Midpoint review

The class thus far has been extremely interesting .The text although particularly difficult at times is also intriguing. The reason is that a lot of it draws on several divisions such as philosophy and history. The most lessons learnt have been in the mindset of the colonizer and the colonized and how they go about endorsing their thoughts and their actions. Strategies that I tend to implement in reading these texts is to isolate the important characters and looking to follow their path and how they grow as an individual in the novel. Furthermore I look to categorize them into one of the distinct groups, whether it is the freedom fighter or the colonized ,brainwashed intellectual. There are parallels in the mindset that one finds in the mindset that I’ve learnt within my International Affairs classes. The mindset of the colonized seems to be one of resentment over the colonizer’s control. It leaves the colonized bitter due to the helplessness they feel over the control colonial powers exert within their land. Texts have varied in the level of interest that I have felt towards it. Fanon’s approach is particularly theoretic in that it simply categorizes the type of characters that exist in our plots. Fanon is able to describe the characters we encounter in the novels thus far in great detail and their experiences are very similar to those that Fanon points out. As an example Munira is the pinnacle of the colonized intellectual and his actions resemble that. His inadequacies, insecurity and loyalty to the colonist are all resembling of the colonized intellectual .Texts that I found particularly interesting were Season of Migration to the North and Ngugi’s text .Season of Migration to the North is particularly intriguing to me due to it’s relevance in my life. As a foreigner in the United States I feel like I ,too am reluctant to woo girls by telling the stories of my homeland. Mustafa and his method of operating is also a key point to me because he has an almost godly status in the eyes of English women anyway. His growth as a character is further evidence of Fanon’s assumptions and as the story progresses he seems to drift further and further away from his own culture in the same way an immigrant to the United States drifts away through time and naturalization. Character growth seems to be the main point in all these novels. The characters all have a point which represents their ends. This is evident in Ngugi’s novel where Abdullah ,Munira ,Kharega and Wanja all have a place that represents their heaven of sorts. Another important topic is the role of women in third world society and the depiction of women in an inferior status to that of men is spot on. The reading thus far has been very interesting with the exception of thre difficulty of the Orientalism PDF and the length of Ngugi’s novel the books have been a pleasure to read.