HEGEMONY AND MANIPULATIVE RHETORIC TO KEEP ‘THE OTHER’ SUBMISSIVE IN “AMERICAN BORN CHINESE”

Abstract

It is impossible to find cultural boundaries on a map because they are not synonymous with geographical boundaries. However, they are to be found in how society or a community conducts its affairs within and outside its confines. Communities have had various cultural boundaries that seek to distinguish them from the rest (Gina, 2017). But culture itself is a social construct, which is in many cases deliberated by the aristocrats and the bourgeoisies to keep the ‘have-nots’ suppressed. When the monkey king from the novel American Born Chinese wanted to learn and progress, he was not allowed to. This paper employs Marxist criticism to understand why and how this is done, a problem that is highly debated and argued over in the society – the problem being the societal construct itself. The paper also employs the theory of Ideological state apparatus, which is primarily the use of social institutions like government, religion, culture and such as a means to keep ‘the other’ inferior.