For my Text Review I have chosen the very popular film Horton Hears a Who. The film is based off of the book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. In the movie, the main protagonist Horton finds a flower with a speck. With his large ears he can hear the very small people of who-ville, but nobody else can seem to hear them. Horton must protect the flower as some say there cant possibly be any people living on it. Many people try to destroy the small flower as Horton goes on a long journey to place the flower where nobody can touch it. By the end of the movie, the flower is saved when the Who’s cry out and somebody other than Horton can finally hear them. The movie ends with the other animals apologizing to Horton and everybody accepts that the Whos are people too.

The movie as well as the book both have the same lesson of equality. This can be related to the self-Other construct. All of the animals believe that since they cannot see the Whos, and that they are different, that they are less than them. They use their own concept of their own existence to define the existence of the Whos. This is challenged by Horton, who speaks for equality, when he says, “A person’s a person no matter how small.” The whos can also be considered subalterns. As they are very small they have absolutely no way to better themselves or voice that they are there. Without the aide of Horton they would have been wiped out. They eventually gain a small voice, thanks to Horton, and this saves them from burning in a pot of oil. Overall, while this is technically a children’s story, it can still teach us as adults. All people matter and deserve respect and opportunity. I think it’s great that kids have this story to teach them that from a young age. Its interesting that such a simple story can contain elements that relate to our social theories.

This diary entry was one I wrote for the halfway mark of class. Since it was an important week I had decided to write about an observation I make every single time I walk to work. I am writing about the biggest injustice I see almost every single day. I live in an apartment on north campus, but I work at the Ohio State University target on high street. I always opt into walking to work and it is always disheartening that there are so many homeless people on just 3 blocks of north high street alone. While this is heartbreaking on its own I have also observed that the majority of those who are homeless are African American men. While I always try to give any change that I have its never really enough to help. With this is mind, and the materials we’ve covered I decided to research and my findings are very sad. According to ABC news even though African Americans make up only 13% of the population, they make up 40% of the homeless population. Even worse is that those homeless with children, 52% are African American. This is clearly the result of unequal equity and opportunity in our community for those specific people. It is heartbreaking that anybody has to endure that, and it needs to be a priority in our nation to fix. Nobody deserves to die hungry or cold.

This systematic injustice can directly be related to Spivak’s writing on the subaltern. In this particular case American society has by some particular means created a system where specifically African Americans are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, and to reclaim said roof. In this case the homeless African Americans would be the subaltern. This is because they are forced systematically to have difficult and possibly homeless lives. Then they are unable to do anything about it either for themselves. The American system has robbed these people of not only their voices but also their lives. It is completely unacceptable and before researching the topic I had absolutely no idea how bad the racial injustice was. We need to give these people a voice, a platform, and an equal opportunity to help themselves and their families.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/50-homeless-families-black-government-report-finds/story?id=68433643

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, was an Indian scholar and theorist that wrote an essay in 1988 titled, Can the Subaltern speak? I decided to do more research on this very courageous woman for further context into how she thinks, and why she thinks the way she does. Spivak was born in 1942, which was near the end of India’s fight for Independence. She became a professor at Cambridge teaching comparative studies. She has a very unique way of highlighting issues which has been noted as “deconstruction criticism.” 

As India began to rebuild, a new power was delegated and many became what Spivak would describe as the Subaltern. This societal theory only grew once Spivak was able to see how the Western world viewed third world countries such as India. In her writings she commonly uses a woman as the Subaltern as she has strong feminist views and women were often seen as inferior to men. She describes the Subaltern as those who are completely unable to move upward and have no voice. Being a woman in post-colonial India would place her in this group among others such as, farmers and peasants. 

Her first deconstruction is that of India. She believed that there was no quick fix to give the Subaltern a voice. It had to come from education. Public schools are, in her eyes, a necessity in giving the Subaltern a voice. She goes more in depth in explaining how the western world has many issues as well. She explains that the Western world thinks they know what’s best and can speak for countries such as India.  She believes that the western world, especially in writing, treats women or minorities as Subalterns. They give them no voice. How can countries with their own Subalterns speak for other countries. That in itself makes a country like India a Subaltern. She goes back to her feminist roots in her essay saying, “Within the effaced itinerary of the subaltern subject, the track of sexual difference is doubly effected,” on page 5. Not only does she lose her voice and opportunity as an Indian, but also as a woman.

All in all, Spivak is defining a specific kind of The “One” and other relationship. From her own life experience she has seen that people in power, speak for and claim they know what’s best for those “below them.” Both India as a local culture and the Western world are guilty of taking one’s liberties away because it’s “for the best.” Before reading this article I had never heard of  Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. After reading her essay and more about her I strongly respect her courage, critical thinking and adversity in trying to give everyone a voice. She deserves more recognition and has my utmost respect.

Sources:

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?, 1988

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Quotes | Shmoop. (2020). Retrieved 13 September 2020, from https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literary-critics/gayatri-chakravorty-spivak/quotes#:~:text=And%20it’s%20not%20because%20the,in%20the%20way%2C%20you%20ask%3F

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak | Biography, Books, & Facts. (2020). Retrieved 13 September 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gayatri-Spivak

India After Independance. (2020). Retrieved 13 September 2020, from https://www.toppr.com/guides/history/india-after-independence/india-after-independence/