Perspectives of people and landscape have been shaped
among various views of composers of different texts. People’s greed and beliefs
brings grief to people and the landscape. Attitudes of people and landscape are
depicted in a variety texts including White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling, Rabbit
Proof Fence and The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The people and
landscape have been viewed as strange and only good for exploitation and those
who view this have shown it through the way they create their texts. The
attitudes of people have now changed after colonialism and we can see that
there is not much difference between races. The attitudes are also viewed as
good and bad for different reasons as colonialism takes place.
In White man’s Burden, Kipling follows colonialism and
shows how the natives are a hard group of people to look and care after. The foreignness
of the natives scares people and they need to be changed through slave labour.
Kipling sees that the colonial perspectives are just and should be taken
advantage of. He speaks of the natives as being “half-devil and half-child”
showing that they are childish in many ways but are scheming but not that
intelligent. Kipling shows that with hard work they can become more civilised
and become better race in society. The landscape of Kipling’s poem depicts it
as one that can be changed and becoming a better community.
In the film Rabbit Proof Fence, natives are shown in a
somewhat same way like in White Man’s Burden as the natives can be wiped and be
replaced with white people through half castes. The half castes are shown as
easy to manipulate with going to learn and speaking English. People are shown
that they have to accept the fact of colonialism and stand by it or just try to
escape it through tough experience. The composer sees that this real life story
based film shows the hardships and tries to depict how natives felt and how
they reacted. The landscape shown is that there is a key involvement in every
object and it can lead you home like the rabbit proof fence. The deserted
landscape is a barren land which can’t be exploited but can be used for living.
Within The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the
natives are seen as demonic and frightening. They are shown as they have only
one reason to live; to be exploited amongst slave labour. In the Heart of
Darkness the only way to become somebody is to successfully exploit slave
labour and gain a great sum of money along the way. Colonial perspectives have
influenced the way natives are shown and this shows that in time there could be
the fact that post colonialism could never be wiped. The landscape of the story
is dark and dull. There is no heavenly light which brings about happiness as
the landscape is corrupt by the stereotypes of the natives.
Composers are lead to similar representations of the
people and landscape as there is way in how is it’s the right thing to do.
Composers see that their representation shows the true nature of natives and
the landscape and how there should be colonialism to stop the natives. Over
time these attitudes have changed as it has been seen as unjust and that they
should have a better future even though their lives have been changed from the
meddling of complete strangers to them. From studying past attitudes it is
possible to adapt and change the way we view people and landscape. From the
three texts, White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling, Rabbit Proof Fence the film
and the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad it can be seen that natives are only
good for slave labour and that the natives are strange yet easy to manipulate
people.
People’s perspectives of people and landscape are shaped
by how colonialism and post colonialism works. Through using a variety of texts
attitudes of composers change but the truth will not leave. Like in Kipling’s
poem, White Man’s Burden and in Rabbit Proof Fence the composers believe that the
natives can be educated in some way and can be used a useful source for
learning. While in White Man’s Burden and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness the
natives are seen as evil and demonic. In
Rabbit Proof Fence and Heart of Darkness the natives are just taken away from
their lives to be used elsewhere such as in a church school or in some
workshop. However in all of them there are different views of the people and
landscape. These attitudes have moved on to post colonialism where they are
argued against. From these texts it can be seen that there can be change that
allows attitudes and perspectives of people and landscape to be fair.
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