Achebe's Things Fall Apart contains the distinction between the colonizer and the colonized, the assimilation of both cultures and potential clashes between the two. While reading Things Fall Apart, I noticed that the novel for my midterm paper, Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses, contains a setting that closely resembles the colonial clashes of Things Fall Apart. The Hundred Secret Senses contains a separate frame tale that takes place during the Taiping Rebellion. Like Things Fall Apart, the main character's homeland is met with the likes of European missionaries. Of course, the native people find the missionaries to be odd but not harmful. So, they allow for the assimilation of these colonizers. However, when battles turn violent it is too late for them to fight back, as many of the locals have already joined with the other side. Much of the same symbols are used for the spread of western culture in both texts. The Hundred Secret Senses' pastor amen is much like like Mr. Brown in their adaptation to cultures and spread of Christianity. General Cape and The Commissioner both show a spread of government and capitalism.
No comments:
Post a Comment