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June 08, 2019
Critical reflection essay
Racism and survival remain prominent themes in the novels, "Wide Sargasso Sea", "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "The Secret River". The authors of these novels have tried to explore the realities of indigenous populations and their struggles against injustices. Social inequality contributed to towards the miseries of the minority populations. The authors have used appropriate writing techniques for adding meaning and transmitting social issues.
In the “Wide Sargasso Sea" challenges the identity of the mainstream culture and uncovers the concept of cultural superiority. Postcolonial themes remain visible throughout the novel. The way in which the characters understand their place in the west represents the broader issue of race. The portrayal of black characters is adequate for assuring the prevalence of social issues. Antoinette's questioning and struggles for exploration of self highlight the darker realities. The author captures the reality of the black girls by shedding light on the problems of gender, race and class. Irrespective of all her efforts Antoinette is unable to escape her reality.
The fiction captures the realities of biased parameters promoted under the influence of racism and oppression. The author emphasizes on the black character struggling in the circumstances of racial oppression. The struggles of these black girls like Antoinette are the result of social segregation existing on American cultures since history. The author tries to portray the events through his sociological eye. The black girl is entrapped in the difficulties due to the biased parameters created by race and social inequalities. Through personal autobiography and fictions, Rhys tries to transmit a common theme of the black girl's destruction. Racially segregated society encourages blacks to fight against colour. Wright is among the dominant authors who explored the racial realities of Harlem renaissance and its crippling impacts on the black people. The character of Antoinette in the novel recognizes race as part of her identity that influenced his entire life. The mental, state in the fiction represents the role of stereotypes and stigmas in promoting alcohol and drugs. The notion represents contradictions with the white perceptions related to alcohol abuse appearing in the fiction. The novel explains how oppression creates the identity of black making traditional paradigm of violence as immoral. It also displays the harsh retributive consequences of race and discrimination. The deprived characters created in the fiction is an attempt to portray the feelings of young Africans in America CITATION Sil09 \l 1033 (Cappelo).
The deprived conditions of the Africans reflected in black segregation, poverty and financial instability developed negative feelings. They blacks received no recognition that provoked emotions of low self-worth, convincing many to search for their identities. The effect was more deep and adverse, encouraging many young blacks to escape their conditions of trepidation thus taking them to the dark world of crimes. Rhys illustrates the reasons behind black crimes and violence. In the struggle against racism, many lost their innocence and use their hatred to attain success through criminal paths. The book uncovers how race destroyed the futures of young, innocent blacks. Feelings of rejection have a more profound impact on the thoughts and minds of African Americans. Their inability to stand against race results in their fears, hatred and aggression that they often exhibit in the form of violence. The failure of blacks to attain equal rights is the outcome of racial stigmas controlling the attitudes of the whites. The desire of whites to feel privileged encourages them to treat Africans as secondary citizens.
Marquez in “One Hundred Years of Solitude” explores themes of indigenous culture and myths. Time, fate and humour are used for portraying the lives of human and their nature. Native identity and culture had been challenged in America due to that exhibit race. The author has criticized the extent of having external control over one's environment. The use of rhetoric tools has allowed Marquez to covey his ideas to the readers in an appropriate manner. The character like Arcadio aims at gaining control over external elements compared to Macondo’s tendency of gaining control over the environment. Multiculturalism is prominent in Macondo’s society due to the presence of native people. The author has captured the reality of new settlers bringing change to western culture. Immigration remains one of the prominent factors that contribute to multiculturalism. The resistance of the immigrants to assimilate into a new culture resulted in multiculturalism because they changed to their original identities. The hierarchical system adopted by the Banana Company manipulated the labour at Macondo. The character of Melquiades in the fiction bears to the elements of culture that are unknown to the people of Macondo.
Grenville in the novel “The Secret River” portrays confrontation between two races and its implications on the people. The problem emerged with the settlements of white people on the lands of Aboriginals. This created a complex situation for the native people who were forced to leave their lands. By creating aboriginal characters Grenville has attempted to transmit their history of sufferings. Lost memories are environed by enabling readers to obtain cultural and intellectual understandings of the past. William Thornhill is a protagonist who portrays the themes of poverty, injustice and inequality. He had to accept low paid jobs such as his work of waterman is for supporting his family. Despite all the hardships he is motivated to change his reality.
Work Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY Ahmad, Mustanir and Ayaz Afsar. "Magical realism, social protest and anti-colonial sentiments in One Hundred Years of Solitude: An instance of historiographic metafiction." Asian Journal of Latin American Studies 27.2 (2014): 1-26.
Cappello, Silvia. "Postcolonial Discourse inside the Sargasso Sea: Creole Discourse vs. European Discourse, Periphery vs. Center, and Marginalized People vs. White Supremacy." Journal of Caribbean Literatures 6.1 (2009): 47-54.
Corwin, Jay. "One Hundred Years of Solitude. Indigenous Myth, and Meaning." Confluencia 26.2 (2011): 61-71.
García Márquez, Gabriel. Cien años de soledad. Madrid: Real Academia Española, (2007). Print. González Echevarría, Roberto. Myth and Archive. Gambridge: GUP, (1990). Print.
Kossew, Sue. "Voicing the Great Australian Silence: Kate Grenville's Narrative of Settlement in The Secret River." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 42.7 (2007).
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