A Passage to India Group

Question:

sweetygirl
sweetygirl
Student
Community / Jr. College

How does "A Passage to India" examine racial misunderstanding, cultural hypocrisies and racial discrimination?

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Posted by sweetygirl on Friday October 31, 2008 at 2:46 AM and tagged with a passage to india, culture, racial discrimination, themes.

Answers:

  1. morrol
    morrol Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    A Passage to India examines these things by portraying the East and the West differently. The West is seen as the educated, civil society. The East is portrayed as a romantic, unchanging other. Forester does this to emphasize how the societies are viewed differently.

    One lens to view this book with is Edward Said's Orientalism. It says that the West views the East in an unchanging way, and it views the Orient as having one culture (even though it is made up of thousands). My favorite example is the microwave dinner brand "Asian Sensations". The food is all called Asian despite being cuisine from Thailand, China, and Japan.

    One way to answer this question is to figure out who Forester gives identity to.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/passage-india/q-and-a/tagged-with-c...
    http://www.enotes.com/passage-india/q-and-a/tagged-with-c...

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    Posted by morrol on Friday October 31, 2008 at 8:43 AM