Comedy and Misunderstanding

            In Hau'ofa's Kisses in the Nederends, misunderstanding of humor and comedy, allows the reader to see the distinct differences between the Western culture and the Pacific Islander culture, the characters' character, and the satirical undertones. Hau'ofa's humor is meant to make the reader laugh out loud; he uses puns, satire, and conversational humor. However funny the novel may be, however, the satire is meant to evoke more serious undertones about inequality and corruption. The comedy, although apparent on every page of the novel, is not Hau'ofa's main point; he uses wit and satire in order to attack humanity and society's problems and faults. He does this by disregarding the social injustices as a joke throughout the novel. 
       The novel begins with a humorous action scene in which Oilei is relieving himself (in a pig-like manner) and his dog pees on his foot. This reflects how animal-like and disgusting Oilei is from the beginning.From this moment on the reader knows that this novel will be humorous. Yes, their exists puns such as calling Oilei a prostate or a pig, which is funny because he has a medical problem with his prostate and he actually acts like a pig. When Oilei is meeting with the Christian Reverend, Masu Lasu, he tells him to "take your arse out of my house, and don't bring it back here again. Oh shit!"(which was one of my favorite lines in the entire novel). Oilei and the Reverend don't see eye to eye and therefore they can't understand each other fully, especially each other's humor. One obvious difference between them is that the Reverend speaks as a reverend would, in a very respectful way while Oilei curses regularly. The difference between Western ideas and Pacific traditions and ideas is shown here.
      It is obviously hysterical that Oilei can't stop farting but that is not what is truly important (though entertaining) in this novel. Through his journey we sees the outrageous society and the many problems of corruption and social justice that exist in his community. 

The Effectiveness of Satire

Sometimes the best way to understand something you are unfamiliar to you  is through comedy. If someone is able to relay information by using satire and are comfortable enough to do so then it makes the readers feel just as comfortable. Hau’ofa’s Nederlands introduces a Pacific island culture by using satire in a particularly unique way. The focus on the anus and bodily functions kind of takes a less serious look on the culture shift which the Polynesian characters experienced throughout the novel. Interestingly the language is familiar to non-Polynesian readers which is also important in the understanding of the culture.

Although hilarious that Oilei’s farting is out of control it is important that Hau’ofa still addresses how important Oilei is to the community. Through the satire you begin to understand the tension within the village and how the community collaborates. Compared to other books we have read so far this one is definitely less serious but still manages to teach us about the culture in a rather successful way. Comedy is attractive and often people can learn from it, from this novel you learn the dynamics in the village and how individuals are affected by the changes within their community. 

Cultural Transition and Discrepancies

Epeli Hau'ofa's Kisses in the Nederends contains themes that parallel those of similar post-colonial works. Potiki and Kisses both utilize the Maori tribes of New Zealand to depict the inevitability of cultural alteration as a direct result of colonialism. Virtually every novel discussed thus far conveys themes of cultural transition facilitated through the actions of characters based on historical colonial figures. Their influence on the various native cultures is always dynamic in nature and frequently prompts an alteration of cultural values and practices. Although the Maoris discussed in both works demonstrate the changing influence of white colonial characters, their inherent cultural values remain vastly different. This is most clearly exemplified through the Maori's conceptualization of nature. Maori culture and religion holds nature in high esteem and reverence. The tribal characters redundantly describe their sense of connectedness to nature. They regard death as not malicious and worthy of fear, but rather as just another step in life's sacred process. Numerous discrepancies exist between the white and Maori outlooks respectively. Potiki's white characters are referred to as "Dollarmen"due to the lack of reverence they demonstrate towards nature and their desire to exploit the land as a means of generating profits. The correlation most evident between these two works is the Maori's reverence towards nature. Unlike other aspects of native culture relinquished to colonial figures, their relationship with nature is too profound to be altered by colonial influence.

Logic (or Lack Thereof) in Kisses in the Nederends

                In Kisses in the Nederends, Epeli Hau’ofa depicts the bizarre mechanisms of human behavior and logic in a comedic light through his cast of eccentric characters. One example of the twisted logic Hau’ofa presents the reader is Oilei’s preference of dottores over the hospital because he detests the idea of nurses looking at his anus, but he allows dottores of all kinds to examine him, and they spread word of his affliction as surely as any nurse would. Eventually, Oilei’s problem is common knowledge across the country, but he still refuses to seek medical attention at a hospital. The dottores themselves entertain similarly flawed logic – they all come up with completely unfounded explanations for Oilei’s ailment. Marama explains her theory of “lecturer fart,” Losana claims that a wayward demon causes the distress, and Seru concocts the extremely convoluted notion of warring tuktuks wreaking havoc on the body (11, 34, 86). None of these theories are founded in science or sense, but the dottores express them with such certainty that Oilei readily accepts them. By following the advice of these dottores and favoring their traditional treatments over professional assistance, Oilei renders the necessary surgery completely impossible. Oilei is too easily convinced by others, regardless of how poorly formulated their arguments are. For instance, Babu’s simple proposal that all parts of the body are equal quickly dissolves into madness as he suggests that by kissing each other’s anuses, world leaders will achieve “eternal peace” (104). Babu persuades Oilei to accept this notion by “kissing his ass,” which raises the point that those with questionable logic convince others of their causes by ingratiating themselves with them. Throughout the novel, characters make ridiculous mistakes and poor decisions based entirely on ill-conceived rationale, and blindly follow others without considering matters for themselves. This is evident even in the tourists which populate the background of the story – they gladly pay money to experience Amini’s turtle shell con, and deceive themselves into thinking it successful (51). The entire novel is a testament to people’s naivety, particularly concerning matters of which they know very little.

Colonialism as a Projection of Culture and Values

Epeli Hau'ofa's Kisses in the Nederends continues a trend of readings that we have examined this semester in which colonization results in the diminishment of native culture for the benefit of the colonizing power. After reading this book, I struggled to grasp the various concepts of home and culture that were being presented in the novel, and I decided to resort to my own outside research. While “Seru saw the human body as a world in itself,” my outside research continually pointed to the fact that Hau’ofa is doing the opposite and likening the world to a human body (Hau’ofa 86).  In this analogy, the Pacific Islands are equated to Oieli’s aching backside—a place from which great pain is being generated, but an area that few people like to talk about. Thus, the novel satirically examines how colonizing powers seek to fix problems in the colonized world by Westernizing the area further. This is seen in a literal sense early in the story, as at the first International Conference on the Promotion of Understanding and Co-operation Between Modern and Traditional Sciences of Medicine, it is announced that there would be the “imminent opening of the International School of Traditional Medicine…where established and rising dottores will go to study for periods up to two years to bring them up to date and to broaden their fields of competence” (30).  In response to the problems that the Pacific Islands face, colonial nations feel that it is best for their doctors to be reeducated and modernized. This strategy diverts the focus of traditional “witch-doctors” away from custom and instead, indoctrinates them with Western techniques that are assumed by Western powers to be superior to traditional practices. This same idea is seen allegorically in the obvious, when Oieli finally undergoes an anus transplant and receives the backside of a white woman. His body’s rejection of the transplant is symbolic of the fact that the projection of Western values upon colonized nations may not always be the best solution to the problems that they face, as these solutions may not always be compatible with existing (traditional) cultures and ways of life. This idea is visible in Patricia Grace’s Potiki. When the “Dollarmen” arrive seeking to purchase the Maori’s land, they are shocked that they cannot be persuaded with promises of jobs or conveniently located apartments. While these solutions may have persuaded other Westerners, the Maori do not share these same materialistic values, and thus have no need for the things that they are offered. These two novels, as well as others that we have examined so far this semester, underscore the sanctity of individual cultures, and how it is impossible to utilize a one-size-fits-all approach to solving problems within different societies.

Wednt book analysis

Tyler Szabo

Dr. Ellis

Post-Colonial Lit

10/14/15

Sex as Interpersonal/Social Transcendence and as Power

            Sex is at the forefront of Sons for the Return Home in many different forms.  These forms are not only unique to the cultures presented in the novel, both New Zealander and Samoan, but also to the individuals.  How each group views sex not only reflects the views of the group/individual, but it also reflects their goals and hopes for the future. 

            The New Zealanders view cross ethnic sex in two primary ways, as purity and as domination.  Sex, as a means of procreation, is seemingly looked down upon by the population when it comes to cross ethnic sex.  This seems assumed from the beginning of the book, but we don’t get our first real taste of it until the girlfriend brings the main character to the pakeha party.  After dancing for a bit they return to their drinks and a pakeha male asks the narrator’s girlfriend to dance.  She says no and when he inquires why, only to learn that she was dating a Samoan, he is disappointed with her and disgusted with him.  Though this is simply the view of one, it seems to be the belief of the majority.  The other major belief about sex is that of subjugation, in this case subjugating Samoan men with pakeha women.  This is evident very early on while our narrator is in high school.  His first time was after a dance and a pakeha female had sex with him, only to gloat to her friends the next day and dehumanize him as a prize she won.  This is also seen after the narrator has his first mini “break up” with his soon to be girlfriend, before he decides to commit to her.  While on the bus a pakeha woman brushes up against him and he follows her to her apartment where she gives him a strip tease, before having sex with him, and jests that he loves pakeha women and would be more than happy to fuck her.  Though this is an act of validation for the pakeha woman, it is validation through having power over the narrator, even if it was just pity sex for him.  I believe these two beliefs about cross ethnic sex are very much intertwined, as there is power directly derived from having this dominating form of sex, but also an indirect power by saying that even though you are worth having sex with, having a cross ethnic baby is out of the picture, thus dehumanizing the Samoans.  Samoans actually have similar beliefs, but for some different reasoning.

            The Samoans in New Zealand have cross ethnic sex primarily as a defense and as a form of validation.  The defensive side of cross ethnic sex derives from the dominating idealisms of the pakeha.  The narrator, after being dominated by his first pakeha woman and dehumanized, decides to preemptively have sex with the other pakeha women that ogle him in order to gain the upper hand and ignore them, thus dehumanizing them and not the other way around.  This is also reflected in the idea of not becoming connected with other individuals in any way, especially in love, as the narrator talks about after being questioned as to why he didn’t help the injured man who was thrown out of a car.  The other belief in cross ethnic sex is doing it as a form of validation, which I also find as a reaction to pakeha sex beliefs.  The narrator, while at Oriental Bay, recalls talking to his brother about his conquest over a sun tanning pakeha woman by gloating that he had a permanent sun tan all the way to the tip.  By pakeha women lusting over the men because they have Samoan features, it makes them proud of their Samoan heritage, when in actuality the women are most likely having sex with them as a conquest and couldn’t care less about them.  These may be the majority, but there is a young minority that has a more positive light of sex.

            Though still products of their environment, there is a young minority, as expressed through the main couple, that sees and uses sex as a way of transcending ethnic boundaries created by society.  By having sex with others because of a physical attraction or because you love the other individual, it negates the importance of ethnicity for these young individuals.  This is not to say that the main couple is color blind, far from it.  They not only see ethnicity, but they seek to understand each other through both physical oneness and through communication.  This is in contrast to the majority, which seeks to use the opposing ethnicity through sex instead of using it as a common language for communication.  This is best stated after the narrator’s girlfriend grabs his cock and saying, “It’s gentle and understanding; it talks very fluently and it can overcome all racial barriers. Or any other barrier that needs overcoming” (65).  This statement, and as an extension the cross ethnic views sex according to each group, shows us the different views of the future and how the future may turn out. 

            It is obvious that the old blood of society, The New Zealanders and Samoans, do not seek to progress society in a mutual fashion, they either want to progress it in their favor or keep to their own entirely.  The new generation, not all of them but a significant minority, is where a hope for a better tomorrow lies, which comes through their sexual openness.  Frivolity in and of itself is not an automatic pathway to mutual progress, but sexual desire as seen through our main character’s relationship, is.  To choose to become one with someone with a time without the worries and opinions of the world allows a one on one connection between the two people with a common “language” that transcends every barrier.  It is in this erotic faith in one another that we may achieve a oneness with each other and progress mutually instead of selfishly. 

Racism, Assimilation, & Immigration

I think it's very interesting that Wendt writes about a cross-cultural, interracial relationship in his work, Sons for the Return Home. I liked to think of the relationship between the Samoan boy and the Papalagi girl as a metaphor of the struggles that post colonial countries and European colonizing countries would face if they came to enter a loving relationship with one another. As we can see from the romantic relationship in the book, there are a lot of issues that would have to be worked out in order for them to sustain their relationship. This is both within and outside their relationship, their different cultural backgrounds threaten their bond. The Samoan boy has a lot of hatred and contempt in his heart for all white people, and he has his reasons, he reminds his parents, "have you forgotten all the humiliations we've had to suffer since we've been here? Have you forgotten how they treated my brother? He only spent a year at that school and he wanted to leave. they called him a 'dirty coconut Islander', and when he beat up the kids who called him that, the Principal [...] called him in front of the whole school and called him 'a brainless Islander who should be deported back to the Islands. Have you forgotten that?" (Wendt Kindle location 199). The Samoan boy has never forgotten the violence done to him, his family, and his people in New Zealand. He intends to hold all white people responsible for the hurt done to him and other Samoans. Until he falls in love with a white girl, perhaps, in his mind, one of the most treacherous things he could do. In many ways, he reminds me of Okonkwo's extreme cultural loyalty; the Samoan boy will not assimilate. As the story develops, and certainly after his return home, he balances his view of white people, when he becomes more aware of himself and the reality that he isn't just Samoan. He is a the result of two worlds in contact with one another.

I think that this reading of the novel pairs well with Wendt's, Nuana, which I did read before reading his novel, and to be frank, read like the complete opposite. However, it seems like the Samoan boy does come to see things as Wendt does by the end of the novel, perhaps not as profoundly though. Wendt's radical position that colonization has reared some good in addition to its negative, is centered around his refusal "to support the outmoded and racist theories, such as the fatal impact theory, which underpin most colonial literature about us. According to these theories and views, we, the indigenous, have been hapless victims and losers in the process of cultural contact and interaction; our cultures have been ‘diluted’ and ‘corrupted’; we have even ‘lost’ them. All cultures are becoming, changing in order to survive, absorbing foreign influences, continuing, growing" (Wendt 3). I hear what Wendt is communicating, and I feel that I can relate to it well.
As a first generation African American, many times both black and white American will assume things about where me and my family come from that are simply untrue, and often times, absurdly insulting. And yet, the thing that gets to me the most is this idea that Africa is some poor place in need of saving. I don't like to think of my homeland or my culture as some lost land or pathetic loser. For this reason, I found myself relating very well to the Samoan boy who took pride in his homeland and his culture. I also felt that Wendt really was taping onto something that all people in the diaspora can relate to, this idea that one's culture is becoming diluted. I think my one qualm with Wendt is I still don't know where, or if he even believes that this concern is a legitimate one. It is a fact that we have lost languages, cultures, and even ethnic groups in the world, and I kind of felt as if he wasn't bing sensitive enough to that reality.

I can't help but think of a conversation I had with a French woman where we were talking about school systems, and I explained to her that although my maternal and grandfather spoke fluent Susu, the languages of their respective homelands, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Krio, Temne, and even some religious Arabic. They were forced to learn both English and French if they wanted to advance themselves in their own native homelands because that was the only way to advance. They had to have some way of communicating and keeping up with the foreign powers still at work in their 'Independent" countries. Forced assimilation of a culture isn't the same thing as a culture organically growing.