Postcolonialism In Indian Camp And The Boy Who Painted Christ Black

A postcolonial study usually discusses about the binary opposition between the colonized and colonizer, oppressed and oppressor, subjugated and subjugator. Using a postcolonial criticism, one can easily recognizes the ideas of polarization in literary texts. Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp and John Henrik Clarke’s The Boy Who Painted Christ Black are two example of literary works that show the polarization. The stories portray a vivid view on colonialism. Both of the stories tell about the oppression from the White toward the Other in a postcolonial context. The ways on how the authors position the characters in both of the stories represent the ideas of colonizer and colonized.

The first story, Indian Camp tells a story about Nick, his Uncle George and his father who are going to an Indian camp. Nick’s father, who is a doctor, is about to help an American Indian woman who has been in a torturous labor for two days in delivering her baby. The social position of the

It narrates a story about a black young boy named Aaron Crawford who painted Jesus Christ black. Aaron was the smartest boy in Muskogee County School for colored children. He drew a painting of Jesus Christ black as a present for his teacher’s birthday. The painting was being displayed in the assembly room. It is soon discovered by a White Supervisor, Prof. Danual who visited the school. The supervisor asked and blamed the boy. But soon, the principal stepped forward to defend the school’s prize student. The supervisor got very angry and in that moment the principal get fired. Few days later the principal resigned from the school. He didn’t look broken-hearted and took Aaron with him. They never seems regret and brave that they had done it. The story ended with these two strong people “walking in brisk, dignified strides, like two people who had won some sort of the