Cultural Differences :: essays research papers

I Know I Am But What Are You?Cultural Differences in The Tempest, Montaignes Essays, and In Defense of the Indians                     physical composition 2The Tempest, In Defense of the Indians, and Montaignes essays each illustrate what happens when two very different worlds collide. As Europe begins to saturate New World soil, the trine authors offer their accounts of the dynamic between the European invader and native other. Though each work is unique in its details, they all share a honey oil bond Shakespeare, de Las Casas, and Montaigne show the reader how European colonialists use differences in appearance and language to justify theft and slavery.     The Tempests Caliban serves as an instrument to sidle up the colonialist notion of the other. Caliban is the original inhabitant of the island it is his native land. But Caliban is ugly. Prospero claims that he is "not h onored with human shape" (p. 17), and so the new European inhabitants never hypothecate of him as a potential equal- they see him as their inferior. This initial incongruity between characters supports further dehumanization of the native for the remainder of the play.     Calibans appearance does not only contri notwithstandinge to the Europeans poor estimation of him, just it also serves as the justification of his slavery. When Trinculo says, "Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish and half a monster" (p. 55), he communicates two important concepts. First, Trinculo reinforces the idea that Caliban is more animal than man. Next, he assumes that Calibans out(prenominal) mirrors Calibans interior. Calibans physical deformities, according to Trinculo, also indicate deformity of character. Together, these faults aid Prosperos justification of forcing Caliban to "serve in offices that profit us" (p. 18).      A second factor of Calibans oppression is language. The ability to communicate that ends mans isolation from others and leads to civilization. When Prospero discovers Caliban, the native has no knowledge of Europe, much less its tongue. Miranda and Prospero take back it upon themselves to educate Caliban in "civilized" language. Miranda says"I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or other, When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble, like a thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known." (p. 20)Miranda believes that communication indicates that one is civilized. She does not for a moment consider that Calibans "gabble" was most likely his own language, the language he used to with Sycorax.