After reading, and rereading due to the failure to understand what happened the first time through, I believe that Caliban is definitely a correlation to the natives today and the effect of the dominating culture. Before Prospero and his daughter Miranda came to the island, Caliban was there learning all there is to know about what was on the island and how to live in harmony with it. When Prospero arrived, Caliban taught him everything he needed to know about living there and in return Prospero decided to civilize Caliban up to the standards of the rest of the world. Likewise, this also occurred when the Europeans came to the Americas for the first time and pushed the Natives out for there own good.
After further investigation and deeper thought, I believe that Shakespeare is actually sympathizing with Natives today because when Caliban was telling Stephano about Prospero's unrighteous overtaking of the island, he said "'... he used witchcraft to take this island. He stole it from me.. take revenge on him for that...'" The connotation of the word stole makes it seem like Caliban was the innocent one with Prospero acting out of selfish ambition to take the island away from him. Literacy Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practic also gives some valid points as to the sympathy of the "Others", such as it "has already been articulated by the dominant class and its accompanying hegemony: silence." Pondering this statement, you will find that it has been brought up that the minority of those oppressed are forced into silence, denied their natural rights, and virtually erased from the thought of the dominant culture.
The video on Native Americans was very accurate and is very dangerous their portrayal to the public. Since the white man won over Natives, they have the obligation to show what the Indians did in any way they chose. Although there were not many similarities between mine opinion on Shakespeare's Caliban, it shows the other spectrum of Natives being evil, bloodthirsty criminals; which causes racist prejudice which is not easy to reverse.
ok, this is the second blog that said almost exactly what i was trying to say in my blog. excellent job in conveying a strong opinion with super strong support. i love how you take the time to emphasize your quotes by bolding them haha. i might have to start doing that. i also liked how you made a point to tell us that you gave this posting deep thought...i was just concerned about how much deep thought your putting into these ;D sometimes thinking deep about shakespear literature can be dangerous...i know of a place where you can get help if these symptoms worsen. but overall ill back you up on everything you said, because i agree.
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