From the Monster to the Oppressed: The Odyssey of Caliban Caliban, the original monster and barbarian in The Tempest, has been far removed in both time and interpretations from the original one Shakespeare created four hundred years ago. Having been portrayed in literary criticism as a giant fish, a grotesque monster, an American Indian, an African slave, his incarnation changes from "a savage and a deformed slave" to the "quintessential colonial victim". Especially in ... culture and never fully replaced it with another, this Caliban had a valuable heritage that found expression through Pros...

• Word Count: 2429
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... culture and never fully replaced it with another, this Caliban had a valuable heritage that found expression through Prospero's language. And the focus was shifted from despair over the deprivation of native culture to pride in its tenacity. The universality of the new Caliban metaphor concerned the two late-twentieth-century themes: apartheid in South Africa and French nationalism in Canada. Caliban, as well as Shylock and Othello, became ... Caliban into serving as a trivial, a vice figure, or a bestial monster. Solidly in the earth, he is the symbol of humanity, not simply bestiality...

• Word Count: 2369
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... from history help support Johnson's political commentary, and these themes would carry over once out at sea. One of the main recurring themes in Middle Passage is the harsh and revolting condition of the Republic. The historical ships of the Atlantic slave trade were no different. Many of the ships were termed 'loose packers' or 'tight packers', describing the maximum capacity of the slave ship. The stench of diseased and decaying bodies and unruly Africans thrown overboard ... . Mary Cable tells the story in her book Black Odyssey. The ship sailed from Havana, Cuba on June 28, carrying ...

• Word Count: 1615
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... undergraduate philosophy major at Dartmouth and then a graduate student in Harvard's program in the History of American Civilization, he was interested in how ideas are shown through real human problems in the everyday world. Davis nineteen essays range in time from 1954 to the 1980s. They reflect on an academic odyssey that no one would have cared to predict some thirty-five years ago ... . The essay deals with such difference of subjects that it is hard to get across the commonality. They have an insightful concern with the right aspect of American social identity, especially with viol...

• Word Count: 1915
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate