Orientalist Musings and their Applicability to Three Kings

2379 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Media influences on public opinion

Orientalist Musings and their Applicability to Three Kings

The concept of Orientalism is one in which Edward Said, a renowned intellectual with a solid background in the field of Arab study, is particularly knowledgeable. If the concepts surrounding Orientalism are broken down into specific elemental degrees, then Said portrays the American conception of Arabic entities and their inhabitants with a plethora of stereotypes that generate a false depiction of the Arabic culture. This, of course, is only an extremely small portion of the grandiose Orientalist dilemma that is currently quite prevalent in modern day society. Yet, for this paper’s ultimate purpose, this sector will be the sole focus. As Said intimates, the lens that the Americans utilize in order to acquire information about Arabs is one that reflects perceptions falsely. This lens is skewed in order to protect and support certain interests, whether they be American or western based. Movies, particularly when generated through the Hollywood action- based genre, have an false generalization of the way in which an Arabic people are. In some respects, the Hollywood produced movie, Three Kings, is a pertinent acknowledgment of the former. In many portions of the film, the enumerated antics may cause for a feeling of disdain toward the Arab nation. Yet, compared to the majority of the typical Hollywood action-based films, Three Kings manages to break away from these abhorrent stereotypes and provide a more than average acknowledgment of the sheer complexity of the Arab people as individual, separate from Saddam Hussein. Therefore, Said’s primary proposed conception of Orientalism is challenged and the Arab is depicted as a person trying to fight Hussein.

In correlation with Said’s Orientalist argument, American film portrays the Arab as the enemy, but in Three Kings this concept is challenged. Typically, by the end of an American film, there are a significantly greater number of Arab bodies than that of the superpower, in this case the United States of America. To a greater extent, Three Kings plays around with this typical film-like mentality. In the film, when the men are stranded and are looking for some way to escape from the village and rescue their man Troy, George Clooney states, “we are not supposed to be involved with this, we killed Iraqi soldiers, violated the peace accord, and a plane will not come for us.

Show More
Related

  • John Updike’s A & P, Richard Wright’s The Man Who Was Almost a Man, and James Joyce’s Araby

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joyce, James. “Araby”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 427 - 431.

    Read More

  • A History of Tolerance: A Critique of Eurocentrism

    2861 Words  | 6 Pages

    It is often said that history is written by the victor, and in the race to industrialization of the past two centuries, Western Europe and the United States have emerged as the victors. This enabled them to write a history in which their rise to power was preordained and inevitable and in which Eastern cultures are viewed as backward and intolerant. These Eurocentric histories have so fully permeated the global psyche that the stereotypes they have perpetuated inform our cultural interactions to this day. However, an unbiased look at the premodern history of Asia and the Middle East reveals the inaccuracy of the Eurocentric paradigm. Contrary to the Eurocentric view, there is nothing inherently intolerant about Islam or Middle Eastern and East Asian culture. In fact, many of the societies that have existed in the East have been extraordinarily tolerant and heterogeneous.

    Read More

  • Camel Cigarettes Ads

    2452 Words  | 5 Pages

    Laird, Pamela, “Consuming Smoke: Cigarettes in American Culture.” University of Colorado at Denver. Author of Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing. 1998

    Read More

  • Camel Advertisement Essay

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over the last 50 years, smoking and the public image of smoking has changed dramatically. Americans have learned the harmful effects of smoking and have put a heavy disdain on the use of it. The number of new smokers has drastically dropped over the years and many that had previously smoked have stopped. Some have turned to electronic cigarettes as a safer way to intake nicotine. Over the years, smoking advertisements have changed drastically. Nowadays, tobacco advertisements are virtually non-existent in our society, but when they were abundant they depicted smoking as a cool and sophisticated activity. Today, smoking advertisements are shown by electronic cigarette companies. These companies emphasize the healthier lifestyle these products

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Cigarettes

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cigarettes have become a national icon, as big as the likes of cooperating giants such as Coca-Cola, as people are familiar with the idea of smoking from such a young age, becoming so addicted and subservient to seeing the act as normalcy in modern day America. Therefore certain solutions are needed to, at the very least, help make this icon less harmful to this country’s health. Both online articles, “Are Herbal and ‘Natural’ Cigarettes Safer?” by Ennis Thompson Jr.’s and “Marlboro Introduces Vitamin-Infused Cigarettes” by The Daily Currant argue that the so called “healthy” or “natural” cigarettes actually have a few health benefits and are only just a way to slow down the dangers of smoking. The Daily Currant makes a valid argument through

    Read More

  • The Decline of Chivalry Explored in Araby and A&P

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joyce, James. “Araby.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W.Norton.

    Read More

  • Walter Mitty Character Analysis

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The change between reality and fantasy unfolds within the first two paragraphs of the story with Mr. Mitty at sea in charge of a Navy vessel. Mr. Mitty’s experience at sea is elaborately described until Mrs. Mitty interrupts and yells “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” This pulls Mr. Mitty out of the creative story that developed in his mind and back to reality where he drives them both to town. His wife suggests he needs to see a doctor due to this ability to slip into a fantasy world and completely lose himself. This drifting between fantasy and reality continues throughout the course of

    Read More

  • Influence of Cultures on The Thousand and One Nights

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pinault, David. "The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society." Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999):536-537.

    Read More

  • The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Compare And Contrast Essay

    1489 Words  | 3 Pages

    ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is about a boring man who has a lot of daydreams. It was originally a short story by James Thurber, but was also made into a movie. The way that the story is presented in both is a key factor in either’s success, and when compared, the two are very different. For example, in the short story, Walter has little to no character development, but in the movie, nearly the entire production is him being put through a lot of situations that let us see more of the true character of Walter Mitty. This example and others is what makes the movie adaptation of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ better than that of the short story.

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in Araby by James Joyce

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joyce, James. "Araby." 1914. Literature and Ourselves. Henderson, Gloria, ed. Boston, Longman Press. 2009. 984-988.

    Read More

  • The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty Literary Elements

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    He provides an intriguing story that while not spanning the length of a novel, sparks the interest of the reader by the first two paragraphs. The characters, conflict, and plot in Thurber’s story entertain the reader through the mysteriousness that surrounds their outcome. For the readers this mystery is engaging because it is not solved until the very end of the story. Likewise, the underlying message is almost not apparent until Thurber’s story ends and is analyzed. Only after delving deeper beneath the surface do we understand the meaning, the need to escape, and how it correlates to Walter Mitty’s life, Mitty’s mundane life requires that he withdrawal from reality to in order to have the life he truly desires. The ambiguous outcome of the story provides the mystery needed to keep the readers entertained and provide a well written literary piece of

    Read More

  • Pesticides and Human Health in California

    3083 Words  | 7 Pages

    Agriculture is the most fundamental resource of society. Without it, humans could not live, especially in the ways we do now where people reside in cities. This means that those cities could not exist without large scale agriculture to sustain them. Since agriculture is such a necessity, people have developed methods to gain more from their land. One of the many solutions besides machinery they have developed to produce higher crop yields is through the use of pesticides. However, those pesticides which have resulted in high crop yields have come at price, and that is human health itself. This seems rather contradictory. Pesticides were designed to help people and society by increased the success of producing high crop yields, and they still do that, but at the same time, those same pesticides have caused unforeseen health risks, primarily to those have had to handle them. The average person would not consider pesticides as being a cause for depression, or in worst case scenario, suicide, but studies have found significant links. Even though California is just one place in the world, it has large agricultural areas which were, and still are, represented in many scientific studies that have found those unforeseen risks from pesticide use. Since pesticides are poisons, producers and safety activities urge several safety precautions to attempt to reduce the effect on human users. However, these precautions sometimes do not prevent long term damages in the people that live and work in such close proximity, which are the agricultural workers. Since the risk are known, policies have been put into place, but despite that, the use of pesticides remains high. Like many of the anthropological readings from this course, there are also added ...

    Read More

  • Cigarette Ad Essay

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the advertisement put out by the R.J. Reynolds Company showcasing its Camel cigarettes, the attempt is made to seduce the customers into believing that it is hip and cool to smoke cigarettes. The first thing you notice in this particular advertisement is the large puffy red Afro donned by the man perfectly centered in the ad. He seems to be a throwback to the seventies when there was a collective feeling of freedom and invincibility enjoyed by the youth growing up in that era. It seem this man is living a surreal world full of bliss and happiness. His long smooth sideburns, small golden sunglasses tinted with a fresh color of purple, and attention-grabbing starred blue suede shirt with the leather pul...

    Read More

  • Yasmina Khadra And De Niro's War Analysis

    1928 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Middle East is a place often portrayed by violence and terrorism. Often times we allow the media to misconstrue our minds and we fall into and believe the typical stereotypes imposed on us. To say you truly understand the conflicts and issues that occur in the Middle East, I believe you must have had to physically been there or have experienced it. In the fictional novels, The Sirens of Baghdad by Yasmina Khadra and De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage, we are given two different portrayals and views of the lifestyle that goes on in the Middle East. Although the stories are fictional, many would say that there is some truth behind there “stories”.

    Read More

  • young Adults Live in Their Parents’ Home

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Home is a place where you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.” John Ed Pearce There are decent of teenagers who live with their parents, even when they are old enough to make their own decisions. Parents want their teenagers to grow, and face their own responsible; in other hand some parents give up their children, because they (parents) think they don’t have anything to offer their young once. A lot of research showed that millennial generation are more likely to live with their parents. According to Richard Fry, a Senior Research Associate at the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project said, “In 2012, 36% of the nation’s young adults ages 18 to 31—the so-called millennial generation—were living in their parents’ home” (Fry). Millennial generation started to live with their parents, because of economic, cultural, and education.

    Read More

More about Orientalist Musings and their Applicability to Three Kings

Open Document