Evaluating Cultural Identity Using Caryl Phillips Cambridge Essay Sample

Cultural individuality is an of import facet of our being. It determines who we are and what we are ; it is our connexion to people who portion our beliefs. imposts. values and experiences. In Part One of the novel Cambridge by Caryl Phillips. Emily. holding been uprooted from her native land. struggles to detect her true cultural individuality. while seeking to understand the civilization of her new abode on a West Indian plantation. In Part Two Cambridge describes his passage from his African cultural individuality to his European cultural individuality. and his despairing pursuit to hang on to the latter during re-enslavement on the West Indian plantation. Through these characters. Caryl Phillips non merely portrays the clang between oppressor and oppressed. but he besides conveys the thought. even within a context of development. that cultural individuality is a uninterrupted procedure of exchange and transmutation. When she arrives on the island. Emily. unaccustomed to leading. renovates her individuality to conform to the oppressor’s political orientation. Initially she is described as the “ambassadress of grace” ( 3 ) . thereby typifying the political orientation of a nineteenth-century European adult female ; she displays feminine polish. modestness. and subservience to the white male.

Once on the plantation. she asserts herself as mocking but knowing. strong. and chesty in an attempt to understand and organize an individuality for herself. As a consequence. she draws an unbreachable line of limit between her and her humble slaves ; she acts clearly superior in actions. ideas. workss and being. She frequently likens them to animate beings ; for illustration. she described Christiania as “the coal-black ape woman” ( 73 ) and the kids as “the package of monkeys” ( 23 ) . Her racial bias. compounded by ignorance and misinformation. overcast her humanity towards the slaves on the plantation. including her loyal servant Stella. Through Emily’s transmutation to suit her thought of the quintessential oppressor’s theoretical account. Caryl Phillips elucidates the alteration bring oning nature of the establishment of bondage. on individuality of those exposed to it. On the other manus. Cambridge. unfamiliar with ‘civilization’ . renovates his political orientation to copy the European individuality.

During his first contact with the “uncivilized [ English baboons ] ” ( 137 ) . his African individuality. every bit thick as molasses. becomes fractured under the weight of the agonies he endures. In an attempt to reform his tattered individuality and happen contentment. Cambridge accepts the aid and support offered by his Christian maestro and his associates. In so making. he develops a new resoluteness “to imbibe the spirit and copy the manners of Christian men” ( 143 ) . In his head. the European political orientation represents advancement. intelligence. position. and most significantly Christian civilisation. He hence dilutes his African individuality. “a atrocity I had fortuitously fled” ( 143 ) . for the sweetener of his European individuality. Through Cambridge’s experiences. Caryl Phillips clearly illustrates the transformational potency of the interaction between the oppressor and the oppressed. Through her agonies though. Emily comes to a deeper apprehension of the complex lives around her. Initially. she seeks to understand the slaves around her through those most degage and most racially biased – the white work forces on the West Indian plantation. She absorbs their political orientations. particularly those of supposed learned doctor- Mr. McDonald.

Harmonizing to him. “the West Indian Black has all the features of his race… he steals. prevarications. …habitual indolence and wantonly free in his sexual behaviour …” ( 52 ) . While Emily accepts these associated traits as being alone to the slaves. she disproves the consensus upon gestating an bastard kid for Mr. Brown. Soon she begins to oppugn her cognition: “I do non cognize. I can non cognize. I still have much to learn” ( 127 ) . On the threshold of Emily’s concluding transmutation. she responds to the inquiry of her return to England with a inquiry. “Our state? ” ( 177 ) . showing her uncertainty about her European individuality. Furthermore. she verbalizes her uncertainness about her existent individuality when she says “you may take it that I am non certain of what I am” ( 179 ) . Through her emotionally and physically painful abortion the clouds that fogged her head clears. and a new valuing of human life is born. She heeds to the warning of Isabella to non: “grow old in a topographic point that was unkind to her” ( 182 ) . this possibly. incites her intermission to see returning place: “After all. it is my home” ( 178 ) .

Finally. she appreciates the foolproof trueness and deepness of her black comrades “poor good” Isabella ( 182 ) and “her beloved friend” Stella ( 184 ) . They. like her. belong to a group “whose merely journeys were uprootings” ( 180 ) . and they are the living representations of the slave cultural individuality. Cambridge unsuccessfully tries to distance himself from civilizations around him to keep his facade of a European individuality. Upon his unfortunate re-enslavement he laments. “That I. a practical Englishman was to be treated a base African…” ( 156 ) . His supposed assimilation into the English civilization makes him believe of himself as so British. and no longer African. As a consequence. on the plantation. he is “ [ reluctant ] to take part in their slave lives” ( 158 ) . He considers himself superior to their unchristian ways and civilization. He even censors Christiania. his married woman on the plantation. from his old life and civilization: “I told the miss nothing… non wishing to unwrap. in this topographic point of sadness. anything…” ( 158 ) .

Furthermore. he refuses to portion his Christian religion or cultural belief with his fellow slaves: “it would be unjust to get down to present a discourse I might ne’er hold the chance to conclude” ( 158 ) . Herein lays the sarcasm and lip service of the Christian political orientation. which he treasures. and he is pityingly destined to profess in Africa. Nonetheless. through his rejection of the place as caput driver under Mr. Brown’s regulation. he “gained the regard of [ his ] fellow-toilers. who dearly styled [ him ] as the black Christian” ( 161 ) . demoing his extract into the slave civilization. Additionally. his strong fondness for Christiania and disgust for the wretchedness induced by Mr. Brown causes him to further belie his Christian political orientation: “I eventually. with the aid of my merciful Jesus. devised a Christian plan” ( 165 ) . In his achievement thereof. he commits the greatest discourtesy to Christianity.

He was humbled in his concluding penalty. and ends up a rebelling liquidator in the eyes of the jurisprudence. which binds him everlastingly to the individuality he urgently tries to cast. Cultural individuality is a complex human trait that is invariably in flux as it is influenced by a odds and ends of factors. including the societal environment. gender. race. category. and business. The manner the alterations in cultural individuality manifest themselves is besides variable among persons within the influencing classs. For illustration. the brief. but important minute of interaction between Emily and Cambridge. “she declined to portion them with me…I. in bend declined to portion with her” ( 165 ) . is marked by hushed rebelliousness on by both parties. These soundless minutes distance us from the truth about those who are supposed different from us in some manner. form or signifier. Caryl Phillips. through the fresh Cambridge. successfully illustrated these complexnesss of cultural individuality utilizing chiefly the colliding interaction between the oppressor and the oppressed.

Work Cited

Phillips. Caryl. Cambridge. New York: Vintage International. 1993.