Takaki, Ch. 2

Ronald Takaki makes several important points about savagery verses civilization in Chapter 2 of “A Different Mirror”. It is first important to understand that he is making an account of the impact of William Shakespeare’s Tempest. Takaki explains how this work by Shakespeare in the early 1600’s shows a great representation for the English mentality on savagery in the New World. Shakespeare’s main characters were Caliban, the savage, and Prospero, the civilized man. The name “Caliban” was derived from the term cannibal or cannibalism. When the Europeans first settled in the New World they regarded the inhabitants as savage cannibals. Although we usually think of savages as the Indians who fought the new settlers, there is a vast history behind the settlers’ justification for destroying a whole group of people. Takaki concludes that the Indians of the New World were not the first to see the rather of the English. In Ireland during the same time that the Americas were being settled, the Irish tribes were being taken over by the English. The British believed that the Irish were lazy brutes who occupied the land. The English said that through the divinity of God it was their job get rid of these lazy savages and make use of the land. The Irish were killed and their heads placed on display at the English camps. However, this scene is not what was being portrayed in Shakespeare’s Tempest. When the settler’s first arrived on the shores of the Americas they were greeted by a new people, what we recognizes as the Indians or Native Americans. The English believed that the Indians lacked everything that they considered civilized. For example they did not identify themselves as Christians. They wore little amount of clothing. They did not have swords or other weapons. The Indians also lived in small huts and hunted like animals. The English thought about trying to civilize the Indians just as Prospero had taught Caliban the English language. Shakespeare made it clear that Caliban could not be civilized due to his inherent nature. This seemed true for the Indians in the New World. Because the Indians were so inferior and uncivilized the Europeans felt that they were perfect for enslavement. After all in their eyes it was justified through God. When reading Takaki’s account of the how the English treated the Indians I wonder, was it really the Indians who were the uncivilized ones. When I look at the lives of the Indians before the invaders came, I see a people who had their own religious beliefs, who raised families and provided food and shelter for those families. The Indians had no desire for personal possessions and had a great respect for the land on which they lived. If you take a look at the settlers when they first arrived most of them were not even able to survive their first year here. When John Smith traveled with a band of men to the Americas all but a few died within the first year. It is easy to assume that eventually they would have all died if it had not been for the Indians who brought them corn and other crops to feed their starving bodies. This brings up another point. The English settlers claimed that the Indians were savages because they thought them to be cannibals. Yet in Takaki’s account of the first few years of the settlers he tells how the settlers where dying from starvation so some went to the lengths of eating their fallen comrades. He tells a tale of a man who kills his pregnant wife, disposes of the baby and then eats here flesh. So I wonder to myself how these Indian, these savages would tell their side of the story if they were here today. The English would send word back to London of these disgusting, Devil like people who would kill at first glance. Where they really talking about the Indians?