Pilar views her absence from Cuba from a place of psychological trauma, viewing her exiled state in the same way as her destiny: uncontrollable, regardless of her misunderstanding of the political turmoil and consequences associated with Cuba (Garcia 199). Because of this, Cuba’s absence—which is felt strongly by Pilar—becomes a source of paralysis for her; she is unable to form a stable, American identity, hyperaware of her liminality between being Cuban or American. This also causes estrangement within Pilar’s family, especially in consideration of her relationship with her mother. In fact, Pilar, in a state of confusion and desperation, remarks at one point in the novel, “I wonder how Mom could be Abuela Celia’s daughter. And what I’m doing as my mother’s daughter.
Instead, upon actually visiting Cuba for herself, Pilar finds that it is not an ideal society and that she fits in much better in the US. This theme was brought to light due to Pilar’s mental conflict, as her lack of actual experiences in Cuba as well as her desire to rebel against her mother’s views led her to a false idealistic view. As
Her family also vacillated between living in the states and spending time in Mexico. One would need to study the culture of Mexicans to understand better why Cisnero's protagonist was submissive and quiet and respectful in the home of her father. Still, Cisnero uses conversational language and vivid images to breathe life into the home of the family in the story. "Being an only daughter in a family of six sons forced me by circumstance to spend a lot of time by myself because my brothers felt it beneath them
The third source thinks greatly of the idea of colonialism as he believes that he is relieving the Aboriginals, and saving them from their problem. There are various views of how people perceive colonial to be, whether it is positive, or negative. It all depends on which side you had come from, and what you have
We can talk of prominent sociologists Max Weber and Franz Boas, who attributed on the refutation of the biological concept of race, dedicated to remove the ambiguous racial aspect from fundamental social, political, or economic determination. Years ago, white viewed “any racial intermixture makes one ‘non-white’” because they put white in a category of “pure,” which meant “white as “havin’ a little Negra blood in ya’-just one little teeny drop and a person’s all Negra.” Here came with a principle of social concept: hypo-descent. Thus, “black” turned out to be a word with different meanings in society, and faced the racial difficulties with stereotypes. "Micro-level" of racism mention in the writing, in which was drawn with social concepts by Omi and Winant. The concept is more likely separates two people by a noticeable factor- race.
The exclusion of Afro-Cubans in the labor force fixes itself to the idea of a certain Cuban identity, the central theme of the work. In this part in particular, De La Fuente utilizes figures and solid facts to prove his claims, especially with his effective use of census records to show black flight from Cuba due to lack of opportunity (pg. 104). Speaking to social mobility and education, De La Fuente identifies the mediocrity of Cuban and American efforts to create a literate population. Although the government made significant strides to educate the populations, imperialist motivations fueled the system, which lacked secondary systems of support and training for Afro-Cubans.
He also argued that scholarly writing from America and Europe presented inaccurate, misleading and stereotyped cultural representations of the East. Said believed these biased perceptions hindered a true understanding of Middle Eastern and East Asian culture. The Westerner tried to cross the line between what they know and what they have never seen it before (University of Cambridge, n.d.). The distinction erupts the word ‘Orientalism’ and separates human into two groups. Today the effect of Orientalism can be identified in any society as it continues to shape attitudes, images, and knowledge.
He stated that “Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident” (Said E. W., 1978, p. 2). In his eyes, the construction of Orientalism presumed a static Orient, strange and different in the eyes of the West, which was a relation of power differences (Said E. W., 1978, pp. 1-96). This construction of otherness “… serves as a constant reminder of difference” for viewers of art when the presentation of the objects follows these orientalist discourse notion (Jordanova, 2000, p. 245). Edward Said’s book has been criticized as well for only proving a binary and for constructing a similar timeless, unchanging and essentialist image of the West (Macfie, 2002, pp.
Among other his well-known and most influential book of the 20th century is Orientalism, where he portrayed the biased and stereotype of the western scholars when studying the Islamic world questioning their misinterpretation of them. This is because orientalism is emerged during the period of European enlightenment which brings about the reasons of the West superiority over the East for a reason of European colonialism to make sense of the history when the East that are seen as different and need intervention and supported the Western colonial policy. To note that, the term ‘Orientalism’ is not invented by Said rather by those who studied or specialists about the Middle
The different treatment from everyone else was only based on the individual’s race. . In her story we learn how the ignorance by some Americans has isolated and discriminated some ethnic groups including Japanese, Chinese, Africans or Native Americans. When we experience injustice in our country then we need to stand up together as a whole community. In Study Terkel’s powerful interview essay “C.P.