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Imperialism In Frantz Fanon's The Shadow Lines

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The term ‘decolonized’ is popular among activists of colour, yet is very loaded and hard to pin down. It has been used to free minds but it also has divided communities. The process of “decolonized’’ should not place colonization as the central point of our culture, nor should it romanticize our indigenous past .These trains of thought perpetuate the point of view of the dominant culture of today. Rather “decolonization’’ should be a process of changing a way we view the world. Frantz Fanon wrote- “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land and from our mind as well.’’ The residue of colonization allows for the continued stratification of people. Rejecting labels, selfishness, egotism, a black and white binary discrimination judgements are, instead, traits of the decolonized. A decolonized mind defends culture by defending the root of who we are. A person with decolonized mind accepts their past, loves their present and creates their future, regardless of what stands in their way. The Shadow Lines is an attempt by Amitav Ghosh to show the Blurring of lines or …show more content…

The relationship between narrator 's grandmother and her animosity towards her sister 's granddaughter Ila emblematizes the conflict between nationalism and migrant cosmopolitanism, even as it makes visible the limits and failures of both these middle class women. The Shadow Lines is an extreme example of the tendency of crossing of frontiers -- especially those of nationality, culture and language. The novel focuses on nationalism, the shadow lines we draw between people and nations, which is both an absurd illusion and source of terrifying violence. The Shadow Lines sets out to uncover the confronted, fearful, suppressed memories in an attempt to unsettle the simplified seamless narrative of national

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Immigrants to America face possible danger and death, yet they are shunned. This is shown in the work of Barbara Kingsolver. The injustices the characters faced in the novel, which was set in the 80’s, are still prevalent today. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

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"Borders," written by Thomas King, delves into the poignant theme of identity preservation in the face of adversity. The plot revolves around a Blackfoot mother and her son's journey to reunite with their daughter Laetitia, who has relocated to Salt Lake City. The mother, who serves as the story's central figure, is determined to safeguard her Blackfoot identity as she crosses the American-Canadian border. Her unwavering determination to hold onto her cultural heritage, even in the face of external challenges, is depicted through her refusal to declare her citizenship as either Canadian or American. Instead, she claims her citizenship as Blackfoot, underscoring the significance of cultural and ethnic heritage in shaping an individual's self-perception.

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In the novel, Night, Elie Wiesel presents numerous ways he and his family could have evacuated and not encounter torture and suffering. However, they decided not to believe that Hitler was capable of wiping out a worldwide population. “Thus my elders concerned themselves with all manner of things — strategy, diplomacy, politics, and Zionism —but not with their own fate. Who knows, they may be sending us away for our own good.” Some Jews believed that Hitler was trying to protect them from the War.

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Colonialism and Imperialism affected our world both positively and negatively. On one hand, Imperialism has often been linked with racial segregation, manipulation, and hardship. On the other, it has been said that many colonial powers contributed much in terms of schools, roads, railways, and much more. Whether this time period was constructive or harmful, it has played a large part in shaping our lives today. European Imperialism started long before the 1800’s.

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Left with no dignity or cultural identity, colonized people did not have the means to walk forward with pride (Doc

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It is believed that this notion is the base from which many of the intercolonial struggles of the late nineteenth century were built from, with the Berlin Conference being one the most symbolically important ones due to the conference establishing that there would be European dominance over Africa for the foreseeable future. Thus, it is from these roots, that is to say, those of the conference, that Africa became truly entangled in the colonial matrix. As a result, the only way for this to truly change is for deimperialization, i.e, regarding all civilizations as being

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1468 Words | 6 Pages

This essay will argue what is meant by the representation of the Other in the novels The Icarus Girl and Shadow Tag. The other is a representation of the questions surrounding identity that arise in these texts. The Icarus Girl focuses on the alternate identities of Jessamy Harrison and her struggle to find a fitting identity because of having a multi-national heritage. Shadow Tag takes a different approach to the question of identity, as Irene America attempts to escape her identity as a domestic abuse victim in the blue diary that she keeps hidden from her husband Gil. There is also the question about the identity of the narrative voice of the novel.

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Imperialism once troubled America; and is still the case with many regions around the world. Efforts to secede from ones country have been accomplished many times throughout humanities history yet the same efforts in other regions often developed to nothing but further friction and division. Groups of people deserve to decide whether they choose to remain a part of a country or be self-determined. Instead of being tormented with the possible social, economic, political, aggression, and cultural issues that could potentially come from imperialism.

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Enoch Powell’s Rivers of blood cautionary speech against immigrants is perpetual and strongly impacted the British population in 1968, and still impacts us today, since immigration is once again an issue. For example, some text headlines from internet websites written in the 21st century read ‘Why Enoch Powell was right’. Rivers of blood focuses on the issues related to immigrants, such as integration, racial and religious differences, and their possible takeover of the country. Through the comparison of the immigrants from the 1960s and those of today, we can see that while both being from different centuries and still having their differences, they experience the same issues.

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However, in this case and any other cases like America, the definition of decolonization is different than what Fanon is attempting to describe. There’s a difference between not being a colony anymore and the pure theory of decolonization, and this is why America is in both a colonized and a decolonized state. America at one point was a colony, and now it no longer is one; it is a sovereign nation. Thus, America by definition was decolonized. However, there are still existing power structures that Fanon criticizes apparent in American politics and culture, and the native body is still regulated and overpowered.

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Therefore, there have been many genocide during the process of decolonisation among and with former colonised groups. Colonisers conducted systematic mass extermination of the powerless ethnic groups (Curthoy and Docker, 2010: 26). The victims of genocide are often the oppressed minorities who have not been represented in the any international institutions. The dominant states have their own impacts on the wider politics. In most cases the perpetrators have subverted the voice of the

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A second problem with this controversy of the post colonialism theory is the idea that postcolonial scholars fail to address their own weakness in their own theory. One example of this is the negative ideas and opinions that Joseph Conrad constantly incorporates into his writing when he published “Heart of Darkness”. In this art work of writing Conrad fully supports colonialism and describes the African American group as less than other minorities. In his book Conrad addresses the unequal treatment of this underrepresented group however he addresses this with strong words that he himself does not even think about the negative impact that brings to to this community of people. With this hurtful words in mind Conrad stated that “They were dying

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Israelis now inhabit their ancestral lands and have violently displaced this population of Arabs, causing diaspora. As Susan Abulhawa is a diasporic Palestinian herself, the novel Mornings In Jenin is an understandably hard-to-read narrative of a fictionalized but realistic Palestinian family – all who suffer from being extradited from their own familial homes and cities, only to become a refugee on their own land or in countries far away. The concept of diaspora has been also a sensitive issue with Jewish people, thus motioned to create the state of Israel, over another populated country. Abulhawa’s experience was reflected onto these characters, particularly Hasan and Amal, both of which were not able to find a permanent and secure place to call home, harnessing her feelings of diaspora that would make many people understand the feeling of displacement and unjustified

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1773 Words | 8 Pages

The Dancer and The Thief by Antonio Skármeta is an attractive, energetic, and a genre-bending tale of crime and love. The book combined a series of crime melodrama, urban Western and social conscience drama. The story begins after General Augusta Pinochet was removed from the office. He was removed from his office for his evil acts to the people. Lots of people had arrested, died, and tortured during his regime.

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Discourse on colonialism generally results in the different opinions of the colonizer and the colonized. The upshot of such discourse shows that colonialism has divergent interpretations. For the colonizer, it is ‘a civilizing mission’; to the colonized, it is exploitation. Such concept is better understood when both the views are studied with an objective approach. Things Fall Apart is a perfect novel to study colonialism as it deals with the perspectives of the colonizer and the colonized.

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