Discussion #2A
Many of the members of The Table refer to Abdu as Julie's "oriental prince." On page 25, Gordimer writes of Julie's "assumptions" about Abdu's home. Read this section. After reading the excerpts from "Orientalism," use Said's theory as a way of explaining Julie's attraction to Abdu. Do you think the Orientalism argument is an accurate or fair one to apply to Julie and The Table?
posted by Randy Barnett @ 10:58 AM
4 Comments:
The terms Orientalism and the Oriental are not new to me, yet I hadn’t yet thought about it in context to “The Pickup” After reading the handout the direct connection between the two became apparent. I think that Said’s arguments are seen very much in Abdu’s character, especially during the scenes where we see other people talk about Abdu and Julie’s relationship. For example on page 30, “Then Julie’s man would dance wildly with her, she laughing with amazement, welcoming this persona, excited, intrigued to know where the expertise, the energy came from…” Julie’s friends comment on her interactions with Abdu, with a tone suggesting that Abdu as a source of entertainment. We often see in the novel Abdu being looked down upon as the silly immigrant, and not at all an equal to Julie, her friends, or even the shop owner. Said’s idea separates Westerns from any Arab culture and has found that the separation is felt on both sides. I think a lot of that aspect of his views is seen strong in this book. On the other, the way he describes “the Arab” is not how I interpret Abdu. Overall, Said’s paper has a lot of connections to the book that can also easily be made into connections on the larger scale of society.
Regardless if Julie realizes it or not Julie does view Abdu an Oriental. Without knowing any sound information about his life in his native land, she assumes there are "palm trees, camels, alley hung with carpets and brass vessels", which are the sterotypical images of the middle east. I don't mean to say that Julie is a bad person for doing this because this is something that we commonly do. Actually, Julie attempts to gain a better understanding of Abdu's reality; "She asks about his home, does he have photographs"... she wants to gain a better understanding of aspects that make up who she thinks he is. Julie's belief of Abdu's orientalism makes Julie more attracted to him. In comparison to her father and the friends he mingles with at the Sunday Bunches Abdu is "mirror image of what is inferior and alien ("Other") to the West." Julie is using Abdu's oriental label as a tool to separate herself futher from the elite class of her family.
Julie's attraction to Abdu is a definite example of orientalism. She sees in him the characteristics of strength, danger, and wildness, commonly characteristic of "oriental" thinking. Whether or not abdu actually has these characteristics, Julie seeks them out, only seeing what she wants to see. She wants Abdu to internalize these preconceptions orintalism tells him he should be. After the party at her dad's house, Julie expects Abdu to feel disdain towards the elitist social environment he experienced. Instead he simply comments "they are interesting people, They make a success", and with this Julie looses her atraction to him
By definition of Said's theory of Orientalism, Julie is attracted to Abdu because he represents an entirely different world. This world is exotic, representing what is "inferior and alien" to Western culture. Abdu is for Julie an escape from her traditional upper-middle class white upbringing. He is "strangely dangerous because poses threat to white." However, Abdu begins to crave a relationship with Julie that would go against her wishes to use him as her escape. After 5 months, Julie finally agrees to bring him to a family gathering so that he can meet her family. Julie is apprehensive at first, knowing that her family will look down on Abdu. Not only is she scared of what her family will think of them, but she feels "the shame of him seeing what she was," (p.45). She does not want to be associated with the lifestyle of her family and those of their class; this is the reason why she sought relations with Abdu in the first place. Thus, the dinner not only drives Julie further away from her family, but from Abdu as well.
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