One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by McCughrean - Assignment Example

One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by McCughrean Part 1 Middle East has a rich culture with a long history dating several decades from generations to generations. Various stories and films have emerged trying to offer insights into the Arabian culture. McCughrean in her book “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights” has various stories that try to offer an understanding to the Arabian culture thereby being of utmost significance in understanding and appreciating such a rich culture. First, the stories depict that kings controlled most of the Arab countries as were kings Shahzaman and Shahryar, who reigned over Samarkand al- Ajam and Sasan kingdoms respectively (McCaughrean 1). Consequently, Arabs carry presents whenever they pay visit as was depicted by king Shahryar, who loaded camels with lots of gifts when he went to visit his brother king Shahzaman. Secondly, Arab culture requires women to cover their faces with veils thereby hiding the faces from other men, thus only their husbands can view the body parts. For instance, king Shahryar covers the face of her wife with veil thereby no man can accidentally glimpse her beauty (McCaughrean 2). In addition to the use of veils among ladies, Arabs respect marriage, and it is sealed by weddings which are colorful and well attended. For instance, king Shahryar orders the Wazir to fetch him a beautiful virgin woman to marry in a colorful well attended wedding (McCaughrean 5). Moreover, storytelling is common in Arabian culture where king Shahryar remembers the childhood tales from his mother (McCaughrean 11). Dunyazad also recounts the stories her sister Shahrazad used to tell their family. She says, “The nights will…. without your wonderful stories” (McCaughrean 9). Furthermore, the story “The Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, Shahrazad reveal that the Arab culture is full of magical places, existence of supernatural phenomena as well as monsters as was encountered by Sinbad, the Sailor in his adventure. These are common in the Arab world, and people believe in their existence and their powers (McCaughrean 22). Subsequently, Shahrazad reveals the culture of the slave trade among Arabs when Ali Baba offers his faithful slave girl to thieves who plan to kill him when they discover that he knows their secret den (McCaughrean 130). Despite presence of good aspects of the Arabian culture, negative sides of the culture do exist. For instance, both kings killed their wives for being unfaithful (McCaughrean 3). Their unforgiving nature portrays Arabs as a people who retaliate. Moreover, the story portrays Arab culture as full of male chauvinism. For instance, after witnessing the unfaithfulness of both his wife and that of his brother, King Shahryar becomes bitter and grief and comes into conclusion that all women are similar. His bitterness and grief leads him into marrying a succession of virgins, whom he thereafter executes the following morning before the woman dishonors him. The habit continued for three years until the time when there were no more virgins. Wazir, therefore, had no option but to take his daughter, Shahrazad to the king. Thus, the king is a womanizer and male chauvinist. However, the film distorts various aspects of Arabian culture. For instance, in the film, Aladdin makes love to a beautiful slave woman named Miriam who is not his wife. Such behavior misrepresents the culture of faithfulness among Arabs as anticipated by King Shahryar and his brother. Making love is permitted to married couples and not to the unmarried such as Aladdin and Miriam as portrayed in the film. Consequently, the film reveals that Aladdin is the one who discovered the caves of the 40 thieves. However, the story from the book reveals Ali Baba as the one who discovered the den used by the forty thieves. Consequently, there is no incident in the story depicting women as thieves. However, the film shows that a female thief named Madhya awakens and tries to execute Aladdin for trying to steal their treasures in the cave. In conclusion, Arabian culture is rich and has good morals just like other cultures around the world. It advocates practice and observance of societal morals that ensure peaceful coexistence. Part 2 Despite the existence of positive sides of the Arab culture, various negative cultural practices destroy and cause a lot of discrimination and stereotypes about Arabs. In the contemporary world, Arabs are portrayed as bombers, belly dancers, and billionaires. For instance, the film Aladdin depicts Arabs as people who own camels, are arrogant and naïve. In the film, Aladdin chops off the ears of people who have facial appearance that displeases him. Therefore, the film depicts Arabs as evil and naïve ethnic group. Further, Arabs kings are portrayed as rich fools who lead lavish lifestyles and thus do not reason but think of marrying many women and organizing parties. For instance, in the story “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights," king Shahryar marries over one thousand virgins and executes them every morning since he believes that they will stop loving him after a short period (McCaughrean 3). Likewise, the scene in the film whereby Aladdin and Miriam makes love portrays Arab men as womanizers who become excited by the sight of a beautiful woman. They are capable to splash large sums of money and wealth just to woo the beautiful women or even go to the extent of fighting to win a woman. This depicts Arab men as evil-minded and foolish with minds concentrated on marrying and making love to as many women as possible. Afterwards, they disregard the women and in some cases kill them by using swords. This stereotype destroys reputation of Arabs and depicts them as unreasonable human beings. Consequently, polygamous is common in many cultures of the world and, therefore, the issue of depicting Arabs as womanizers is biased and has an ill motive since it formed part of the old versions of cultures in the Middle East. Consequently, in both the film and the book, Arabs ride camels, wear turbans, and live in the sand. For instance, king Shahryar loads various gifts on camels and rides to visit his brother. However, this is not factual since, in most societies all over the world, camels have existed since time immemorial in many regions and not specifically among the Arabs. Moreover, not all Arabs live in sandy places. Therefore, such notion developed by many westerns is untrue and misleading. Finally, many westerns have portrayed Arabs as terrorists and unreasonable people who only know to bear and use arms such as swords, grenades, missiles, and bombs in killing fellow human beings. In the film Aladdin, Alladin kills the sorcerer in the battle thereby recovering the lamp. Likewise, king Shahryar uses sword to kill people he dislikes such as the virgin women he married every day and killed them the next morning. In conclusion, various scenes depict Arabs and their culture as inferior. Thus, Arabs are perceived as lesser humans who only understand riding camels, living in sandy regions, leading a lavish life by foolishly spending their billions in wooing women and finally acting and promoting war in the world by using swords. However, this is untrue and misleads since Arabs also have good things, which they have introduced in the world. Works Cited McCaughrean, Geraldine, and Rosamund Fowler. One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. Yamamoto, Eiichi, dir. One Thousand and One Nights (1969). Herald, 1969. Film. Retrieved July 28, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7g8d4ETCS0 Read More