There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The argument, when reduced to its simplest form, was dear, it was precise, it was easy to grasp. The most important thing about the theory during the first decade of the twentieth century was that it worked, and worked staggeringly well. It is this division by the west that would later be used to justify the reasons for colonizing the east. On one hand was the refined class that the Europeans belonged to and on the other was the backward class that included those from the east. To the Orientals, the world was divided into two. This chapter explains how the study of the east grew and how the occidentals began to view the Orientals as hopeless and lazy people. Similarly, the Hindus and the Arabs are still regarded as primitive (Malek 53). For example, majority of the people believe that Islam is a backward religion full of terrorists and cruel people.

Today, the remnants of these misconceived notions are still in existence. The image of the Orientals was totally distorted and as a result, they suffered hitherto from discrimination. This prejudice was so widespread to a point that every report and research done on the Orientals was based on the misconceived notions. The colonial masters would form generalized beliefs on the character of the eastern people and would use this to depict a bad imagine of them in the wider west and the world at large.

However, a critical problem arose when the masters started generalizing the traits of the Orientals. They claimed that it was their responsibility to bring civilization to the primitive (Macfie 106). It was from this reasoning that the Europeans would later justify their reasons for colonizing the east. It was simply the European asserting their authority in the world.Įverything positive was associated with the Occidents and all the negatives would therefore be for the Orientals (Malek 51).

This however, was not a genuine division of humanity the division was based neither on facts nor on idealism. In his arguments, Edward Said claims that the Europeans categorized the world into two divisions the Occidents and the Orientals, in other words, they were referring to a world of the civilized and the primitive (Said 4). Eventually, they would establish a faculty of Orientalism, which focused on studying the eastern culture (Said 3). In one way or the other, the Europeans found the eastern culture and civilization appealing and exotic. He further argues that when the west started colonizing the eastern countries, they found themselves mingling with people from less developed countries. In his own words, Edward claims that, “the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience” (2).

Edward Said begins his book Orientalism by recognizing the fact that Orientalism played an enormous role in defining what the culture of Europe would become.

Orientalism edward said online