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Indonesian Notebook Analysis

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Richard Wright’s Indonesian Notebook Analysis
American Studies Miscellany Final Paper

Indonesian Notebook is an essay written by Richard Wright about Wright’s experience when he visited Indonesia. It was published in August 1955 with other works compiled in Encounter Vol.5, No.2. Richard Wright himself was an African American writer who had written many stories related with racism. He went to Indonesia in purpose to attend Bandung Conference that also can be called Asian-African Conference. This work represents his own perspective toward Indonesia as an African American man.
As has been mentioned before, this work contains an essay about his experiences in Indonesia. As a novelist, he wrote his essay like he was writing a story. It is a good essay because the words he chose are readable and interesting. However, like a story, his essay could not be fully trusted because he didn’t mention …show more content…

From A experiences, Wright starts to think that Indonesian people have same experience with what African Americans has experienced. The issue of racial differences is something that he really concerns about in his essay. He thinks that Indonesian people’s experience on racial differences with the Dutch people living in Indonesia making Indonesians feel inferior. However, the way the Dutch neighbor just wants a white doctor and how the Dutch teacher beats A because he colors the Queen Wilhemia should be analyzed more deeply. It is possible that the Dutch neighbor who wants a white doctor thinks that the tools that Indonesian doctor has is still not fully equipped because as we know that the western equipment are more advanced than Indonesian. Then, the Dutch teacher who beats A may think that A is a rude boy because he has colored the Queen whom the teacher respects. How Wright retells the story of A is doubtful because Wright himself doesn’t mention the real name of

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