Postcolonialism

In the video “How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native Americans” it talks about how Native Americans have been portrayed in a negative way in the media for the past 100 years.  This video reminded me of the one that we watched last week “The Danger of a Single Story” because the Native American man that was interviewed in the video said that when he was watching the movies about his people when he was a kid he did not know any more than the white kid sitting next to him. This can be dangerous in the long run because people will have the wrong information about Native Americans.  This video and the packet we read about postcolonialism all relates to The Tempest. In Act II and III there is evidence that Caliban is a representation of native peoples. For example, Prospero says to Caliban “thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself upon thy wicked dam, come forth!” This is an example of alternity. In the text about postcolonialism alternity is described as “the others” being “excluded from positions of power and viewed as different and inferior.” This is exactly what Prospero does to Caliban in The Tempest because he treats him badly and makes him a slave. Caliban was a native of the island but was forced to give it over to Prospero because he had no power. Prospero was able to take control by manipulating Caliban. The Tempest, the article on postcolonialism, and the video about Native Americans all relate to each other very well.  In this case, Caliban can relate to the Native Americans because they both were controlled by people that took over their land. They were seen as different and inferior to the people that took control of their land.