The "Other" Culture

Throughout history, settlers have arrived in new lands and claimed them as their own despite the fact that they may already be inhabited. Most often, in the western world, these settlers have been of European descent. To the Europeans, any native people were considered lesser people. They were savages who needed to be taught western manners, religion, and lifestyle. Anyone defying the European ideals would be “othered” and considered less than human. In Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing, she exposes the negative aspects of colonization through the othering of the native people and Eurocentric ideology.

In this novel, the natives were othered. Othering is considering people who are different as lesser. This can clearly be seen in Dick and Mary’s household. Dick and Mary are barely surviving. They are not well-respected by other whites, they have little money, and they do little to try and fit in with white society. Despite this, they still consider themselves better than the natives and servants. Mary, in the beginning, even goes so far as to wonder why anyone would attach any emotions to a native. “She was filled with wonder and even repulsion. She could not understand any white person feeling anything personal about a native” (Lessing 68). To Mary, they were less than human, undeserving of sentimentality, emotion, or attachment.

Another way in which the natives are othered is in the lack of names and personification given to the native characters. All of the natives are referred to as natives, boy, or nigger. Few of them have names. Even fewer still are given defining characteristics. To Mary, the women were, “alien and primitive creatures with ugly desires she could not bear to think about” (Lessing 104). The men were “filthy savages” (Lessing 123). By describing them with such negative adjectives, it is obvious that the white settlers thought poorly of the natives.
Most of the othering is developed through the ideas of Euro centrism, the use of European culture as the standard to which all other cultures are negatively contrasted (Tyson 366). If the whites were clean, then the natives were dirty. If they were civilized, then the natives were savages. A clear example of this is Mary’s opinion of the native women compared to herself or other white women:

"She could not bear to see them sitting there on the grass, their legs tucked under them in that traditional timeless pose, as peaceful and uncaring as if it did not matter whether the store was opened, or whether it remained shut all day and they would have to return tomorrow. Above all, she hated the way they suckled their babies, with their breasts hanging down for everyone to see; their was something in their calm satisfied maternity that made her blood boil…And since so many white women are like her, turning with relief to the bottle, she was in good company, and did not think of herself, but rather of these black women, as strange" (Lessing 104).

To the white, the very naturalness of the native people was unnatural. Mary saw the earthy mothers with their exposed breasts and disgusting and dirty. She rationalizes her opinion by comparing it to what other white women do. White woman would not expose their breasts. Many wouldn’t breast feed at all. This view, that the white women were correct in their modest and restrained behavior, is an example of Euro centrism.

Through Mary again, we see how the native people are othered. When Moses asks for water in his native language, she is angered. “Don’t talk that gibberish to me,” (Lessing 133). Yet, when he repeats his request in English, she is enraged even further. “This man was shrugging and smiling and turning his eyes up to heaven as if protesting that she had forbidden him to speak his own language, and then hers—so what was he to speak? That lazy insolence stung her into an inarticulate rage,” (Lessing 133). Mary’s anger at the situation is completely irrational. To her, the native language is just “gibberish,” not worthy of speaking or understanding. Furthermore, English is her language and the natives are not good enough to use it. It is this irrational and arrogant behavior that strengthens the rift between colonized and colonizer.

After Mary strikes Moses, her reaction makes it clear that her attitude about the native people is a product of the colonial society, not just her bitterness alone. She immediately wonders if Moses will report her actions to the police. This is upsetting to her, not because she fears persecution, but simply because the natives have the right to go to the police. She knows the police will side with her. “She had behind her the police, the courts, the jails; he, nothing but patience. Yet she was maddened by the thought that he had even the right to appeal;” (Lessing 135).

All of this, the othering, the domination, the Euro centrism, comes from a colonist fear of the native people. Basing their right to be there on Eurocentric ideas is the only defense the colonists have. In truth, they know that they are the outsiders. They are the foreigners—the ones who are different. Yet, firmly held Eurocentric ideology tells them that they are different but better. Their ways are the right ways and they must teach the native heathens.

This is where the othering and domination comes from. The native must be taught that he is wrong. If he is left to his own intelligence and strength, he might realize the injustice of what is going on in his land. Worse yet, he might realize that the physical strength, in numbers and in body, is with his people, not the colonists. So he is othered. He is made less than human and then he is not a danger or threat to them.

Lessing, who grew up in South Africa would be familiar with the colonialist culture. Despite the fact that she tries to show the harm in a Eurocentric ideology, she still cannot help but live under its shadow. In the novel, she obviously sympathizes with the slaves. Yet they are still portrayed as subservient, thieves, murderers, and vengeful creatures. The black police are mechanical, and ride bicycles, while the civilian white man has much more authority. The black women are portrayed as silly, sensual creatures, not given to deep thought or emotion. Moses, who is given the most distinguishing characteristics of all the blacks is the worst. He is a murderer, bent on revenge. She succeeded in turning him from an other into a demonic other. Now instead of not human, he is fully human, capable of thought and feeling, but evil.

Eurocentric ideology was the only defense the colonialist had. They came to a foreign land, with a foreign people, and immediately felt themselves superior. When one native showed that he possessed the same emotions, same intelligence, and same heart, as them, they entire ideology crumbled—and with it Dick and Mary’s lives.