Alisha :D

“Human rights and equality preoccupied Camus. His politics were decidedly “left-wing” and socialism appealed to Camus because it promised to equalize some social inequities. However, in life Camus was not able to treat Arabs as he did his French comrades. Even when trying to write sympathetically of the Arabs in Algeria and the poverty in which they were forced to live, Camus still leaves the impression that the Arabs need to be “civilized” by the French culture. It was not that Camus did not try to support and aid the Arab population, but like many liberals he failed to realize his support was accompanied by a form of condescension” (excerpt from a biography on albert camus). i found this explanation in a biography of albert camus. just as i suspected, camus sees arabs as “uncivilized”. this made me think of the tempest and what defines “civilization”. caliban for example, seemed gruff and savage. Yet when describing the island’s magic and beauty, he sounded almost eloquent. Throughout history europeans have always considered themselves “civilized”. just as meursault feels “that the Arabs need to be “civilized” by the French culture” (biography). So who defines civilized? Hindus consider us savages for eating cow. so does that mean we are? vegetarians consider meat-eaters to be savages to a degree–so are they? spanish conquistadors thought the aztecs were savages. were they? i believe it has a lot to do with where and how you were raised.the webster’s dictionary defines savage as: 

so i guess plants can be savage too….hm….i think when and where you grow up determines what or who you see as “savage”. the americans for example, considered the nazis as savages. yet the germans thought the same of us. I guess growing up in Algeria before WWII gave meursault prejudices against arabs. however that doesn’t necessarily mean they are “uncivilized”. 

 think what you will but i’m with cortes…those aztecs were pretty savage… yeah… 

~ by alishaaa on April 22, 2008.