WEEK 1

Discourse on Colonialism
This piece attempts to examine and display the underlying effects of colonizing a village or a society. The author uses very vivid dialogue as a means to express very clearly the ways in which colonialism as a whole can drastically change a region. There is a great deal of discussion regarding the methods, which are used by the colonizers to gain leverage and ultimately control over a village. This involves the use of extreme force, which the author describes as Nazism. I thought the reference to the Third Reich was quite interesting, and a very essential connection to the reader. Almost everyone has heard of the deplorable thing that Hitler’s regime was responsible for, and for the author to compare that to the tactics of colonizing this village really drives home to the reader the kinds of dehumanizing actions that this chapter is describing.

White Man’s Burden
After reading this poem I feel that it was extremely confusing. I thought that the White Man’s burden referred to an idea that the white men have this obligation, or burden, to spread their culture and their background to other parts of the world. I also think that Kipling may be suggesting that the “civilized” nation also has an obligation to the people that they have conquered.

Video on Orientalism
This video addresses the stereotypes that people have about other cultures. Despite the fact they really do not know anything about them, people still make judgments and assumptions about people they know nothing about. I thought the narrator described it best as various parts of the world looking through a lens at certain regions, i.e. the Middle East. Said called this lens Orientalism, I thought the video as a whole was quite interesting, as he explained his rationale behind the motivation for his work.