'Victor: English Language and White Community\r'

' successs lead Wish passkey’s Last Wish â€Å"Victor’s Last Wish” is a realistic fiction by Kris Jitab who describes in depth the pain and adversity block upured by the main(prenominal) character, Vickramadas Gopal who was an Indian immigrant to Malaysia. Vickramadas was k directlyn as Victor without the presently invention. He do great struggles to transform him ego to be resembling exsanguines who he thought were the crush. â€Å"Any topic and e reallything related to the tweeds was beautiful to Vickramadas. ” The author has create a dramatic picture of sufferings and chall(a)enges of Victor in his course to attain a new identity operator †an face earthly concern. yet, his efforts did not help him to be recognised by the albumen work force as a percent of them. He was rejected by flatten Cunningham and insulted by Miss da Gama because his whittle was dark in annotate. He in any case thought that his failure to be promoted to lowly control was due(p) to his dark grate. Thus, Victor was so desperate to have his skin colour changed. He was very disappointed for not acquire what he had striven so hard to achieve. As a result, he lost his hope and direction in his life. Consequently, he indulged in heavy smoking, drinking, dramatic play. At last, he became a thief to steal in rule to pay his debt.In one stealing, he was caught red-handed unneurotic with his accomplices. He act to escape alone unfortunately, in his escape, he fell into a tank of formic acid where his skin was turned color all over by the acid. His regard to change his skin into exsanguinousn was therefore realised but ironically he had lost his life. In this paper, two concepts of invest compound theory de assort be come to in the discussion of several issues and concerns raised by the author. The two concepts ar mimicry and othering. Mimicry is surmount annotated through the main character, Vickramadas in the short story.H e aspired to be an Englishman. He imitated the dress, tact and speech of the whites. The othering is expressed through some characters, Miss da Gama and Miss Cunningham, who sour that they were superior to Vickramadas who had different skin colour from them. In the short story, Kris Jitab raised a colonial ideology that white men are the best and superior through Victor. Victor who obtained his tertiary procreation in King George College was greatly influenced by the English. He believed that the white men were gentlemen. In the very stolon of the short story, Victor paid his full evaluate to Mr.Riley who was a white man. â€Å"He felt up a little self-conscious-which is understandable, for he was inside the office of a white man,” indicated that Victor had a smell out of deficientity in him towards the white men. When Mr. Riley labeld his name â€Å"Vickramadas Gopal” in a way that it did not sound a akin(p) Indian anymore, Vickramadas said it was very cor rectly pronounced. â€Å"Vickramadas beamed. He loved the way Mr. Riley pronounced his name. ” He had no forget to tell Mr. Riley the correct way to pronounce his name. Everything Mr. Riley did was great and correct to Victor because he was a white man.He told himself that there was no reason to mistrust the white men. In firm thought that the white men were the best, Victor set out with the aims to be like the white and emulate them. The first thing he decided to do to make him connatural to a white man was changing his Indian name into an English name. Name is the most radical element that can represent or typify one’s culture and tradition. But, Victor had disregard the importance of his name to claim himself as an Indian. He was uncoerced to sacrifice his name in range to fit into the white community. Beside his name, he was willing to de portion from his godliness.He was an educated person but the educated heading of his could not help him to think rati onally. He cherished to be converted to Christianity because he thought beingness a Christian would make him the same as the whites. He was actually using the religion as a stepping-stone to his goal. However, Victor failed to realise that the white men would neer accept him as a billet of them for his skin was dark in colour. In the short story, English was viewed as an important language to success. When Malaya was colonize by the English, English language was utilise as medium of instruction in Education and Politic.Victor could sense a need to master the English language as he was working for the white. In site to bring to the highest degree his aim to emulate the white man, Victor concluded that all he postulate to pay attention to was his speech. He attempted to alter his English babbleing. He eliminated his Indian ways of turn toing, which were move head and rolling his tongue while speaking, to speak like a white man. Victor viewed English as a powerful tool fo r him to approach shot in his charge. If he could speak English fluently, he would gain confidence and deserved to be see by the others.Moreover, he knew that not all of the Englishmen rundle good English. Thus, if he could master the language, he could ground that he was actually better than the white man. He could also be a gentleman like the white man. Besides the language, Victor also followed the ways the white men dress and dine. He was now a chameleon that had transformed his outward fashion to reconcile himself to the white man’s lifestyle and culture. He was in an illusion that he was a white man when he spoke, dressed and dined like a white man. He refused to admit that he was an Indian anymore. I’m a Christian” is Victor’s answer to the question, â€Å"what are you? ” which was asked by his acquaintance. He even playd like a white man and started to correct others who were not behaving like him. For instance, when his friends did not eat their soup properly like gentlemen, he volunteered to give advices to them on how to eat the soup. â€Å"First of all, you shouldn’t slurp” and next â€Å"You hold your bowl by the edge facing you, and as you spoon your soup move your spoon away from you. ” Author also indicates that pursuing one’s dream blindly will cause one to lose himself or herself gradually.Victor who was too possessed with his quest to attain a new identity lost himself as the story progresses. The rejection of the white man towards Victor to be part of them forced him to wander and seek companionship among the tappers as well as others outside the estate. He had tried so hard to improve his English and behave like a white man but now he had to go down to the tappers’ level, speak their kind of language and indulge in the eccentric of activities that they preferred. He was repeating the action that he did to adapt himself to the white community.He was confused and led a inappropriate dual-role life. His mind was in turmoil. He did not lead it on where he was heading towards. Initially, Victor was a halcyon person. He thanked all his Hindu Gods for helping him to get the job. But he changed when he failed twice to be promoted to younger Accountant. He lost all his will to strive anymore. He even cursed the omnipotent for failing him to achieve his ultimate goal-marrying Miss Cunningham. all told his unfulfilled desires caused him to lose his own personality. At the end of the short story, Victor totally changed.He indulged in smoking, drinking, gambling and even stealing from his own family. Victor used to believe that â€Å"the white men are gentlemen” in the beginning of the short story. This stead of his changed. His respect towards the white men also deteriorated when he received unsportsmanlike treatment from them. Mr. Hemming had promised to promote Victor to Junior Accountant later on Mr. George left the post. But, thi s promise had made to be broken when Mr. Gross came to replace Mr. George as the Junior Accountant. After this incident, Victor stopped to admire the white men.He started to not dress like a white man anymore. He even talked harshly to Mr. Hemming who asked about his new mode of dressing. â€Å"What happened to all your white habiliments? ” â€Å"I shoved them all up my arsehole. ” Victor no longer treated Mr. Hemming, a white man, as a gentleman. He had lost his desire to be an Englishman as he abandoned their dress and manners of speech. From the main character, Victor, the author tried to tell the readers that creation have limited ability. There is something which is out of our control. For an example, we are unable to change other people’s perspective on us.Though Victor had tried his very best to speak, dress and behave like a white man, the white men’s perspective on him remained unchanged. They still saw Victor as an inferior whose skin was dark in colour. Miss Cunnigham could not accept Victor’s marriage proposal for he had dark colour skin. Victor was so frustrated when Miss da Gama insulted him as a stinking â€Å"black ape”. His anger caused him to slapdash Miss da Gama. Consequently, he was beaten up by the white men. No white man or any Eurasian club members was willing to stand at the same side as Victor.All the white men formed a belief that Victor was wrong. Victor was comprehend as an inferior who had no right to fight back. This caused Victor to pure tone so helpless. He understood that he would never be accepted as a part of white men despite his great effort. He had sacrificed most of his time and money in frame to get the membership of the Eurasian Club. But, the membership had been revoked due to a single deed, which was fighting back after he was insulted badly. Lastly, minority groups of any community will suffer from indiscernible oppression.In the short story, Victor felt that he had been oppressed. He had not been upgraded for ages although he performed bewitching well in his job. When he entered the company- Hancock Doherty Plantation, Mr. Hemming told him that the company rewarded capable staff and virtually the sky was the limit. But Victor discovered that it was not true. Two unrefined white men instead of Victor, who was more experienced, were promoted to Junior Accountant before him caused him to be subjected to unfairness. â€Å"The sky’s the limit” was now a lie to him. In his opinion, his dark skin was the limitation in his career advancement.In â€Å"Victor’s Last Wish”, the main character, Victor had put in his full effort to transform himself to be like the whites who he perceived as superiors. He imitated the whites’ language, dress and manners. Unfortunately, his efforts to transform himself were not recognised by the white men. He was still perceived as a dark skin Indian who was inferior to the white men. Vic tor was so disappointed for not getting what he had striven so hard to achieve. He had abandoned his culture and religion to adapt himself to the white community but he received nothing in return.He was oppressed and discriminated by the white men due to his dark skin. Finally, Victor lost himself and indulged in sins as well as crimes. At the end of the story, Victor’s wish to have his skin colour changed was realised when he fell into a tank of formic acid. But, ironically he had lost his life. The sense of inferiority in Victor had urged him to transform himself to be like his superiors. Unfortunately, he lost himself and his own identity in the movement of transforming. It is not worth to sacrifice our own self and identity to achieve something that will never belongs to us.\r\n'