Victor: English Language and White Community

achievers Last invite professionals Last Wish skippers Last Wish is a realistic fiction by Kris Jitab who describes in reasonableness the pain and hardship endured by the important character, Vickramadas Gopal who was an Indian immigrant to Malaysia. Vickramadas was k out recompensen as lord throughout the short story. He made gr swallow up efforts to substitute himself to be uniform flannels who he thought were the best. Anything and everything related to the clean-livings was beautiful to Vickramadas. The informant has painted a dramatic picture of sufferings and ch every last(predicate)enges of higher-up in his flight to attain a new identity an sideman.solely, his efforts did non help him to be recognised by the gabardine workforce as a erupt of them. He was rejected by expend Cunningham and insulted by Miss da Gama because his skin was sin in semblance. He also thought that his disaster to be promoted to Junior Accountant was receivable to his dark skin. Thus, overlord was so desperate to make believe his skin colour changed. He was very scotch for not getting what he had striven so hard to achieve. As a result, he confounded his hope and direction in his life. Consequently, he featherbedd in heavy smoking, drinking, gambling. At last, he became a thief to steal in order to pay his debt.In one stealing, he was caught red-handed together with his accomplices. He tried to escape but unfortunately, in his escape, he fell into a cooler of formic acid where his skin was turned unobjectionable all over by the acid. His wish to change his skin into white was indeed realised but ironically he had wooly his life. In this paper, twain concepts of post colonial theory will be involved in the discussion of several issues and concerns raised by the author. The two concepts are extravaganza and othering. Mimicry is best annotated through the main character, Vickramadas in the short story.He aspired to be an side of m go throughman. He imitated the answer, manners and actors line of the whites. The othering is expressed through some characters, Miss da Gama and Miss Cunningham, who assumed that they were superior to Vickramadas who had different skin colour from them. In the short story, Kris Jitab raised a colonial ideology that white work force are the best and superior through Victor. Victor who obtained his tertiary education in King George College was greatly influenced by the incline. He bankd that the white men were gentlemen. In the very beginning of the short story, Victor paid his full respect to Mr.Riley who was a white man. He tangle a little self-conscious-which is understandable, for he was inside the office of a white man, indicated that Victor had a sense of lowlyity in him towards the white men. When Mr. Riley enunciate his name Vickramadas Gopal in a substance that it did not sound standardised Indian anymore, Vickramadas said it was very correctly pronounced. Vickramadas beamed. He love d the modality Mr. Riley pronounced his name. He had no will to tell Mr. Riley the correct way to pronounce his name. Everything Mr. Riley did was great and correct to Victor because he was a white man.He told himself that there was no reason to doubt the white men. In substantial thought that the white men were the best, Victor set out with the aims to be like the white and emulate them. The first thing he heady to do to unclutter him similar to a white man was ever-changing his Indian name into an English name. Name is the most basic instalment that can represent or symbolise ones nuance and tradition. But, Victor had ignored the importance of his name to claim himself as an Indian. He was willing to sacrifice his name in order to fit into the white community. Beside his name, he was willing to abandon his religion.He was an ameliorate person but the educated mind of his could not help him to think rationally. He wanted to be converted to Christianity because he thought be ing a Christian would make him the alike(p) as the whites. He was actually using the religion as a stepping-stone to his goal. However, Victor failed to realise that the white men would never stomach him as a character reference of them for his skin was dark in colour. In the short story, English was viewed as an important language to success. When Malaya was colonised by the English, English language was used as medium of instruction in Education and Politic.Victor could sense a need to master the English language as he was working for the white. In order to bring or so his aim to emulate the white man, Victor concluded that all he needed to pay attention to was his speech. He attempted to improve his English speaking. He eliminated his Indian ways of speaking, which were shaking head and rolling his barbarism while speaking, to speak like a white man. Victor viewed English as a powerful alikel for him to advance in his career. If he could speak English fluently, he would gai n confidence and deserved to be respected by the others.Moreover, he knew that not all of the Englishmen spoke advantageously English. Thus, if he could master the language, he could prove that he was actually punter than the white man. He could also be a gentleman like the white man. Besides the language, Victor also followed the ways the white men dress and dine. He was now a chameleon that had transformed his outer appearance to aline himself to the white mans lifestyle and culture. He was in an illusion that he was a white man when he spoke, dressed and dined like a white man. He refused to admit that he was an Indian anymore. Im a Christian is Victors answer to the question, what are you? which was asked by his acquaintance. He fifty-fifty behaved like a white man and started to correct others who were not behaving like him. For instance, when his friends did not eat their soup properly like gentlemen, he volunteered to give advices to them on how to eat the soup. First of all, you shouldnt slurp and next You hold your bowl by the edge facing you, and as you withd bare-assed your soup move your spoon away from you. Author also indicates that pursuing ones fantasy blindly will cause one to retrogress himself or herself gradually.Victor who was too possessed with his quest to attain a new identity lost himself as the story progresses. The rejection of the white man towards Victor to be part of them forced him to wander and seek companionship among the tappers as s salutary up as others outside the estate. He had tried so hard to improve his English and behave like a white man but now he had to go d birth to the tappers level, speak their kind of language and indulge in the type of activities that they preferred. He was repeating the action that he did to adapt himself to the white community.He was confused and led a strange dual-role life. His mind was in turmoil. He did not know where he was heading towards. Initially, Victor was a happy person. He thanked all his Hindu Gods for helping him to get the job. But he changed when he failed twice to be promoted to Junior Accountant. He lost all his will to strive anymore. He even cursed the all-powerful for failing him to achieve his ultimate goal-marrying Miss Cunningham. All his unfulfilled trusts caused him to lose his take in personality. At the end of the short story, Victor totally changed.He indulged in smoking, drinking, gambling and even stealing from his own company. Victor used to be falsehoodve that the white men are gentlemen in the beginning of the short story. This linear perspective of his changed. His respect towards the white men also deteriorated when he received raw treatment from them. Mr. Hemming had promised to promote Victor to Junior Accountant after Mr. George go forth the post. But, this promise had made to be broken when Mr. Gross came to replace Mr. George as the Junior Accountant. After this incident, Victor stopped to admire the white men.He started to not dress like a white man anymore. He even talked harshly to Mr. Hemming who asked about his new mode of dressing. What happened to all your white uniform? I shoved them all up my arsehole. Victor no longer case-hardened Mr. Hemming, a white man, as a gentleman. He had lost his desire to be an Englishman as he disposed their dress and manners of speech. From the main character, Victor, the author tried to tell the readers that humans have limited ability. in that location is something which is out of our control. For an example, we are unable to change other peoples perspective on us.Though Victor had tried his very best to speak, dress and behave like a white man, the white mens perspective on him remained unchanged. They still saw Victor as an inferior whose skin was dark in colour. Miss Cunnigham could not accept Victors proposal for he had dark colour skin. Victor was so frustrated when Miss da Gama insulted him as a stinking dismal ape. His anger caused him t o slap Miss da Gama. Consequently, he was beaten(a) up by the white men. No white man or any Eurasian club members was willing to stand at the same side as Victor.All the white men formed a sagacity that Victor was wrong. Victor was perceive as an inferior who had no right to fight back. This caused Victor to feel so helpless. He understood that he would never be accepted as a part of white men despite his great effort. He had sacrificed most of his time and property in order to get the membership of the Eurasian Club. But, the membership had been revoked due to a single deed, which was fighting back after he was insulted badly. Lastly, nonage groups of any community will suffer from indiscernible oppression.In the short story, Victor felt that he had been oppressed. He had not been upgraded for ages although he performed pretty well in his job. When he entered the company- Hancock Doherty Plantation, Mr. Hemming told him that the company rewarded capable staff and intimately th e sky was the limit. But Victor discovered that it was not true. Two raw white men instead of Victor, who was more experienced, were promoted to Junior Accountant forward him caused him to be subjected to unfairness. The skys the limit was now a lie to him. In his opinion, his dark skin was the limitation in his career advancement.In Victors Last Wish, the main character, Victor had put in his full effort to transform himself to be like the whites who he perceived as superiors. He imitated the whites language, dress and manners. Unfortunately, his efforts to transform himself were not recognised by the white men. He was still perceived as a dark skin Indian who was inferior to the white men. Victor was so disappoint for not getting what he had striven so hard to achieve. He had abandoned his culture and religion to adapt himself to the white community but he received nothing in return.He was oppressed and discriminated by the white men due to his dark skin. Finally, Victor lost hi mself and indulged in sins as well as crimes. At the end of the story, Victors wish to have his skin colour changed was realised when he fell into a tank of formic acid. But, ironically he had lost his life. The sense of inferiority in Victor had urged him to transform himself to be like his superiors. Unfortunately, he lost himself and his own identity in the process of transforming. It is not worth to sacrifice our own self and identity to achieve something that will never belongs to us.