Black Diggers and The Longest Memory Comparative Essay Sample PDF

Preview

Summary

Sample Essay...

Description

Black Diggers and The Longest Memory Comparative Essay Sample:

‘The Black Diggers and Whitechapel receive the treatment inflicted on them by the white men with a mixture of acceptance and rebellion.’ Compare how the truth of this statement is conveyed in the two texts.

British colonial history has been marked by the attempt to dominate and control countries, and their Indigenous or indentured people in order to expand the British empire. The world’s depicted in both the play Black Diggers by Tom Wright and the novel The Longest Memory by Frank D’Aguiar represent a version of the complicated histories of these countries with a dominated minority. In Black Diggers the Aboriginal people of Australia are seen as undervalued and ineligible for equality. In 18th century America, on the cusp of the civil war and the revolution to bring liberation to an owned people, the south dominate their slaves with physical and psychological bonds. These texts illustrate the conflicted personas of both the Black Diggers and the slaves as they struggle with their need to accept and repress the rebellion that the treatment they experience engenders. Both of these texts suggest that the colonizing countries in their white superiority, condition the Indigenous people and the slaves to be accepting of their designated position in these societies. However, it is apparent that there is an evolution occurring, change is being agitated and with this change is an inability for the Black Diggers and slaves to subjugate themselves to white expectation, rather they feel the need to defy. This conflict between acceptance and rebellion is apparent through the need to challenge power structures, a move towards gaining recognition and dignity through belonging and a refusal to be bound by the generational trauma that has controlled them previously. Both the Black Diggers and the African American Slaves have accepted the white men’s rules and power over each of them as they have been forced to listen and obey; eventually they violate orders as they cannot tolerate this breach of their individual human rights. In ‘The Longest Memory’, D’Aguiar explores the notion of “daylight [and] night” being symbolic to the white and African Americans, through the dominance of a white man in which they hold more power and weight than that of a slave. He also suggests that night and day are meant to be equal as there are twelve hours of daytime and twelve hours of night time in one standard day and “the master’s daylight” cannot continue to rule over night time forever. Meaning that the White Americans are unable to rule the African American slaves endlessly as there is bound to be a change one day in the future. However, the Slaves had to tolerate behaviours from the white men that were physically and mentally abusive in order for them to listen and follow instructions. They would use the power of beatings and the

whip as a form of punishment and to diminish the hope that slaves would one day be treated with equality. In comparison, Black Diggers demonstrates a world of white supremacy, initiating an idea of reality that the Aboriginal people are insignificant to those who have “no interest in them”; Mainly the British Colonists. Therefore, the Aboriginal Australians were stripped of the right to enlist in the war as they were only recognized by skin colour and couldn’t have people like them socializing or fighting in the same battalion as that of a white man. They were classified into categories “of [strong] Aboriginal appearance”, “flat feet (Aboriginal)” and by having a “deficient Physique” (pg. 23). The British Colonists also claimed that the Aboriginals were not citizens of Australia.

The minorities in both texts advocate for change to their designated social status in order to acquire a modicum of dignity through belonging. In Black Diggers, as an attempt to earn “[them] some dignity”, the Indigenous Australian’s enlist in the army to fight in the First World War with the intention to belong in the Australian society. In spite of the discrimination placed upon them during enlistment, the idea that “[they are] bound for the Promised Land” ensured them the chance to fight alongside white men as their equals who “earn [their] way”. However upon their return in Australia, they were still labelled the “Australian nigger” and failed in their overall attempt to fit in to society such as Harry; after returning from the war he spent time “away” and was deemed a “Derro” who was forced to “Beg for money”. Moreover, in The Longest Memory, the slaves have a desire to be free from ownership. It is through the vessel of deception that slaves such as Chapel make their attempt to achieve freedom. Whitechapel on the other hand accepts his designated role in society and strives to cause the least amount of trouble to his superiors and his peers. It was his belief that “a slave could live a good long life if he presented to his master the most dignified aspect of himself”. Irrespective of Whitechapel’s advice, Chapel refuses to accept the status that he was born into and was willing to do whatever it took to gain his freedom.

D’Aguiar and Wright correspondingly illustrate the compression of certain aspects of the memory of the Black Diggers and slaves, recalling parts of the unfortunate events that they endure as a mechanism of rebellion and acceptance. This is evident throughout The Longest Memory through Whitechapel’s suppression of trauma as “memory is pain trying to resurrect itself”, he seeks to forget how “memory hurts” and free himself from the trauma of the death “of a boy I loved as my own.” In both the worlds of the Black Diggers and the slaves of “The Longest Memory” white power and control has been accepted and now must be

challenged in order for their societies to evolve. This metamorphosis of their society can only occur if the minorities challenge and overcome existing power structures. The means by which they achieve this will ensure that they achieve the belonging and dignity desired and succeed in overcoming generational trauma.

Alternative Suggested for Main Body Paragraph 3: Throughout ‘The Longest Memory’ and ‘Black Diggers’ D’Aguiar and Wright illustrate the effects of memory on the Black Diggers and slaves, displayed through their recollection of unfortunate events which they have endured that serves as a mechanism for rebellion. This is evident in ‘The Longest Memory’ through Whitechapel’s suppression of his trauma as his “memory is pain trying to resurrect itself”, he wishes to forget how “memory hurts” and aims to unburden himself from the trauma of the death “of a boy [he] loved as [his] own”....