The Wretched Of The Earth, Franz Fanon

The Wretched Of The Earth, Franz FanonFrantz Fanon was a black psychiatrist and author from Martinique who in like manner led a b put down and yetter as a philosopher and revolutionary (Micklin 1). He was from a middle-class family, save soon started supporting very liberal ideas when he personally go through the abuse of the Martinique nation by the french army (at the time, Martinique was a cut colony). He spent some time in Lyon for school and redden served in the French army. However, he believed that speaking French was a mode of accepting French oppression. He wrote a a few(prenominal) influential novels, just now his nigh famous novel, The Wretched of the Earth, addressed the abuse of the Algerians by their French colonizers (Micklin 1). Because of its controversy, France change surfacetually banned the disk (Ehrenreich 1). Although the novel mainly deals with the struggle of colonize countries in the hands of their European colonizers, it also focuses on how i deology is spread, the make of imperialism and nationalism, racism, and particularly the role of wildness in the problem and theme.This book of account was peculiarly elicit because of its strong style. At first, it seemed that it would be difficult to sympathize with anything in the novel, since it is advertised as a very radical book. But Fanons blunt, lustful words sound so natural and honest that it is almost as if Fanon is lecturing this book from a podium. This is probably because he actually fixed this novel from his deathbed, while he was dying from leukemia (Micklin 1). Fanon wrote this novel so that is has no p mountain or characters. Instead, he refers to only the colonists and the settled as the twain main opposing forces. He gives some examples of these, most of which are most French Algeria (the French were the colonists and the Algerians were the colonize), since he had seen this occur firsthand. This leads to a nonher reason as to why the book is so effe ctive. Fanon is not speaking from an unbiased perspective. He is putting himself in the place of the colonized, repetitively stating things like the West wants to castigate us, letting the reader know that the situation has affected him too (57). In addition, this illustrates how passionate he is about the subject since it is personal for him. He also gains credibility and his audience is to a greater extent apparent to listen to him and trust him.Fanon splits this book into five main instalments-the first, and perhaps most unforgettable, is called On Violence. In this parcel out of the text, Fanon basically labels the entire act of colonizing as an act of violence. First of all, the colonists get off violence against the colonized. And in return, the colonized respond with violence. However, the colonists are truly violent. Fanon claims that the escape of the colonist is to make even dreams of liberty impossible for the colonized (50). The colonized are only violent in respon se because that is what it expected of them and it unifies the people (51). This is the only way for them to decolonize and maybe one day planter their goal-according to Fanon-of eventually being the colonists (16). So even though Fanon criticizes colonization as a cycle of violence, he advocates violence as the only solution for colonized to dramatise.The second part of the novel, Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity, deals a lot with nationalist parties and the general distrust of rural masses. Fanon discusses the lumpenproletariat, which is the group of people at a lower place the working class (81). These people are criminals, prostitutes, homeless people, and anyone who does not insure into the working class. They are crucial for revolutions because they were typically not youthfulized or educated and probably were not fully integrated into the newly introduced colonial society. Therefore, they would not be oppressed by accepting the new wording and culture and would be more willing to take action. So Fanon rallies them to take revolt, as they are probably the most likely to succeed. This is interesting though because if he really is trying to rally the lumpenproletariat, this is a very pallid way. The literary rate of the lumpenproletariat probably would not have been very uplifted since they were mostly uneducated. This is only made worse by the fact that this book is particularly difficult to read and understand. So how would the lumpenproletariat be able to read Fanons message (unless they had it tediously dictated to them)?The third section, The Trials and Tribulations of National Consciousness, focuses on racism. Because Frantz Fanon was black, a great deal of his writing is foc utilise on the plights of Africans and their struggles under European rule. But although he focuses on this particular group of people, it is reasonable to assume that his analyses could be lengthy to most other colonies. Europe, after all, has colonies all acros s the world and not just in Africa. Another important point Fanon makes in this section is that the behavior of the national bourgeoisie of certain underdeveloped countries is reminiscent of members of a gang who, after every holdup, hide their share from their accomplices and wisely wangle for retirement (118). This is interesting since Fanon obviously portrays the bourgeoisie as the savages as unlike to the less educated, working class. He assumes that their desperation means that their success is impermanent and because of the lack of stable government and political leaders, the army fetchs necessary as an arbiter. This continues the cycle of violence just as Fanon mentioned in the first section.In the final section, Colonial War and Mental Disorders, Fanon claims that because of the systematized negation of the other, a frenzied purpose to deny the other any attribute of humanity, the colonized are laboured to ask who am I in reality? (182). When France colonized the Alger ians, the Algerians whole lost their individual identities and their culture. The Europeans impose their own culture on them, but they obviously will never become a authentic European. This fits in interestingly with their determination to overthrow the government. It is a very smart choke to remove each colonized citizens identity, because then they are less likely to fight for themselves if they have no idea who they are. This section was also interesting because it examined different cases of mental disorders resulting from colonization. This included the psychological effects on both the Algerians and the Europeans. So even if a European comes across Fanons novel and is not affected by the Algerians problems, perhaps he would feel sympathy for his first mate Europeans. For example there is the European police officer that met one of his Algerian victims at the hospital (194) and the European police officer that was so used to torturing Algerians that he tortures his own fami ly (196). Both find their personal lives extremely influenced by their past actions. This also illustrates that war really does affect everyone, even when it doesnt seem like it.Although this book was interesting and provocative to read, Fanon could have amend in a couple of areas. This novel would have been better if it was more fluid and comprehensible. Fanon seems to jump from point to point without much order. This could partly be attributed to the books translation from French. Since Fanon mostly used his own personal experiences and a few primary sources for the novel, it would have been better with a lot more subaltern sources comparing the colonization of Algeria to other instances of colonization. Fanon could have described other situations where colonized people revolted and whether they successfully or unsuccessfully decolonized. If he could have found an example where the colonized used violence successfully, that would have helped his argument a lot. In Jean-Paul Sar tres introduction to the novel, he states that many do not match with Fanons support of violence as a solution (xlvi). But Fanon had reasoned points in his argument. In fact, maybe Fanon should have expanded more on his On Violence section because it seems like this is the only section that offers true solutions to the problem. So Fanon does not necessarily go too far when he says the colonized must rise up and revolt with violence. The colonists used violence during their colonization and didnt seem to listen to the colonizeds protests. So that only leaves violence as a logical solution.Even though this novel is very radical, most of Fanons points are understandable it is easy to imagine how they could apply to many modern situations-anticolonialism, civil rights, and even our current situation in Iraq. It is interesting to calculate about this in a time when there are not many direct methods of colonialism. Because of this novels exploration of colonial struggles, The Wretched of the Earth has become one of the most famous novels dealing with decolonization.