Opposing Views

George Will and Stephen Greenblatt have opposing arguments on The Tempest and what ideas are presented in this piece of Shakespeare's writing. Their completely disagree on how Shakespeare represents Imperialism in The Tempest. George Will believes that the The Tempest revolves around political views, however Greenblatt feels completely contrary to this idea. 
    George Will states, "All literature is, whether writers are conscious of it or not, political." Will claims that every piece of writing has some sort of latent content behind it that serves as a political view point. I do not agree with this statement completely. I believe that some writing serves as a political but definitely not all writing. I think that some writing is just for entertainment and it should be read as it is and that there is no need for further analysis. On the other hand some writing has tons of underlying meaning that needs to be analyzed in order to get the full meaning that the author was trying to portray. Stephen Greenblatt declares, "And it is similarly difficult to come to terms with what The Tempest has to teach us about forgiveness, wisdom, and social atonement if we do not also come to terms with its relations to colonialism." The Tempest presents many ideas that teach many lessons not just on the subject of colonialism. I agree with this because most pieces of writing have more than one hidden meaning that tries to teach us something. There can be many ways of interpreting writing rather than just seeing it as a political piece of literature. Having more than one point in writing gives more meaning to the text and in my opinion makes it more interesting. When there are different ways to interpret a certain text it allows readers to dig deeper and get more out of the writing. 

Postcolonialism and The Tempest

In Acts 2 and 3 of The Tempest each person on the island had their idea of what was taking on place on this island, they each had a different perspective. For example, "many post-modernists posit that all reality is a social construct...no single or primary objective reality exists; instead, many realities exist" (Ashcroft 234). When the boat was shipwrecked and everybody made it to the island, each group of people had their perspective on what reality was, but in fact the only person that understood the situation was Prospero. Once again Prospero manipulates and controls what happens on this island with his magical powers. Moreover, Stephano is convinced that he is going to be the king of this, "Monster, I'll kill this man. His daughter and I will be the king and queen..and you and Trinculo will be our governors" (Shakespeare 129). Stepahno believes that he is going to be in control of this island with Caliban and Trinculo as his subjects. Their reality is different from Prospero's because Prospero knows that Caliban has planned a plot against in order to gain his freedom from Prospero. They each have their own reality that is true to both of them, but they are completely different so they act in a way that they both serve the social construct of reality. Both of the foreign intruders want to colonize and rule over the island. They want to enslave Caliban which is represented as the native in the The Tempest. Caliban is referred to a monster and they treat him as if he is a savage when in reality is the native of the island. This correlates with Hollywood's portrayal of the Native Americans because they were shown in a negative light so people would support colonization. They look down on the Native Americans and Caliban because they have a different culture. The invading imperialists come into their land and force their own beliefs onto these people because they feel their customs are the right way. The colonialists are very similar to Prospero and the other people that became shipwrecked on the island. They march into Caliban's land, or the Native Americans', and take control of the natives and push their hegemony on the native people.

"The Tempest" Act 1

Prospero uses his magic and historical narratives to manipulate the world around him to serve his personal needs. In example, Prospero explains to Ariel that "it was [his] magic that saved [him] when [he] arrived on the island..." (Shakespeare 37). Ariel back talks his servant because he was promised freedom if he complied to everything that Prospero ordered. Prospero reminds Ariel that he saved him and if it was not for him he would still be trapped inside a tree. This makes Ariel feel guilty; this makes him remember that he owes his life to Prospero. Prospero is able to bring up the past to keep Ariel under his control.  Moreover, Prospero explains to Miranda that they were not killed "because the people of Milan loved [him] too much" (25). Prospero claims that he was adored by the citizens of Milan. This narrative shows Miranda that her father was a good man in Milan, and that his brother, Antonio, was an evil man. This story could be completely false and quite possibly Prospero could have been exiled by the whole city of Milan. Miranda is forced to think that her father was a good man. With this opinion of her father she supports everything he does when he could be doing things with evil intentions, and she could be helping him achieve his goals without realizing what she is taking part in. In addition, Prospero reminds Caliban where he came from, "You horrible slave, with a wicked hag for a mother, and the devil himself for a father..."(41). Prospero's constant reminder to Caliban that he is evil makes him feel like he does not deserve freedom. If Caliban was not reminded of his evil mother and father he might not be so bad himself. Then when he does do something terrible Prospero can use it as an excuse to keep Caliban under his control.

"The Danger of a Single Story"

Single stories can be very dangerous. If there is only one story regarding a certain subject then that becomes truth in the minds of that people that have read this story. If a person could control all the stories and narratives then he could   choose what becomes fact and that alone is very dangerous. One could manipulate reality very easily if they could perfect this technique of a single sided story. This relates to our class discussions because it elaborates on the risks of having a story that only contains one view point. Narratives play a crucial role in a child's life. Young childrens' brains act as sponge to new information. If a child only reads one book or story on a single topic then that text that they read ultimately becomes truth. It is very important to introduce multiple ideas on the same subject because it allows for analyzing and deriving of an opinion from our minds rather than what is being forced into our brain. History is very biased when it comes to recording past events. The victor decides what goes into the history books. Many people do not realize how subjective history books are. If somebody different had won previous wars then the history books would most likely tell a different story. A lot of the things we read portray people of certain ethnic groups in only one light. We do not realize that all humans are more similar than we are different. These single stories do not tell the whole truth, but only a fraction of the facts if any at all. I found it amazing that the speaker in the video had a CD from Mariah Carey. I notice that I have been given a single story of Africans also. From my previous knowledge before this video I perceived all Africans as being poor and struggling to survive. This case may be true for some Africans, but just like us they have different social classes. It is quite possible that Africans see Americans as rich snobs when in fact there are a lot of homeless and poor people struggling to make ends meet and to keep food on the table. These single stories are distorting reality just like in 1984. Before these discussions I would have never thought of these issues to be relevant, but now I see things in a different way. I have learned not to believe everything in the media or in books because they could be feeding me lies to change my opinion to serve whatever purpose that they see fit.