Compatriots And Minor Incident Analysis

1097 Words3 Pages

The texts Compatriots and Minor Incident by Emma Lee Warrior and Robyn Sarah’s explore the contrast between self-awareness and stereotype. Whereas Esther’s perception of the Jew community is contemplated through a sensible position, Hilda’s attitude and standpoint happens around a self-created stereotypical view of the Native Americans. When Esther recounts her story, she talks about many racial issues against the Jews. She sees the world in an accurate unpolished way. In contrast, Hilda doesn’t see the real phenomena as her view is constantly obfuscated by her stereotyped vision of Indian traditions and image. When Esther says, “when, waking from nightmares, I was reassured that there were no wicked witches, that there aren’t any monsters, …show more content…

She explains that by getting invited into the club of Wilchester would signify for her to wear a label that she does not want to partake suggesting that it could remind her of the Holocaust and the labels that Jews were given. Furthermore, Rhoda parents influence Esther vision when she says “I preferred for Rhoda to come to my house because I never felt entirely comfortable in her. Her parents… spoke Yiddish most of the time; their English was poor, formal, and thickly accented” (212). Esther doesn’t feel comfortable with Rhoda parents as they are strictly traditional while she feels to be more unrestricted from these categorisations. Inversely, Hilda does not worry about the norms that are applied to Native Indians as she is excited when she says that “‘I can’t wait to go to the sun-dance!... Don’t you believe in it? It’s your culture!’” (Warrior 161). Hilda dialogue demonstrates how she applies a stereotypical label that she believes to be true. Furthermore, Lucy replies that she never seen any “sun-dances” in her entire life (Warrior 161). The denial of the idea of the “sun-dance” by her native friend demonstrates furthermore how Hilda creates a false impression of Native American’s culture and deviating from reality and what real Indian people

Open Document