Abstract The paper explores how racism and sexism are present in fairy tales and how even the Disney stories of our more enlightened era are filled with all sorts of stereotypical depictions of good characters and evil. The paper uses the Walt Disney movie, "Alladin", to show how the characters have become "Anglicized" to suit a more Caucasian audience.
From the Paper "It probably surprises no one to see to recognize the racism, and sexism, that was everywhere in traditional fairy tales. After all, that was a very unenlightened time when people were uneducated and rarely had the opportunity to get to know, and come to understand, people of other races.
"But things are different now. We have had decades of education and desegregation. It is surprising, then, to see some of the blatantly stereotypical images that fill Disney's movie screens. After all, a long time has passed since the brothers Grimm penned their tales, when bad men were always swarthy, or black, and could be spotted the second they stepped onto the page. Nevertheless, after looking closely at a few of Disney's recent hit movies, one might conclude things have not changed that much at all."
Tags: Pocahontas, Arab, Mickey, Mousing, Middle-Eastern
Abstract This essay argues that Brian Friel's play, "Translations," is about the power and importance of language in keeping a cultural identity true to itself. The play concerns efforts of the British Army to rename Gaelic place names in a small Irish village with proper English names. The true purpose of the translations, however, which is to Anglicize the map of Ireland and undercut Irish power and nationalism, is kept from the Irish citizen. The paper also examines the concept of alienation that is created when characters are forced to deal with the loss of their cultural identity. The inability to completely translate the place names so that they retain their original meaning is ultimately a symbol of instability in the effort to enclose a subculture within a larger, foreign culture.
From the Paper "Another theme explored in the play is the way in which members of a society living under a colonialist government find themselves forced into varying forms of alienation in order to deal with the gradual loss of their own system of civilization (Brown, 196). This is clearly represented in the ways in which many of the characters in the play withdraw or wish to withdraw in some way out of social interaction. For instance, there is Sarah, who has withdrawn into herself so deeply that even the simple act of saying her name out loud becomes an almost joyous occasion. One way to escape the imprisonment of colonial domination is, of course, to leave the place being dominated, and this form of alienation is dealt with in the character of Maire, who longs to emigrate from Ireland to America."
Abstract The history of the Irish struggle for independence from British rule is a very violent one in which countless people on both sides died. It is also an extremely complicated struggle that appears to have two different interpretations. This paper shows that one of these interpretations argues that the Irish conflict is not over independence from the British, but is an ethnic civil war between Ireland's Protestants and its Catholics. As they make arguments that are in favor of this interpretation, several British governments have claimed that the British presence in Ireland is essential for peace, security, and order. The paper shows that the second interpretation argues that the Irish conflict is a war of independence over British domination, with only a minority of Irish Protestants opposing that independence and supporting a British presence. The paper shows, however, that the reality is simpler. Even though Britain has attempted to violently colonize Ireland for 900 years, the majority of the Irish people reject the British presence in their country. A long history of failing peace agreements illustrates that the Irish will not settle for anything less than full independence in exchange for peace. The refusal of the Irish people to compromise over the issue of complete independence and sovereignty has led to the collapse of several peace treaties and appears to be presently threatening the Good Friday Agreement, which once held such great promise for peace.
From the Paper "The fact that the Irish people will not settle for any peace treaty that compromises the issue of complete sovereignty is supported by a review of 900 years of Irish struggle in which the citizens showed that they were willing to sacrifice their own lives, without a thought, for the future of their country, and their complete rejection of several peace treaties, with the most significant being the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The evidence of history definitely points towards the failure of Good Friday if it attempts to compromise over sovereignty and independence, or delay them any further. However, given Britain's justified concern over the future of the Protestant Irish and the possibility of ethnic persecution, it is very likely that there will be delays until the British are satisfied that the Irish people have resolved their inner conflicts and can work together as one people and citizens of one country."
Tags:anglicize, reunification, Gaelic, Collins, IRA
