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Stereotypes And Racism In Agatha Christie's 'Murder On The Orient Express'

1089 Words5 Pages

All Asians are good at math, all blondes are dumb, all Muslims are terrorists - these are all common stereotypes. Without even realizing it, stereotypes have undeniably played an enormous role in individual lives. Minds seem to already set a certain image in them based on the people they encounter. People judge others by their skin tone, ethnicity, and physical appearance unconsciously, and this have been proven by many social experiments. Of course, though these stereotypes might be accurate at times, there are situations where they are completely defied. The famous author Agatha Christie recognized this pattern and applied the formulas to her novels. In Murder on the Orient Express, Christie created quite a stereotypical atmosphere -where every character is judged by their nationality, but defies those stereotypes planted on them. This theme leads to the thought of the relationship between stereotypes and racism. There is a …show more content…

It all started when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, causing the U.S. citizens to be extremely furious and unite the support of media to create propagandas. The Japanese are portrayed with slanted small eyes and buck teeth- undermining the intelligence of their race; moreover, they were even dehumanized and depicted as animals. The U.S media was very biased when comparing the Chinese to the Japanese. While the Chinese man had an amiable appearance and a slender body, the Japanese had an unpleasant frown on his face and was described as short and stout (Miles). The article “WWII Propaganda: The Influence of Racism” also states that “The Chinese man’s occupation implies that he helps people, while the title of Japanese warrior alludes to danger and disloyalty,” (ibid). As a result, all Japanese were discriminated in the U.S.A. as biased perceptions were already set in their minds. They were judging the Japanese as the whole, just because the attack of a small part of the

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