Compare The Old Woman's Nurturing Of Babar The Elephant

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Recommended: The role of the Orientalist in modern literature

Through the old woman’s nurturing of Babar the elephant, Jean De Brunhoff’s Babar most closely represents Said’s argument that the Occident assimilates the Orient with a purpose of improving them based on their own understanding of what is proper. In Babar, the seemingly superior Occident represents itself as the old woman, while Babar plays the role of the Orient. When Babar stumbles upon human civilization, he is welcomed by an old woman who cheerfully educates him on how humans should act. Babar learns to dress, dine, exercise, bathe, and even to complete mathematical equations like a human. The old woman is glad to take him in because she believes that she is helping him. Much like the Occident, the old lady believes that her way of life

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