Dean Mahomet Essay

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In the Novel, The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth-Century Journey through India, Dean Mahomet represents a man in between cultures. Mahomet is presented as a complex, enlightened man that blurs the line between the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized by shortening the space between cultures by focusing on the shared culture and history. Dean Mahomet’s novel is a chronicling of his experiences over the course of his life as a collection of letters to a friend, in which he depicts India and reflects on his time spent in the Army. His journey begins as an eleven-year old boy following the death of his father and ends with Governor Hasting’s Lady and the remains of the great Irish Lieutenant-General Coote at Dartmouth, England. …show more content…

He provides descriptions of the land, noting strategic points such as wells, forts and the layout of urban centers. He provides information on economic practices and details of markets. He comments on the goods available in various regions. He catalogs flora and fauna. He provides information on the people, discussing cultural practices of the Hindu and Muslim elite societies he has had contact with and exposure to portraying them as moral (Mahomet 49) and virtuous (Mahomet 52), as well as treacherous (Mahomet 86-87) and decadent (Mahomet 88-90). His descriptions of the non-elite society, however, merely classifies them into “merciless savages,” (Mahomet 47) “licentious barbarians” (Mahomet 48) or “humane people” directed by an “all ruling Providence” (Mahomet 114-115). In his descriptions, Mahomet is exploiting the elaborate strategy of Utopian literature embodied in Milton’s portrayal of the Garden of Eden. Once Mahomet has created this alternative version of the landscape, his strategy is clear. In envisioning India as marked by plenitude, innocence, benevolence and sensibility, he is drawing upon the late Enlightenment stressing of sensibility and

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