Friendship Among Different Cultures - Essay Sample

Introduction

In a passage to India, the encounter between Aziz and Cyril Fielding shows how racial and cultural differences can end friendship among people of different cultures. As much as Aziz and Fielding try to resolve the difference between them, they can still not become friends; the only thing they managed to do is to acknowledge their difference. Aziz's prejudice prevents him from resolving their difference with Fielding, who is portrayed as an open-minded person.

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Attempts to Unite

When the Englishman Cyril Fielding attempts to unite with Aziz, the Indian protagonist, this tactic did not succeed “Cyril followed him through the mud, apologizing, laughing a little, wanting to argue and reconstruct, pointing out with irrefragable logic that he had married, not Heaslop’s betrothed, but Heaslop’s sister.”(A passage in India, 5). Aziz's response to Fielding that reconciling is not important, considering that he has already made many mistakes. It appears that Aziz's attitude is confined by the socio-political structure of the subcontinent of the time, and Aziz is unable to free himself as Fielding. He makes a reader more disappointed when a reader learns that he got his education in England but still acts like an illustrate native. Fielding failed to recognize his friend's weakness and utilize a more welcoming approach. Besides, from a political point of view, the Cyril method failed because he lacked empathy with Aziz's colonization.

Aziz lacks liberal and open-minded features, which Fielding has; Aziz represents a typical member of the Indian community. On the other side, Fielding's approach to Aziz shows great personality humanistic and rational qualities,'' can we be friends'' (A passage to India, p.79).

According to Twidle, the relationship between Fielding and Aziz is a typical representation of misunderstanding between Western and Eastern cultures (27). With the difference in terms of the two's worldview, the two could reconcile no way unless they use a wise approach.

Friendly Approach

In his poem "The White Man's Burden," Rudyard Kipling suggests a friendly approach the British should assume to create reconciliation between the East and West cultures. According to the poem, Kipling suggests that only the white man can resolve the existing cultural differences by sending the best men to India. He talks of the unwelcoming nature of the uncivilized men. Kipling specifically describes them in the first stanza as the uncivilized newly- caught individual is angry, wild, and both childish and devilish (line 8). In this poem, he articulates with authority, and he advises the young nation of the United States. The approach is suggesting is based on the promotion of imperialism and colonialism. Kipling believes that only an imperialist with good qualities and elevates himself above other ethnicities and races can help overcome differences between different cultures. The qualities of imperialists, including Kipling, are' patient, a person who can hold back his pride, articulate simple and frank worlds, and gain profit by others(fourth Stanza). Besides, he warns the men who will be sent to avoid prioritize their goal, falling into slothing if not so, their hope to create a better world will dissolve.

Conclusion

Such an approach is the best since native people, such as Aziz’s community members are hostile people, and they need to be handled with extra precaution as they are being brought into the light. Majority of the native people usually ungrateful to any effort to help them become civilized.

Works Cited

Forster, E.M. (1924). A Passage to India. London: Penguin.

Kipling, Rudyard. "The white man’s burden." (2017).

Twidle, Hedley. "Nothing extraordinary: EM Forster and the English limit." English in Africa 40.2 (2013): 25-45.