Multicultural Literature Analysis
Amanda Hinton
Prof. David McCarthy
06/29/2015

Multicultural Literature
The word multicultural is self-explanatory; when added with the word literature, a whole new range of possibilities are available. Not only does it cover multiple cultures around the world, but it gives a connection between the author and the reader so that a vivid image of that culture is portrayed for the reader. The author gives them the opportunity to see a different culture through the eyes of someone who is from that culture, or has had personal experience with the culture. Authors from different cultures also gives the reader an inside look of what historical events impacted them the most and what they felt while they were experiencing it. Multicultural literature used in education would not only give people the opportunity of learning about a historical event from their cultures point of view, but they would also get the chance to learn about it from the personal experience that the authors from those cultures endured.
Stories like The Lemon Orchard by Alex La Guma and Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer gives the reader a more personal view of how their cultures endured during the historic Apartheid Movement. Other stories like Dead Men’s Path by Chinua Achebe and Or Else, the Lightning God by Catherine Lim gives readers an inside view of what other cultures experienced when the changing of the times came. Then there are stories like Good Girls Are Bad News by Subhadra Sen Gupta and One of the Beautiful Creatures by Navarre Scott Momaday gives readers a personal view of finding truth and being changed by it.
Cultural and Racial Segregation
The Lemon Orchard
Alex La Guma, who lived in South Africa during the Apartheid Movement, used his experience with this historical event to write a story that shows the emotions felt by some of those involved. La Guma was a strong member against the Apartheid Movement that led to imprisonment, banning his writing, and being exiled because of his involvement. He creates characters that show the emotions that were the center of all the turmoil. A colored man is being led through a forest to a lemon orchard by a group of white men. The leader of the group, the man holding the gun, thinks that the colored man needs to be punished because he talked back to him. The man with the gun exudes superiority and seems to strive for white supremacy. He has no qualms with taking the colored man into the orchard and punish him. The man holding the lantern shows fear and tries to be the sensible one in the situation, but in the end the man holding the gun keeps his role of leadership and continues on the path of punishment. La Guma builds the anticipation of what is going on by mentioning the cold to show the poor treatment of the colored man, the silence of the animals at one point to show that the surrounding creatures also know that something is about to happen, and characters personalities to portray the feelings of each one’s role in the story; more importantly he shows us the unjust and derogatory treatment of those with colored skin.
Once Upon a Time
Nadine Gordimer also has personal experience during the South African Apartheid Movement. While Alex La Guma is a man of colored skin, Gordimer is a white woman who also stood against the Apartheid Movement. She, like La Guma, shows the darker side of the movement from her personal experience. If readers use both stories to learn about the South African’s view of the historical event they get to see from both the white and colored populations, as well as those of different social classes. The story is about a white family of a higher social rank. They are so afraid that those of colored skin were going to break into their home that they go to extremes to do what they think needs to be done in order to protect themselves. They put in an electric gate so that they could control who came in and out, and built the wall around their home taller so that it would be harder to climb over. They noticed that the cat could climb and jump over the tall, brick wall, so they even went further and added barbed wire to the top of the wall. In the end their son tried to climb the wall in the attempt to rescue a damsel in distress, like the prince in the story that his mother tells him. They have to cut the boy out of the barbed wire as tears run down their face and screams escape their mouths while the boy is cut and bleeding from what was supposed to keep them safe. They worked so hard to achieve safety and their own happily ever after, but in the end it was a nightmare. While La Guma gives the view of the colored man’s fear, Gordimer shows the fear of the white family’s fear so that the reader experiences the real emotions that were experience by both sides.
The Changing of the Times
Dead Men’s Path
Chinua Achebe’s experience as a native of Nigeria, while it was under British control, for the character Michael Obi; like himself, Obi is a native African, but was more educated and considered westernized. Obi was sent to teach in a school that still had a firm grasp on their traditions and heritage, refusing to change with the times and rebuffed westernization. One of these changes made by Obi blocked a path that was sacred to the villagers. The local priest tried to explain the path’s importance to the new teacher, but Obi refused to work with the priest in finding a solution because he didn’t understand their beliefs and thought he knew what was best because of his education. The locals ended up sacrificed parts of the school, and Obi’s hard work, in order to appease their ancestors. Because the locals and Obi had different beliefs they were all at a loss. Obi’s refusal to compromise led to unhappy results for everyone. Obi disrespected the locals by ignoring their heritage and beliefs, and in the end everything that he had strived for was destroyed.
Or Else, the Lightening God
While Michael Obi is an example of one culture trying to modernize a different culture, Catherine Lim gives the reader a view of the modernization of newer generations against the traditional ways of the older generations in the same culture. Margaret’s mother-in-law is living with her and her husband, but she believes that it’s a new age where women are more independent and shouldn’t have to care for, or fear, their mother-in-laws. She is constantly complaining about her mother-in-law and worrying about her unborn child. Margaret’s mother tries to warn her to show more respect for her husband’s mother, or else the Lightening God, who listens to the complaints of the elderly, will punish her. When she kicks her mother-in-law out of her home she is cursed by her, leading to her and her unborn child’s failing health. The fear of the curse makes Margaret seek different advice and cure from a medium, who she previously thought was a ridiculous. They beg the mother-in-law to revoke the curse in the hopes that Margaret will regain her health.
Both authors show the importance of respecting not only the heritage and beliefs of your own culture but other cultures as well. Both Margaret and Michael Obi experience some sort of repercussions due to their negligence and disrespect for a culture’s beliefs. If Michael would have taken the locals beliefs into consideration he could have avoided the destruction of the school. Margaret, even though she saw herself as independent and thought her culture’s beliefs were outdated, suffered failing health because of her fear of the curse. There was some small part of her that believed in all the “ridiculous” myths and beliefs of her culture enough to search for a mythical cure for the curse in order to return to good health.
Cultural and Personal Truths
One of the Wild Beautiful Creatures
Navarre Scott Momaday shows a young man seeing nature’s true beauty for the first time, and the destruction that comes with it. He is seeing the beauty of his surroundings instead of focusing solely on the thrill of the hunt. He witnesses the birds in flight and fear as they approach. He watches the water falling through the air as the birds hurry to get away. He doesn’t process the fact that he heard a gunshot until he looks at the water and sees that the buckshot had found its mark. Previously he would have been happy about the good aim and the catch, but that day all that he saw was the death and destruction of something that he had just realized was beautiful.
Good Girls Are Bad News
Subhadra Sen Gupta exposes the stereotype good girl. Bineeta had always gotten good grades and obeyed her parents, but she was willing to break a rule in order to get the bookcase she wanted. Throughout the entire story readers see the repercussions Bineeta faces because she broke the rules, but doesn’t understand how one small, bad act seemed to wipe away all of the years she had been a good girl. In the end she decides that she can be both a bad girl and a good girl. Because Bineeta was widely known as a good girl the act of being bad was a shock. Other girls in the community seemed to take this as an encouragement and set changes into action. Everyone seemed to think it was Bineeta’s fault, but she refused to apologize for it since it didn’t cause any harm to her good grades or the fact that she still obeyed and held respect for her parents.
Both authors allow readers to see the inner changes and truths of both characters. In one story we the young hunter shocked as he realized the truth of destruction to something so beautiful; while Bineeta is feeling pressured by her parents and the rules of her culture until she finds herself and becomes more independent while respecting the foundations and main beliefs of her culture.
Conclusion
All of these stories are great works of literature that led readers into a first-person view of what happened in their cultures and the emotions these events caused. Multicultural literature helps people of other cultures understand what they have been through, and the changes that they encountered to be who they are. Bineeta is no different than any other girl her age who was once a “good girl” until some action causes that image to be shattered. The act itself may not be as shocking if someone else with a less spotless reputation had done it. These stories help others understand something different, just like stories of your culture would help someone else understand more about the reasoning of an action or event, and the emotions that are a part of it.

References
Bozzini, G. R., Leenerts, C. A. (2001). Literature without borders: International literature in English for student writers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gordimer, N. (1968, August 31). Topics: The Word, Too, Falls Victim of Apartheid. Retrieved June 27, 2015, from https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/01/home/gordimer-word.html
Interactive Literature Selections Dead Men's Path. (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2015, from http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/school/litLink/Grade10/U10-02deadmen/