Oppression

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Question: Explain the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, as described by Freire. Then use his ideas to evaluate yourself. Are you an oppressor? Are you oppressed? Both? Neither? Explain. (Freire)

Answer:

Introduction: Paulo Freire has remained influential in presenting new ideas in critical pedagogy. His work has inspired educationist, which aimed at bringing real changes through education. The primary purpose of his philosophy remained to eradicate the menace of illiteracy from the countries or the continents which have remained colonized. He believed that the children of the slaves do not have the thinking abilities like that of the free children. His philosophies have helped in changing the living conditions of the oppressed classes.

Paulo Freire's best-known work is his description of the role of oppressed or the oppressor. He has worked on elaborating this role in his famous work ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. This work of him invited much criticism and faced serious setbacks, as it was legally banned in many countries to be taught as the textbook. He has divided his work into four parts. His primary argument throughout the book remains that how the oppressor and the oppressed are living in a relation, which is just benefitting for the oppressor and not for the oppressed ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"pOeZAtoM","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Freire)","plainCitation":"(Freire)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":435,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/QUTVAB73"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/QUTVAB73"],"itemData":{"id":435,"type":"article-journal","title":"Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised)","container-title":"New York: Continuum","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Freire","given":"Paolo"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1996"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Freire). He has also talked about the liberation, which he believes is a mutual process. He has also criticized the education system which he mentions as a kind of the banking system. The last chapter of this book is about how unity can help in liberating the oppressed classes.

Paulo Freire’s description of the relation between the oppressed and the oppressor has remained quite debatable. This essay is therefore designed to analyze the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. Considering the ideas presented by Paulo Freire, it will be thoroughly analyzed that what finally makes the oppressed to stand against the oppressor’s policies. Since Freire’s major work is about the adverse conditions of the oppressed, therefore it becomes apparent that the degraded situations in which the oppressors are forced to live in are never the final destinies.

Analysis: Freire has covered many aspects of how education can help in changing the living conditions of the oppressed classes. He argues that it is by no means the right of the elite to secure the best opportunities for themselves. He mentions that this is injustice which then leads towards social destruction. In his work, he has taken some inspirations from the ideas of Marxism, although he has not directly referred to it in the whole book. Freire has analyzed the conditions of the oppressed classes in Brazil. He opined that in Brazil there were limited opportunities for the people of lower classes to enroll their children’s in job oriented courses, such conditions then resulted in accumulating opportunities by the rich ones. Freire then worked on exploring the conditions what resulted for the poor students for being oppressed. He remained passionate in his writing for making the educational injustices which he believed is an issue.

The thesis he has suggested in his first chapter is that the dehumanizing conditions in which the humans lives are not the final destinies. The author has presented the two extremes of a society. He opens that the working conditions of the poor and the rich are different. The rich people are able to grasp the opportunities depending upon the knowledge they have. Fiere argues that since the poor (or the oppressed) lacks the knowledge, he therefore remains unable to make things in his favor. These timely responses by the rich makes him behave as the oppressor. This sense of oppressor remains same in every facet of life. Fiere has also used a metaphor in describing about how knowledge is being imparted into the children. For describing this he has used an example of the Banking system. He argues that in a bank the money is being invested by some classes, this is true also in the form of educational institutes also. Since the students are the passive receivers of knowledge therefore, they then act in a kind of designed way. He has mentioned teachers as depositors and the schools as providing the administrative setups. In this metaphor, he has finally presented money in the form of knowledge. He finally concludes his metaphor by mentioning that as like the Banks preserves a social class for some few people, similarly the schools provide such administrative infrastructure for students.

Fiere has presented much broadly his views about why there exist injustices in the education system, or why the society is divided between the oppressors and the oppressed. There is some criticism over his presentation of ideas. Giroux argues that neither the banks and nor the school creates an unjust society ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"hGR0aQVS","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Giroux)","plainCitation":"(Giroux)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":432,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/T9GAW9F4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/T9GAW9F4"],"itemData":{"id":432,"type":"article-journal","title":"Paulo Freire and the politics of postcolonialism","container-title":"Journal of Advanced Composition","page":"15–26","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Giroux","given":"Henry A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Giroux). Although Giroux has remained too critical about Fiere's work and has straightaway rejected the idea of Fiere that educational system is inherently responsible for the unjust society. An unbiased analysis of Fiere’s debate of oppressor and oppressed suggests that since it is true that the society was unjust at the time Fiere had compiled his book, but his presentation of ideas lack justifications. For example, the oppressed are not always the ones who have been deprived of the educational facilities, some people also lack the chance to get to the right opportunities. This is how exactly the oppressor takes away the opportunities from the oppressed class. The oppress in Fiere’s work lacks elaboration. As it is not always that the oppressor has the possession of money. There could be some other disagreements with the ideas suggested by Fiere. For example, he has not also complete presented as what according to him the destiny as. Destiny cannot always be the possession of knowledge, some people had other goals also. For example, the desire for wealth. The desire for wealth can also be achieved by not being educated. These are some ways how one can differentiate with Paulo Fiere.

Conclusion: Paulo Fiere has remained stick to one aspect of the relation between the oppressor and the oppressed. This is the primary reason his work has invited criticism. He has touched the very basic reasons why society is unjust towards many people. He has also remained too narrow while describing what exactly is between the oppressor and the oppressed. According to him, the final destiny is achieving something that the oppressed class has not achieved in history. He has basically challenged the status- This is where this analysis challenges the ideas presented by Paulo Fiere. The final destiny of an oppressed person can never be coming out of the conditions, he or she had been living in. The final destination is always designed after experiencing certain things in life. This is where every day a person changes his goals and his ideas about life. Paulo Fiere's work could have been true for the times he had written this book, but at present, the notion of life and its destinies have been changed. In this world of today, the oppressors are of many types, similarly, there is numerous way of challenging them. Anyone that is hardworking and has the real idea about how to change his life, can reach to the glory. This is why Paulo could have been more elaborative in describing his thoughts about life.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Freire, Paolo. “Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Revised).” New York: Continuum, 1996.

Giroux, Henry A. “Paulo Freire and the Politics of Postcolonialism.” Journal of Advanced Composition, 1992, pp. 15–26.