This summer I attended a 3- week Summer Program at Columbia University. Surrounded by highly educated and global population of students I didn't expect them to underestimate my nationality as much. I went to a store with girls from my dorm and took out my Amex card to pay. One of them just kept staring at it and as soon we stepped out she took a hold of my arm and asked with utter surprise, "Do you have American Express in Colombia?" I stared at her in disbelief and noticing my reaction she justified, "I thought it was called Colombian Express." At first I wanted to punch her in the face, but then I remembered that Colombia as well as the USA have their single story. As a start, for Americans they are the legitimate Americans. Each time someone introduced their nationality as "American" a small irritation would linger in my mind when I thought that being Colombian classified me as an America due to its geographical location. Americans think of Colombia as an extremely underdeveloped place where the only function id drug production. Based on this single story they would judge me and the rest of Colombian teenagers as a drug consumers. The truth is that neither me or most of the people I know have tried drugs. In contrast, most of the Americans I talked to had tried or used drugs in parties. Single stories change perspective of others and lead to misjudgments. I too was mislead by a the single story of Americans' bad skills of dancing. I was surprised to see some of them salsa in Noche de Sabor. When this type of deceiving judgements occur, we should try to push away the irritation and share a different story that will in effect open a new perspective.
Madness goes hand in hand with isolation. Society, skeptic as aways is the real cause for this relationship. The morality of madness has been a central issues in various literary works. In Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Chief Bromden demonstrates that madness is in fact a protective method against society's oppression. In Heart of Darkness Marlow, like Chief Bromden undergo a change in their reality due to an extreme detachment from their original and respective one. Men are nurtured by experiences to become what they are. Their life is shaped by who, how and where they live. "We live, as we dream- alone..." (pg 95) Each reality and life is different, but usually tends to be monotonous. This changes however when either the how, who or where are changed. Bromden's who was a major impact on his reality because he went from a native American tribe with family to a place full of lunatics and control freaks like Nurse Ratched. For both the change in where was contradicting. While The Chief was transported from a more primitive and natural place to a more urban one, Marlow left civilized cities to live in a "prehistoric earth" (pg 105). The how changed for the Chief by taking away his freedom because of a strict routine, Marlow's freedom was cut off too because he had to follow the company's orders and morality. Routines are dominant in men's lives. They obviously change when one of the three previously discussed factors change. Still, some are more harassing than others, and those tend to happen when change occurs. Most of the times, routines are stimulated by a powerful institution. The Chief's was manipulated by The Combine and Marlow's by The Company. Both of them tedious and recurrent. Everyday the same time.consuming thing is done, pulling them away from the reality. "When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality- the reality, I tell you-fades. (pg 103) After a while of going over the same routine, the institution has them under control by dehumanizing them. Soon they are like zombies and follow orders like having "...the appearance of being held there captive by a spell." (pg 104) It is at this point, where one's identity is lost and reality is fading that you are caught in a "fog". This is the term Chief Bromden associated to this state, and Marlow is trapped in "fog" as well. The difference is that under this state one was being tormented while the other was tormented. The Chief was blinded to the oblivious mistreatment in the ward. Meanwhile Marlow was helping to torture people unfairly. "The inner truth is hidden- luckily, luckily." (pg 103) They are so engrossed in their routine that the real intentions behind them are not noticed. Both of this character's realities change along with their moral perspective. This shift is catalyzed by the oppressing routines that loose them in the "fog". Society plays a central role in it as well by manipulating institutions into shaping people to it's accordance. Morality was lost for both Bromden and Marlow for accomplishing society's desires.
