Theory of Character and Characterization

According to Peter Barry, The East becomes the repository of projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness, and so on” 2002: 193. He mentions that the East is the projection of the West which contains of barbarism and immorality. The West is defined themselves by contrasting their experience and personality toward the East. They want to civilize the East so that the East realizes their own identity. c. Post- modern subject Identity is not “fixed, essential, or permanent” Hall, et al, 1996: 598. Moreover, Hall explains that identity becomes moveable feast: formed and transformed continuously in relation to the ways we are represented or addressed in the cultural systems which surround us Hall, et al, 1996: 598. Identity is different related to the representation in society‟s culture. The fully unified, completed, secure and coherent identity is a fantasy Hall, et al, 1996: 598. Related to personal identity, it only exists in society in which society categorizes and defines it. When someone feels confused and searches for his own identity, it means that he experiences of what people call as „identity crisis‟. According to Baumeist er, this “includes the question of what is the proper relationship of the individual to society as a whole ” Baumeister, 1986: 7. Besides, Erikson called it as “identity crisis” when a person is failed to develop his identity, “because of unfortunate childhood experiences or present social circumstances ” Hjelle and Ziegler, 1981:127. Furthermore, Bhabha defines “identity is only ever the problematic process of access to an image of totality” Bhabha, 1994: 73. Thus, the Africans see that the Western people are the better side of them so that they imitate the appearance and language of the colonizers. It is their desire to be in the same place like their former colonizer. This imitation is called as mimicry by Homi Bhabha. In the Location of Culture, Bhabh a states that “colonial mimicry is the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite ” Bhabha, 1994: 122. They imitate what they have perceived, but the other people still can see the differences on it. Moreover, Bhabha explains “the desire for the Other is doubled by the desire in language, which splits the difference between Self and Other so that both positions are partial; neither is sufficient unto itself ” Bhabha 1994: 72. The partial position means “both „incomplete‟ and „ virtual‟” Bhabha, 1994: 123. Hence, there is a shift between Self and Other and it is called as ambivalence. In mimicry concept by Bhabha, mimicry creates ambivalence in the middle between the colonized and the colonizer Bhabha, 1994: 122. Ambivalence of the colonized people is that they have grudge to the colonizer related to the past time. Another is their willingness to be equal as the colonizer position.