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

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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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The Japanese immigrants never quite fit in, for they were “of the yellow race” (Takaki 179). And yet, they risked it all and left their home country, their families, and headed to America, like many immigrants before them. Not many found the riches and the opportunities that they were seeking, but there was no going back. They were in America and they had to make the best of what they could; their pride stood in the way of their surrender. America proved to be a much more cruel land than they had ever expected, but Japanese immigrants insisted on coming to America and often bringing their families with them, but why?

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Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japanese Americans faced racism and were suspected of treason. The entire community avoided them in spite of their homeland’s actions and developed a general distrust towards anyone of Japanese descent. Anti-Japanese sentiment was on the rise. For instance, hateful messages against them, such as “No Japs Wanted,” were often scrawled on property owned by Japanese Americans (Doc. 4). This conveyed the prejudice this minority group faced and how they were blamed for an attack that wasn’t their fault.

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Stereotypes are in the world all around us, in film, TV, literature and in everyday life. “A Stereotype is a conventional, formulaic and oversimplified conception, opinion, image or conforming to a set image or type” (Dictionary.com). Stereotype happens on an everyday basis, similar groups of people are categorized by such factors as race, color, what they wear, and their behavior. Stereotype are used to categorized people by such factors as race, color, what they wear and their behavior. Stereotypes chose one aspect of a person or group and link them all together.

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The relocation of the Japanese-Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor had a major role of prejudice in it. Even though the majority of them had been born in the United States and showed no signs of disloyalty to the country, they were still blamed for the bombing and sent to camps to be watched and guarded. Many parts throughout the story shows signs of prejudice acts being used towards the Japanese-Americans. For example, after Jeanne’s father was taken away for questioning, the rest of her family and many other oriental families were forced to move to Boyle Heights in downtown Los Angeles where people weren’t that nice to them, for the text reads, “This was the first time I had felt outright hostility from a Caucasion… Public attitudes toward the

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For example, a company may refuse to hire someone for a job, because of the basis of stereotypes. As a result, a particular person might avoid a part of the city associated with a certain ethnic group. Due to the stereotypes associated

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In the early 1900s, due to Imperial Japan’s struggling transition from the feudal era to the modern era, Japanese immigrants were flooding into the West coast of America. Fearful of the rising number of Japanese immigrants, Americans would proceed to try and eradicate the “yellow peril”, leading to prejudiced exchanges and racist encounters with the Japanese-Americans. These encounters would drastically affect the Japanese-American community and ultimately lead to their internment during WWII. Because of Imperial Japan’s struggle to come into the modern age, its economy was increasingly worsened. The first Japanese-Americans, or Issei, came to America in the early 1880s, looking for work and adventure.

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These stereotypes are labels that evoke images of oppression, segregation and exploitation of minorities in America. Meanwhile reinforcing the dominance in a social hierarchy. The film Imitation of Life (1959) indicates the power behind stereotypes. It strongly depicts the relationship between a Black American woman, Annie Johnson

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• Racial propaganda such as, know your enemy, “jap” cartoons, and patriotic battle stories, and the Japanese’s undying will to fight and their military intelligence showed that the enemy ceased to seem human at all (Sundquist 537). • Mass media advocated anti-Japanese sentiments and labeled newspaper with “"Hatred toward Japan is About to Explode!" or "Japan as Enemy." (Toru 269). • Media influenced Americans to become fearful and violent towards the Japanese (Briones 81). Discrimination towards Japanese • Consecutive victories in the pacific during the first months of World War II allowed Japanese to be viewed as a threat to white superiority and thus a threat to national security (Robinson 9).

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After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. citizens feared another Japanese attack. They began to believe false rumors that Japanese Americans were sabotaging the United States by mining coastal harbors and poisoning vegetables. A wave of prejudice against Japanese Americans had risen from U.S. fear and uncertainty, eventually resulting in the internment, or confinement of Japanese Americans, where they were rounded up and shipped to “relocation centers” (Danzer et al. 800). Pearl Harbor paranoia from the United States caused Japanese Americans to struggle for change and

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A stereotype is a fixed set of beliefs upon of a certain group of individuals who share common traits. Stereotypes can be classified into a wide range of categories such as: race, culture, ethnicity, gender, social or economic status, and religion. A stereotype has to do with a group of people rather than an individual. Most stereotypes are biased and untrue. Stereotypes often lead to prejudice, meaning that one acts a certain way due to the fixed beliefs they have toward a certain group of individuals.

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Not even long before the year 1941, there were already histories of underlying discrimination and prejudice against Asian Americans based on their ethnicity. Not only did the attack worsen the situation for Japanese immigrants, it also drew more attention to their possible future “threats” and their loyalty to the U.S.. The aftermath of

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Ethnic mislabeling is an extremely problematic form of “casual racism.” Casual racism can be defined as racism that is predominately based off stereotypes or prejudices about people based on their race, skin tone, or ethnicity and that is used casually and without thought throughout day to day life. An example of casual racism outside of ethnic mislabeling is racist jokes made about stereotypes about a certain race or ethnicity. Ethnic mislabeling occurs commonly for people of Asian ethnic descent.

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Though the Japanese and African American experiences would be wildly different, their treatment by the general public would be generally the same. Having to live in fear of violence and high racial tensions would be very typical and, unfortunately, expected. Both the groups were widely discriminated against on almost equal levels as both attracted the majority of hate from White America. African Americans attracted it due to the age old racism that came from the slavery era in America, and Japanese Americans attracted it due to “…[Japan] bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, rumors spread, fueled by race prejudice, of a plot among Japanese-Americans to sabotage the war effort” (Foner). Black Americans had suffered for centuries at the hands of White America, and their lifestyle was outlined as a “’… terror era shaped the geography, politics, economics, and social characteristics of being black in America during the 20th century,’ Mr. Stevenson said...”

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Asian Americans have faced discrimination since the Chinese first came to the United States in the mid 1800s. They faced discrimination because as foreigners they stood out and as the US citizens started targeting foreigners for taking their gold; their opportunity to “strike it rich” since they were the citizens of the United States and the foreigners were taking what belonged. The Japanese later faced heavy discrimination from Americans whether they were an Issei, the first generation Japanese immigrants or Nisei, who were born in the US and who only a handful of them had ever been to Japan even before the Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor incident had only added fuel to the fire to make the underlying discrimination against Japanese show its

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Stereotypes can help people out in many different ways such as helping people be seen as not just a category. It can make people be seen as not a man or woman but a man or woman who has done things. These stereotypes can be seen also as a way to encourage a higher standard of people. The people can learn from these stereotypes and turn them to the opposite of what the stereotypes says. At the same time stereotypes can be used to help people respond to different situations.

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