Small Island as Exploration of the Other - Essay Example

Small Island as Exploration of the Other Throughout much of history, stories have typically been told from the perspective of a single viewpoint – that of the dominant culture. In many cases, the voices of the conquered have been subjugated under the expected reactions of the dominating group. Thus, black people became stupid and subservient slaves, lacking civilization, community structure, religion or history until white men came and told them what it was. In some cases, though, these voices have begun to find expression through a new interest in hearing the stories not often told. This is the approach taken by Andrea Levy in the book Small Island. The book attempts to tell the experience of Jamaican immigrants attempting to make a new start in war-torn, racist and still highly class-conscious England in the late 1940s. It focuses on the difficulties experienced by the characters as they attempt to simply live their lives as well as providing some insight into the reactions of those of the dominant culture as they come to realize the truth as it differs from their convenient fiction. There are a number of ways in which the ideas within this book can be understood as an exploration into the inherent problems of imperialism and the misunderstandings it fosters both in the dominated population and in the dominating population. The forces at work depend upon hatred, racism, misunderstanding and misrepresentation to achieve the separation of powers deemed necessary for exploitation but are rarely able to perpetuate the charade once personal connections are made as is demonstrated in Levy’s depiction of London. Levy’s book begins with a prologue that introduces one of the four main characters. Queenie is introduced as a child during an event at which she encounters her first real black person. Although the ‘adults’ she is with make fun of the black woman they see, Queenie is astonished to find herself speaking with a black man who graciously shakes her hand before giving the rude older people directions. Hearing of the event later in the day, Queenie’s father explains to her that the man must have been the equivalent of a prince in his own country because those are the only ones who can afford to go to school and learn to speak proper English, thus establishing the prevailing attitude of Londoners regarding the ‘barbarian’ races. The main character introduced in chapter one is Hortense, an illegitimate child from Jamaica raised by cousins of her father. She has worked hard to achieve a respected English accent and education and dreams of becoming a teacher in England, but when she arrives she finds an entirely different world from what she had expected. Gilbert is Hortense’s husband who has found a place in England for the two of them to stay. He is well aware of the conditions, both economic and social, that stand in the way of the couple’s success, but he is willing to take what he can get and has a difficult time understanding his wife’s attitude. Bernard is the final character to be introduced. He is a character from the wealthier classes and Queenie’s husband. His attitude reflects the deep racism and class-consciousness of his social group, but he treats Queenie with kindness. The deeper context of the book is best understood through the concept of Orientalism introduced by writer/philosopher Edward Said. This concept expresses a tendency to portray the Near and Middle East—often referred to as the Orient—in ways which appealed to the assumptions, tastes, fantasies, politics and prejudices of a Western audience. These attitudes are expressed throughout Levy’s book as the various white people encountered react to what they see – the Americans see near-beasts and the English see stained substandard people. It is this kind of generic grouping of people that is at the heart of Said’s orientalist ideas. While the concept would seem to refer to a specific group of people at a specific period in history, the factors that were at work are highly applicable to the study of Levy’s London. This is because the process of Orientalism was a direct result of the processes of imperialism which depends to a great extent upon subjugating and generalizing people in the hearts, minds and spirits of everyone involved. As Said’s work demonstrates, though, this fiction can only be maintained with distance. As people begin coming together, sharing ideas and details of their lives, they discover just how much alike they are – as occurs toward the end of Levy’s book. When historians refer to imperialism, they are generally describing one nation conquering and dominating another group of peoples. The actions of 15th century Europeans in the Americas certainly fit this definition. The New World was discovered at about the same time the navies and merchant shipping of European nations were at their apex. The New World conquest yielded new lands, riches and slave labor which set-off an imperialistic hunger that spread to Africa. Conquered people were even imported from Africa to the New World to be exploited as slave labor exploiting the natural resources of the lands discovered. The Europeans quickly claimed jurisdiction over most regions of Africa, Turkey and Southeast Asia while the British claimed India (McDougal-Littell, 1999). In making these land grabs, claiming ownership over the peoples already present within them, orientalism began to apply to a point at which the British, as expressed in Levy’s novel, come to think of all black people as African and struggle with the idea that they might be from some other place entirely. This idea is perhaps best expressed by Gilbert when he tells about his reception in England in relation to his childhood education dedicated to fostering a love of the Mother Country in his heart. Although he knew a great deal about England and its history, his biggest question while riding the train with the other boys is “how come England did not know me?” (117). The various English people he meets – a British soldier, an average housewife, even a fine lady – cannot tell him where on the map they might find his country. By the early 19th century, gaining and controlling new territories outside the original country was justified by many explanations. Obtaining new colonies was widely viewed as a gauge of a nation’s global prominence. Another justification was based on the prevalent racist attitude. Church officials and missionaries encouraged imperialism because the natives of conquered territories could be more easily coerced to convert to Christianity. All of this helped to feed into the idea that the English were superior to other races which depended upon England to save them. This attitude is expressed in Levy’s novel through the character of Bernard during his service in India. Although he must work with local Indian soldiers, he looks down on them as if they are beneath his level of civilization. Even though they also work to protect the property of the British army, Bernard characterizes the locals as “thieving little black hands that sneaked all around us” (314). At every turn, he is willing to believe the worst of people of color. Wherever they went, the British worked to both improve and destroy the nations they claimed. Through organizations like the East India Company, local businesses and farmers suffered under oppressive laws that favored British interests only. At the same time, though, these countries were given basic upgrades in technology such as new telegraph lines, bridges, dams, railway systems, schools and enhanced sanitation systems (McDougal-Littell, 1999). Levy provides a number of indications regarding where Jamaicans were both created by the mistreatment of British rule and given the opportunity to grow because of it. Hortense, for example, would never have had the opportunity to flourish had she been raised in the environment her mother could have given her. Yet the local public school gave her a strong education in British history and culture, paving the way for her to become a teacher and yet also restricting her opportunities to fit in. Considering herself too cultured for Jamaica as a reflection of her British biases and yet still black so unacceptable to the private school employers of Britain, Hortense discovers herself having to adjust her thinking. When the natural resources of conquered territories became depleted or overly troublesome, these countries found themselves largely abandoned, struggling to find a new means to survive without the support and marketplace of what they had come to think of as the Mother Country. These ideas are again represented as being problems for the Jamaicans who find themselves no longer in such high demand by the British in Jamaica and come seeking fortune in England, the land of milk and honey. When they arrive, though, they find little more than a war-torn nation with little to share and very little inclination to do so. Every time they turn around, they find themselves blamed for trouble or victims of arbitrary restrictions. Gilbert discovers this working with the post office as he learns he must either accept the accusations against him or learn to work alone. Hortense discovers spurious roadblocks as the woman at the school immediately seizes on her education in Jamaica and proclaims it insufficient for a teaching position in Britain. A great deal of this attitude is due to the purposeful misrepresentations of the powers that be encouraging imperialism from the start. The misrepresentations of imperialism are brought forward in the introduction to Said’s Orientalism which is essentially an argument in three parts. To begin with, he outlines how the Orient is not a “free subject of thought or action” because of the imaginary concept of Orientalism. Then he suggests the “European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self” (Said, 1979: 3). Finally, he talks about his three basic observations regarding the use of the term ‘orientalism.’ First is the idea that ‘orient’ doesn’t refer to the truth of the region but to an idea that has been fostered in the minds of Europeans. These ideas are applied in Levy’s book but turned around as the concept of London is contrasted with the realities of London. In Jamaica, the characters dream of London as a place with fancy houses, civilized conversations, higher thinking and high levels of social refinement. On arriving in London, though, these characters find themselves quickly changing these ideas. Both Gilbert and Hortense realize how much more educated they are both about London and about the rest of the world than the people they are surrounded by. Hortense quickly rejects several people she talks with based simply on their inferior elocution while Gilbert simply throws away his ideas and attempts instead to get to the heart of what the Londoners really are. Rather than fancy houses, they find cramped rooms, musty and dirty, and are told this is how all English live, at least the lucky ones. The second observation Said makes illustrates how ‘the Orient” has been given the distinction of the Other. This allows the Europeans to view themselves as the enlightening benefactors. Levy’s book illustrates how the colonized members learned these ideals and beliefs, and taken them to heart, to a much greater extent than the people living and breathing in London. Just as the concept of the Orient is in reality nothing more than an externally defined set of basic criteria, Hortense and Gilbert discover that the London they dreamed of is in reality nothing more than just a dream. Said’s third observation borrows theory from Michel Foucault, showing how the distinctions that are made between the Orient and the European world (the Occident) through vocabulary, imagery, discussion and academic instruction necessarily confines the Orient into an idea before the reality can be considered. These are the very same dynamics found in all of the characters seen in Levy’s book. Queenie remains the most open-minded of all of them. Hortense and Bernard harbor visions of the grandeur of British society while Gilbert simply tries to be happy despite the disappointments and prejudices he encounters. Said’s primary argument attempts to prove that there is no such thing as pure knowledge because “no one has ever devised a method for detaching the scholar from the circumstances of life, from the fact of his involvement (conscious or unconscious) with a class, a set of beliefs, a social position, or from the mere activity of being a member of a society” (Said, 1979: 10). These ideas are perhaps best illustrated through the character of Hortense. Although she is an illegitimate child and raised by family cousins who treat her as a second class citizen within their home, she maintains a sense of superiority over her neighbors and friends in school because she is more proficient in those aspects of education that are prized by the English. Even when confronted with the realities of London, she finds it difficult to let go of the impressions she’d had as a child in Jamaica. This argument is supported by the theory of deconstruction, a means of interpreting text that indicates “texts cannot be deconstructed from ‘within’ … any such attempt would be an epistemological impossibility, since authors cannot fully understand what they have written: the deep ground of the ideas which underlies the text is forever invisible and inaccessible to the author” (Chandler, 1995: 228). Levy attempts to circumvent this issue by telling the story from a variety of viewpoints and time periods, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In approaching the story in this way, no single character is able to fully grab center stage and thus no single character is seen as either right or wrong. Instead, the story is presented as a microcosm of real life in which all truth becomes nothing more than the subjective reality of the individuals involved. The heart of Levy’s story and the meat of Said’s argument rests in the way the Western world has characterized anything ‘Oriental’ to a public that doesn’t have the means to see for themselves. Everything outside of England was made to seem backward, simple and non-threatening by placing it in the context of a passive action while everything inside of England was presented as vastly superior no matter how good or bad it got. Levy mimics this concept in her book as she discusses the starving eyes of the Jamaicans always seeking color in the dreary world of London as compared to Bernard’s horrified reaction to the colorful quilt Hortense throws across her bed. Levy indicates that a people childishly thrilled by bright colors is couched in similar terms of the non-threatening other as Said’s passive Orientals. Although Bernard had to consider these black people in his home as backward and simple in order to maintain his attitude of English superiority, he also recognized the threat inherent in Gilbert when his rights or the rights of his wife were threatened. Bruce Bawer (2002) illustrates how the concept of the ‘other’ existed within the general culture as it concerned those who lived within it as well as those who lived without it. He brings the context of the conversation of the ‘other’ or ‘Oriental’ down to the individual level and helps to pull out some important points about this concept from Said’s books and other writings. “Ultimately, Said’s thesis amounts to a truism: that people look at the ‘other’ through their own eyes, and tend to judge alien cultures by their own culture’s standards” (Bawer, 2002: 621). The effectiveness of this method to suppress and demonize potentially threatening cultural or societal groups can and has been used to consistently reinforce a traditionally white Christian male perspective of how the world should work. These ideas are perhaps best expressed in Levy’s book through the characters of Hortense and Gilbert. Although both come from roughly the same background, Gilbert is able to accept that the people of England are vastly different from what he thought prior to his arrival. Because he is able to accept these differences faster, having had less preconceived notions of what to expect, he is able to adapt quickly and find a means of making his way in spite of it all. Hortense has arrived with a very specific sense of what she will find on her arrival and thus experiences an almost palpable sense of culture shock when she discovers that she is, in many ways, much more English than the white people who have never left their small island. With a basic understanding of what is meant by the ‘other’, as that which does not fit within the same definition as the self, it remains unclear why this concept of something different should be considered frightening or threatening. This is the subject of Marshall Berman’s (1982) work. In describing the modern human, Berman says “they are moved at once by a will to change – to transform both themselves and their world – and by a terror of disorientation and disintegration, of life falling apart” (Berman, 1982). Through this statement, it is easy to see the conflicting emotions of an individual undergoing change of any kind such as examining the beliefs and customs one has grown up with. These are the issues faced by Hortense and Bernard as they must come face to face with the reality that their previous conceptions are not as valid as they once believed. Perhaps because Bernard comes from the dominating culture and an earlier time, Levy presents him as having the least amount of change in this regard. Still others have seen the concept of the ‘other’ as a means of finding the self. Anne McClintock (1995) argues in her book that imperialism invented the concept of the other as a necessary means of self-definition. The ‘other’ was increasingly understood to apply to a wide variety of individuals who had previously been considered merely a part of the crowded self. As the world began to fracture into multi-faceted parts, it was necessary to combat definitions of other with more flattering and concrete definitions of the self. Given this, people living in London just after World War II might have welcomed Levy’s book as an instructional guide on how to navigate the uncertain tides of change. It is more likely, though, that they would have rejected the work because of the way it directly refuted their pre-conceived notions of how the world was organized. Released as it was in 2004, though, the more multi-cultured and better educated world of the 21st century received it with great acclamation – awarding it the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for its insightful perspective and honest approach. References Bawer, Bruce. “Edward W. Said, Intellectual.” The Hudson Review. Vol. 5, N. 4, (Winter, 2002): 620-634. Berman, Marshall. All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Penguin Books, 1982. Chandler, Daniel. The Act of Writing. Aberystwyth, University of Wales, 1995. Levy, Andrea. Small Island. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004. McClintock, Anne. “The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term “Post-Colonialism.” Social Text. N. 31/32, Third World and Post-Colonial Issues, (1992), pp. 84-98 McClintock, Anne. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Context. New York and London: Routledge, 1995. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979. Sardar, Ziauddin. Orientalism. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. Sivan, Emmanuel. “Orientalism Polemics.” Alpaum. Vol. 14, (1997). Read More