Marrakech (George Orwell )
George
Orwell shed light on many social and moral issues using a vivid imagery to
expose the evil of colonialism, segregation, and the racial prejudice of Jews
in Morocco. The essay Marrakech has several powerful messages that still appeal
to the people of the modern world which are poverty, intolerance, racial
discrimination have severe consequences on the lives of ordinary people.
Orwell on
one hand has described metaphorically the unhygienic living condition in
Marrakech which shows the lack of health and strength of Moroccans, on the
other hand the effect of segregation that Strength the racial prejudice against
the Jews minority. Orwell has also described the burial way of the dead bodies,
unlike Europe the bodies in Morocco under colonialism are buried without a
gravestone, no name and no identifying marks to illustrate to the reader the fact
that French not only want to occupy the land of Moroccans but also to erase
their identity.
As the essay continues, Orwell further moves the reader by illustrating a vivid physical description of the Jews situation in Marrakech and describes the intensive labour they were expected to perform in order to make a living as a minority, despite their lack of health and poverty. The essay vividly depicts the harsh truth of colonialism and exposes it as a form of oppressive and racist exploitation that effect negatively the population of a country and encourage the segregation between its people.
In the skin of a black
The article has discussed the issue of racism and revealed the suffering of sub-Saharan people in Morocco due to the discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes. Before we start analyzing the article, we need to define what is race and racism. Race is categorizing people on the basis of their appearance (skin, color, shape of eyes). Race is the root of the word racism, which is when a group of people are treated unfairly due to their biological traits.Unfortunately
racism has been happening all over the world and manifesting in different ways
including segregation and violence. In the given article we have learnt about
Mohamed, Ba and Paul’s experience with racism in Morocco which appeared clearly
from the way Moroccan residences had treated them, from calling Mohamed “Azzi”,
not sharing the same ride with him to Paul whom Moroccans spat and threw stones
on him. All this forms of acts goes under the umbrella of racism and it is not
acceptable, but the question here is; what are the causes that lead a Moroccan
be racist against sub-Saharans?
Firstly, we
have learnt from the article that the limited knowledge of Africa and its
history contribute to racial prejudice, which associate Sub-Saharan countries
with poverty, famine, and war, the thing that makes some Moroccans consider the
Senegalese students as inferior. Secondly, the media play a big role enforcing
the segregation and racism by representing black people as slaves on some TV
programs, and since there were Arabs own slaves, Moroccans think that all
blacks are slaves.
To
conclude, the poor knowledge about Africans, especially the Sub-Saharans and the
widespread stereotype of poverty, war and famine by the media, nourish the
discrimination and racism against the African’s new comers to Morocco.
What is an American?
Crevecoeur
in his third letter which was tiled as; what is an American? Discussed the
factors that made the USA a multiculturalist country where people from different
nationalities melt down together to form the national identity and the American
culture. Crevecoeur revealed how people in Europe were oppressed due to the
caste system, poverty and exploitation, that’s why Crevecoeur called the
newcomers to USA a “new man” because America Embraces all
European nationalities and it Allows the new man to create his own success through hard work. He can
improve his life and his fate. The harder he works the more successful he can
become. A poor immigrant can become an important, wealthy man.
This letter
shows the promises of American life in contrast with the decadence of Europe.
In this context, America is described as an innocent land of opportunity. This
letter is responsible for initiating the idea that America is a «melting pot
" of various nationalities which together form a new national identity.
The letter rejects European feudalism and embraces the principles of agrarian
democracy. It proves Crevecoeur’s despise the old ideas of the European
class system. In his work, he accuses, indirectly, Europe for oppression,
exploitation of the poor, poverty, and abuse of religion. Moreover, it
expresses the major American enlightenment thoughts 24 including deism,
liberalism, republicanism, and toleration. Notably, the images of American
nationalism and identity are well studied through the application of the New
Historicist perspective.
