Orientalism Through the Film the Good Lie

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Lensing Agreement: Orientalism through the film The Good Lie

       Orientalism is a way of conceptualization that emphasizes and distorts the differences between the western and eastern world, the Arabs being the eastern world and the Europeans the western world (Said, pp.7). Orientalism therefore becomes the source of cultural misrepresentation of the eastern world by the western world. The Occident (British, America, and France) perceive themselves as being superior over orients (Arabs, Asians, and Indians) (Said, pp.80).

Imagery of orients

       A simple mention of Sudan creates certain images in one’s mind: Wars, hunger, mass

deaths and mass migration of internally displaced human beings. One imagines thin children suffering from malnutrition whose colour of the hair is even probably red. The faces of the people are depicted registering terror and hostility but deep inside they beg to be understood and helped. The human race in this land is imagined as one that knows no any other language apart from their native language. The place is associated with herding as the main economic activity with people relying heavily on their animals as the only means of livelihood. The land is associated with dryness, scanty and unhealthy vegetation. There is a cross association of hostility and killings with this land (Said, pp.51).

Imagery of Occident

       This is the clear image painted in the film ‘The Good Lie’. It is sharply contrasted by how America is portrayed later in the film when the ‘lost boys of Sudan’ and victims of wars in the Sudan land there. The American people are decently dressed, drive big cars and there is a postmodern infrastructure (the roads and the airport, great housing). The Americans speak in English, a language that the blacks are expected to know. It is no wonder one does not question why the Americans do not know the Sudan language and yet they expect the Sudanese to know their (American) Language (Said, pp.58).

Wars

       The film starts with some children playing near their home and apparently speaking in their mother tongue. Abruptly militiamen pull over with aeroplanes, shooting and killing their parents and all the adults in that tiny village. Houses are set ablaze, and animals are killed. In his book Orientalism, Said affirms that the white depict themselves as rational beings who are peacemakers. In contrast, the orients are symbolized by the Sudan people, are seen as barbaric people, who are aggressive, violent, and irrational (Said, pp.9). The orients do not know how to sort out their differences peacefully. Their solution is found through wars. Actually, this is a belief based on Arabs in the Middle East (Said, pp.59).

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