonized as to why she assumes that role. Lucy does however change her attitude through the book and thinks less like a victim and sees the opportunities she is now given in her new life. Perhaps her change in attitude is because of her transnational migration. Perhaps she starts to associate more with her new country because she is absorbed into their culture.

Nevertheless, we again see this dominance obsessed attitude in Jamaica Kincaid’s poem titled A Small Place. Kincaid focuses her poem on those that colonized her land and assumes they are all power obsessed, “bad-minded people” who only controlled them with ill intent (A Small Place).  Kincaid fails to think that the colonizers, the English, could have had good intentions, for instance they might have thought they were doing the natives a service by bringing them more modern technologies. Kincaid also doesn’t consider that maybe not all of the English wanted to control her land. She only thinks of the English as corrupt, controlling people who are only looking for power. She assumes that now because they have nothing to conquer, the English are “so miserable now <because> they have no place else to go and nobody else to feel better than” (A Small Place). Kincaid also has the mentality, like her character Lucy, that everyone is trying to dominate and control her because her people are the ones who were colonized.

Well also have another example of the colonizers who believe they are better, more powerful than the natives and have a natural dominance over them in Rudyard Kipling’s story The Man Who Would Be King.  In this novel we are introduced to a character Peachey Carnahan who believes he is better than the natives he encounters. He describes them saying “they’re an all-fired lot of heathens, but this book here says they think they're related to us English” (Kipling). He thinks that because he is English and they are the colonized people, that he is naturally better than they are and is entitled to dominance over them.

Another difference between the colonized and the colonizers is that the colonizers usually have a more romantic idea about colonizing a country while the native peoples show a rawer, more honest account of what happened. The invading country usually focuses on the good they are doing for the others and how they are helping the “ignorant savages”. Often times the colonizers will cite that they are doing it for religious reasons so they do not have to feel bad about their primary motivations of wealth and power. The colonized are the ones going through all the turmoil because they are the ones who are being enslaved and taken advantage of.

So as in all instances where there are two sides to the story, we as readers have to decipher between the two sides. We hear the difference in opinions between the colonizers and the colonized and can see that each think of themselves differently. Those that are controlled feel the colonizers are careless and domineering while the colonizers feel they have a right to enslave those people and sometimes, they believe the natives welcome and accept their control. Even though each party sees things differently, they do share a common ground. They are both obsessed with dominance and power.

Works Cited

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Ed. John J. Richetti. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990. Print

Kincaid, Jamiaca. “A Small Place”. Class Handout LITR 5831. Sept. 8, 2011.

Kipling, Rudyard. "The Man Who Would Be King." Coursesite.uhcl.edu - /. Ed. Craig White. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/Poco/manwhoking.htm>.

Cristen Lauck

October 2, 2011

Essay 2: Who Cares about Colonization?

            Before this course, I had no idea of what colonial and post-colonial Literature was other than what the title implies. I knew it would be about a culture that was colonized and the stories that came out of that but I had no personal connection to what that meant or idea of how deeply rooted others had to this topic. I guess, like many Americans, I just never thought about the colonization of other countries and our own attachment, or lack thereof, to it. 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. Perhaps this also accounts for why there is so much American ignorance of larger world issues of colonization as addressed in this course’s objective 3.

            This bothered me that I never thought or cared about those colonized people until I was introduced to this colonial/ post-colonial genre of Literature. I wondered why I had never thought if this before and was amazed how I could miss something that was so personal, so sacred to so many others. And then it donned on me. I realized that I never really thought of this because it is not very personal to me. I have no idea what my cultural heritage is because I am an American mutt. My last name is of German origin but that is about all the extent I know about my heritage. I have no idea where my family has come from. My grandparents are part Irish but not very much and they have no cultural connection to that. I have no lineage or cultural history to associate with therefore I have no personal attachment to the colonization of any peoples.

I realize this is my own personal lack of sentiment to this genre but I can imagine it varies from person to person. Someone else who has a cultural heritage to associate with will no doubt have more attachment and understanding of this genre. They are already aware of a particular countries’ colonization because they likely heard it from their grandparents and great-grandparents and have heard the stories about where their family comes from. I have none of these.

That is how I have come to realize that colonialism is such a personal genre. The attachment and sentiment a person has to any particular text depends on their associate to it. For instance, a person from the Caribbean is going to get so much more out of read Lucy than anyone else because they have a personal association to the things Jamaica Kincaid writes about. They would better understand why Lucy “never wanted to live in that place again” (Kincaid 51). Others who have a more complex heritage could better associate with Lucy as she struggled through trying to reconcile her mixed feelings about her two worlds; her Caribbean heritage and her new life in America.

This being said, I am that’s not saying other readers who are not from a particular country would not get anything out of reading a colonial or post colonial text. On the contrary, I enjoyed reading these texts greatly and thought they were wonderfully insightful, but I am sure others would have a more personal connection to it than I. And this is not a bad thing. I think it is great that Literature can bring greater awareness to major world issues. Us as future teacher, I am glad that I now have a greater understanding and acceptance of other view-points and that I have seen different cultural issues. Because I have seen an intertextual dialogue between two different parties with opposite viewpoints I now understand and can accept that different people have different viewpoints.  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.

Works Cited

Kincaid, Jamaica. Lucy. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990. Print