Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Donald Duk's Evolution
We all know that the expression, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" applies to Donald Duk and his father, King Duk when referencing the somewhat racist remarks they say throughout the story. When King Duk does say something that one considers racist, the statement has the same characteristics as when Donald said a racist remark to his friend Arnold. However we can see that Donald is evolving as the story continues. After seeing the Chinese not depicted in the picture of the workers that built the railroad, he was offended and outraged that the Chinese were not included. Thus, exemplifying that Donald Duk may not hate being Chinese as much as he did in the beginning of the book and will stand up for his ancestors when necessary. This and being an allibi for the American Cong veteran who was framed for murder shows an improvement and advancement of maturity on Donald's part.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I agree, I was rather surprised to see that Donald was outraged to see that the Chinese were not included in the railroad pictures. This implies that he only "hates" the characteristics of his culture that he deems negative, but also has a secret appreciation of all that which is positive.
In the beginning of this book, i thought it would be a good book. However, by the middle, i started to loose interest in it. It seemed too detailed and without a point. But, once Donald started to defend his culture in that scene, I began to see how he had started to grow up. The author displays this slow gradual maturation of Donald. By the end of the book, I started to like it alot. That is when Donald growing up became clear to me. I do wish he would learn to balance out the Chinese culture and the American culture which he was born into.
I agree with pradeep sharma, I think he does not hate his culture completely as I once thought. Hating ones culture means hating apart of yourself. I saw only superficial parts of that in Donald, for instance, how he hates his name or the fact that he hates that others think Chinese are passive and chicken. As he continues to mature he puts the childish superficial things aside and learns the more important things about his culture which gives him pride. I was glad that he stood up in class and defended his culture.
I think all cultures have their good and bad attributes. In history every culture had things to be prode of and things not to be proud of. In the many sub cultures that make up american culture this is also true, be it Black, White, Hispanic, or something else. People need to understand both sides of their culture in order to appreciate it and embrace the good and work to fix and overcome the bad.
I like the fact that Donald learned that he did not have to chose between being American and Chinese; he learned that a balance could exist in which he could have attributes of both cultures. I felt that this was especially symbolic of his maturity as he learned to not be as childish in defining his culture as a single heritage.
i remember being ashamed of some family attributes when in public so i understand his naive turn off to certain superficial things i wasn't surprised that he grew up - most people usually do. Also, most people develop some sense of identity in relation to those around so yeah stand proud little duk.
Post a Comment