Silence in Wilshire Bus - Essay Example

? Task: Silence in "Wilshire Bus" Set in the post World War II period, the work “Wilshire Bus” has an in-depth analysis of the various cultural, political and economic factors that were dominant in America and which promoted racial discrimination. Non-natives including Japanese, Chinese and other immigrants in America experienced discriminations on different accounts. Set in a public bus during a long journey, silence is an overriding theme presented by the writer. Through the central theme, silence, the reader gets the image of how the Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the bus experience discrimination from the utterance of the samatotonic man. The somatotonic, a Native American, speaks to a Chinese woman besides him in the bus. His words depict the extent to which the anti-Chinese bigotry is deep among a portion of Native Americans. The Chinese woman, however, resorts to silence despite the negative utterances she gets from the somatotonic man. The somatotonic man’s talks to the bus driver, referring to him and his workmates at the bus as robbers, for taking his money daily while giving him a mere few minutes’ lift. Silence prevails despite his inciting statements to the driver. The driver is silent and gives no reply to the utterances of the man. The words of the man addressing his seat companion were symbolic of the anti-Chinese bigotry deep within the man. His discussion of the achievement of the prominent sporting figure holds a lot of contempt. Silence is evident in the situation when his seat companion, who was seemingly the monologue’s target, gave no single answer. Esther, the main character in the story, wondered about the legitimacy of the diatribe that the man claimed. The woman with the chrysanthemums looked at the man talking about the prominent man but remained silent. She thoroughly scrutinized the man and retained any opinion she had over his utterance. Silence in the story develops conflicts on many instances. There exists a conflict between the somatotonic man on realizing the silence of the woman besides him. He expected a reaction from the woman, which did not come through. The man uttered words that discriminated the oriental woman negatively. The most probable aim was to incite an argument with the woman. It is conflicting that the man does get a reaction from the woman which was one of his expectations. Out of annoyance, he bluntly told the woman to walk out of the bus, should she be unhappy at what he said. He also told the woman off, saying she may as well go back to her native land, China. He says “Get off this bus, go where you come from”. A conflicting situation is evident when the woman’s silence did not show her mood. Since the man expected her to get annoyed, he forces her to attain the mood he desires out of her. He also tells her that, should she feel unhappy, she should go to Trinidad where chicks run the whole she-bang. This is conflicting since the woman never depicted an unhappy mood over his conversation but was silent. He further says, “Go back to China.” The bus had other non-native Americans who were listening to the man. From his conversation, the man used the woman to mean all immigrants including those in the bus. The rest of the non-natives in bus, however, were silent. Their silence is a source of conflict since they should come to the defense of the woman who was quiet. They, however, made no claims over the utterances of the man. This creates conflict since the silent woman seemed to be in need of their support, which she does not get. It is conflicting that the middle-looking man, a native America, never came to rescue the Chinese woman before the somatotonic man alights from the bus. Instead, he shook his head in a manner that showed sympathy to the woman who was the target of the conversation. This was a source of conflict because the sympathetic man was an American and at a position to deter the man from discriminative utterances. The two men also had conflicting opinions about non-natives. He did not show prejudice to the Chinese or Japanese in Los Angeles as his fellow man did show in his talks. He, however, remained silent instead of coming to the rescue of the woman. There is an instance of conflict in Esther emanating from her silence. She doubted the possibility of her inclusion in the man’s utterance. The utterance spurred thoughts on Esther of a past incidence of the man she saw on her way home from work. The thought made her have feelings of anger and desolation. During the incidence, she experienced internal conflict and asked herself questions as to whether she would wear the same buttons as the man she saw from work (Stanley 114). Further, she doubted if the man read English well enough. There is a conflict when Esther attempts to console the oriental woman silently. She did not utter any word but intended to use her smile while shaking her head to pass her message. The woman, however, showed a face that was impassive and with an expressionless look. She was cold and showed hostility. This made Esther’s offer go flat. There exists a conflict that occur between the somatotonic man and the bespectacled man. The bespectacled man who was long in silence stood to talk to the Chinese couple. He gave a statement of conviction and reassurance that not all had the same attitude towards non-natives. He reassured the couple other Americans had a feeling of a country that can accommodate all and of immense importance to all. He said, “We are not all like that man.” The conflict is evident in his conviction speech, that the natives have different notions. He congratulated the Chinese woman for putting up with the stern and discriminatory talks from the man. He said to her, “You deserve something for that.” The story dates to a time after World War II. Immigrants in America had discrimination in terms of culture and race. They had minimal freedom of expression. This would possibly lead to the passengers’ silence. The political situation did not embrace the freedom of immigrants to express their opinions. The man, for instance, told the woman, “Why don’t you go back to Trinidad?” This was an evidence of the lack of freedom for the non-Americans. This might be a reason for the silence of Esther and passengers in the bus. Being immigrants in America, the Japanese and Chinese inhabitants in Los Ageless experienced discrimination. This was a reason for their long silence despite the discriminatory statements directed to the Chinese woman. Esther, being a Japanese woman, too had to be silent. Other passengers, including the Chinese husband, maintained silence. This was due to the political situation of the period that did not give them a chance to comment over the man’s s utterance. Works Cited Stanley, Christopher. The Colonized Apostle. Minneapolis, MN: Fortresses Press, 2011. Print. Read More