Comparing the Native Characters in Colonial Literature to the European

When European colonial authors introduced us to the native, they created the native the native character became more real to European readers than the actual inhabitants of the impudently world. The natives overwhelming otherness eclipsed any individuality that might have been found among them. The native was childish, incapable of reason, and savagely unchristian, or as Lord Cromer described him, a being which generally acts, speaks and thinks in a manner that is exactly opposite to the European (qtd. in Said 39). The European world was first given Robinson Crusoes Friday as a native or, more accurately, the native. Friday could easily (and accurately in the Europeans mind) be substituted for any non-European. Friday, and the native that he represented, continues to exist in post-colonial literature. Part of him, his otherness, is expressed in the spic-and-span European character. Another part of him, his nativeness, continues to be expressed in the new native.The legacy of the ot her did not die with colonialism. It continues to be a comportment in post-colonial literature, only now the other has white skin. Winterbottom/Clarke/Meers/Pilkings is just one character the other, the European, the white man. Post-colonial literatures example white man is a reincarnation of Friday his traits whitethorn be slightly different, but he remains the same in that he is overwhelmingly opposite from the important individuals found in the literature. Just as the native and the concept of the native was invented by the Europeans, the European has been invented by the new generation of post-colonial authors. In Arrow of God, Chinua Achebe creates Captain T. K. Winterbottom and Tony Clarke, white officers portrayed as uncorrupted unemotional bureaucratic cogs in the co... ...n. The Europeans once prized light skin has become a sign of illness and he has adopted a stereotypical insensitiveness that prevents him from being human. Colonial literatures other, the native, did n ot end with colonialism. Instead, part of him became the new other, the post-colonial European, while the other part of him remained the native and became the new self. The colonial native is the root of post-colonial characters and, as such, continues to be an integral part of post-colonial literature. Works CitedAchebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. New York Anchor Books, 1969.Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. London Penguin Books, 1985.Emecheta, Buchi. The Joys of Motherhood. Oxford Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1994.Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York Vintage Books, 1979.Soyinka, Wole. Death and the Kings Horseman. New York Norton, 2003. Comparing the internal Characters in Colonial Literature to the European When European colonial authors introduced us to the native, they created the native the native character became more real to European readers than the actual inhabitants of the new world. The natives overwhelming otherness eclipsed any individuality that might hav e been found among them. The native was childish, incapable of reason, and savagely unchristian, or as Lord Cromer described him, a being which generally acts, speaks and thinks in a manner that is exactly opposite to the European (qtd. in Said 39). The European world was first given Robinson Crusoes Friday as a native or, more accurately, the native. Friday could easily (and accurately in the Europeans mind) be substituted for any non-European. Friday, and the native that he represented, continues to exist in post-colonial literature. Part of him, his otherness, is expressed in the new European character. Another part of him, his nativeness, continues to be expressed in the new native.The legacy of the other did not die with colonialism. It continues to be a mien in post-colonial literature, only now the other has white skin. Winterbottom/Clarke/Meers/Pilkings is just one character the other, the European, the white man. Post-colonial literatures example white man is a reincarnati on of Friday his traits whitethorn be slightly different, but he remains the same in that he is overwhelmingly opposite from the important individuals found in the literature. Just as the native and the concept of the native was invented by the Europeans, the European has been invented by the new generation of post-colonial authors. In Arrow of God, Chinua Achebe creates Captain T. K. Winterbottom and Tony Clarke, white officers portrayed as unblemished unemotional bureaucratic cogs in the co... ...n. The Europeans once prized light skin has become a sign of illness and he has adopted a stereotypical insensitivity that prevents him from being human. Colonial literatures other, the native, did not end with colonialism. Instead, part of him became the new other, the post-colonial European, while the other part of him remained the native and became the new self. The colonial native is the root of post-colonial characters and, as such, continues to be an integral part of post-colonial literature. Works CitedAchebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. New York Anchor Books, 1969.Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. London Penguin Books, 1985.Emecheta, Buchi. The Joys of Motherhood. Oxford Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1994.Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York Vintage Books, 1979.Soyinka, Wole. Death and the Kings Horseman. New York Norton, 2003.