Article Debate

After my reading of the two seperate articles by George Will and Stephen Greenblatt, I have come to the conclusion that both views hold truth in themselves. I would like to explain both of their views that are expressed in the aticles. After reading the first article, Literary Politics, written by George Will on April 22, 1991 in an issue of Newsweek i found him to be a person who strongly believes that all literary works were influenced by some political agendas and feelings. He says, “The reductions of the study of literature to sociology, and of sociology to mere ideological assertion, has a central tenet: All literature is, whether writers are conscious of it or not, political,” (111). What he is trying to say is that everything that a writer writes, is rooted with some sort of political meaning. In Stephen Greenblatt's article The Best Way to Kill Our Literary Inheritance Is to Turn it Into a Decorous Celebration of the New World, published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on June 12, 1991, he fires back against Will's beliefs. He states "delegitimizing its founding text and ideas,” (115). What he is saying is that when professors "translate" the meaning of a text, they are corrupting or ruining the meaning and placing the authority into the hands of the critics. I feel that there is some truth in which both authors are saying. I believe that some literary works are politicaly based or has a certain amount of political inflence. But I also see the other side being that not all literature is politicaly influenced but is influenced by the culture. Various pieces or literature are based onb culture, such as 1984. The governement manipulates reality to make the Party seem perfect, and holds complete control over its citizens. I believe that every form of literature conatins a cultural influence.

Postcolonialism and Tempest

After reading the chapter we were given on Postcolonialism there were similarities that could be drawn between the chapter and the second and third acts of the Tempest. In the text of the postcolonialsim chapter its states that "Throughout this long history, the West became the colonizers and many African and Asian countries adn their peoples became the colonized." The Westerners of the world traveld to other countries to take over and establish a colony to maximize their power and regin on other people. They believed what they were doing was right and that their policies and traditions would benefit these various cultural people. In the Tempest, Caliban is talking to Prospero and tells him he wishes he had never came to the island and took control over him and became his master. Caliban showed him the important areas of the island such as where to find fresh water and pick berries or where the best places to fish are. Showing Prospero these places allowed Prsopero to utalize the natural resources needed to survive and colonize the only person living on the island which was Caliban. This was exactly what the Westerners did to the African and Asian countries. They would send their armies or officials over to take complete control of the land and make the people show them where the resources are located. Controling all the natural resources means that you control the land and the people that inhabit it. This is the same thing that happend to the Native Americans. Travlers from overseas came to North America and seized the land and the Native Americans. In the video, Native American's image was altered to look like the bad guys whom were crazy savages. They altered their image for the "better" of the white man which made the next generation of Native Americans forget their past not really know who they are.

Prospero

In the first act there are mulitple examples of ways that Prospero is able to manipulate other characters around him. Prospero goes into great detail and blows out of proportion the wrongs that were done to him to gain much sympathy from his daughter. Prospero puts himself into a light that shows him doing no wrong to anyone else and makes it look like he is always in the right. He is able to control the slave Caliban because he threatens to torture him again. "If you neglect my orders or do them grudgingly, I’ll double you up with pains and cramps, and make all your bones ache, and make you scream so loud that the wild animals will tremble when they hear you" (17). He does not allow Caliban to have an opinion or have any say what so ever in the things or various tasks he is forced to do. Prospero makes it seem like he is Ariel's savior and is in debt for life because he was the one who was able to free him from the tree which he was trapped inside of for twelve years. "It was my magic that saved you when I arrived on the island and heard you, making the pine tree open and let you out" (13). Prospero is in the right because he saved Ariel's life and freed him from the spell which Sycorax and put upon him. He is exctied to find that his daughter falls in love with Ferdinand but believes that he must stir up trouble becuase in his opinion they will never apprectiate true love "But I need to cause a little trouble between them, or else they’ll never appreciate the value of their love" (21).

Danger of a Single Story

Every where all over the world people are being taught different ideas and events of history. Even here in the United States people are not taught the same concepts of American history. After reading the two different articles in class on Thursday i have learned that people have the capability to alter the past into whatever they want it to be and teach the new generation what they think is right. The conservatives in Texas are voting on a new history book for elementary through high school that will teach the students a more conservative bias point of view of history. The conservatives are voting on a new book that will replace Thomas Jefferson with other "important" writers because Jefferson created the seperation of church and state. From what it seems like they want and are trying to bring church back into schools and preach Christianity. After being tought about the important role Thomas Jefferson played in American Independence I can not imagine finishing high school with out reading about him in our history books. Creating a history book with out any bias at all would be difficult because we would not know if the writer is describing what actually happend at that point and time or if it is tweaked into what they believe and thought what should have happend. We would not be able to know if the writers are telling a lie because if we are taught about a certain event in history from k-12 grade we are going to believe and trust what we've read and learned. How are we able to detect this is not true, especially when we were not there to witness the moment in history? Other subjects that the conservatives are trying to cut out of the books are the minorities. They voted against the Hispanics to quit  teaching about imoprtant iconic figures such as Cesar Chavez. According to one Hispanic representative they "are trying to creat a white America." The way someone teaches is not more important than the content they are teaching because what if a great teacher is teaching about a subject that never occured in history or was altered in their own opinion? How a person is taught is important, but not as crucial as the content that should be taught.