Edward Said Knowing The Orientation Analysis

There is clear distinction between orientalism and Orientals. According Edward Said, that distinction, thou, is only clearly seen by those who by virtue of experience have known the Orient. The western depiction of the Oriental is what defines Orientalism, while the true Orient is defined by the lifestyle of the people who live there, the oriental (also broadly called the Eastern people).

The work of Edward Said originated from what one may call dissatisfaction or unconformity with the description of the Orient portrayed by the it’s long time colonizer, the west. Thus, his work in dedicated to prove that the western depiction of the Orient, orientalism, is mostly a product western mind, imagination, and desire of what there would like the Orient

He analyzes written works and speeches of imperialist like Balfour, Cromer, and Kissinger, whose speeches reveal the ideology basis used by Western powers to justify their occupation of the East region of world.

This first chapter of Said works is relevant in a sense that it shows that even colonizers need to justify to themselves their colonialist action. That means that, even though colonialism in itself is mostly driven and motivated by greed and desire to acquire others wealth, the colonizers conscience still has a need for proper moral justification for their greed action.

The justification pointed out on this first chapter, by Said’s reviews, are that Orientals have no enough intelligence and need the help of the Western in order to grow and develop both morally and socially. And that justification resulted in nothing more that colonialism in itself, as said by Said “The most important thing about the theory during the first decade of the twentieth century was that it worked, and worked staggeringly well. The argument, when reduced to its simplest form, was dear, it was precise, it was easy to grasp. There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated, which usually means having their land occupied, their internal affairs rigidly controlled, their blood and treasure put at the disposal of

An attempt mostly based on Western texts, that led the West to have a wrong idea of the Orient. An idea that described more imagination than reality.

Said’s work helps us seeing that Orientalism was enough for the West during the time they were dealing with a weaker partner. However, it became insufficient as East gained independence. That gaining of independence shows us the danger of ignorance as shows by Western colonizers.

Said’s work is can also be viewed as a passionate defense of Eastern Cultural and Historical Heritage. As it could be concluded that Said aim in his work was to show, through history, that Western understanding of the Oriental (Orientalism) does not constitutes the true about the Orient. And that most knowledge the West claim to have about the Orient is merely biased conclusion, founded on their own imagination and fantasies