Storytelling as Artifice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Storytelling as Artifice - Essay Example Whereas art is an umbrella definition for any creative or innovative work, artifice is a sub set of art that employs some trick to impart some sense into the conscience of people who happens to be the target group for a given literary work. The work of art is like a social mirror to the society but it needs to be blended with some concepts that brings people closer to it and this is what constitute the role of artifice.Yunior, in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, repeatedly calls attention to the artifice which is one of the often assumed literary concept but very useful. This literary work was written to point out some of the social injustices meted on the inhabitants of Caribbean Islands which was predominantly slaves of African descent. Spain happens to have been one of the European nations that took control of Dominican Island and it is intriguing to find out how they practised racial discrimination and adopted a discriminative strategy of planting their culture and weeding o ut their perceived worthless social order among their colonies. One of the literary tools depicting artifice in this work is allegory of violence. The colonial countries and Spain in the context of this work was a true reflection of violence. They engaged the slaves in Dominican Republic in hard labour under inhuman conditions characterized by lack of basic needs like food, clothing and healthcare provision. Taking control of another person is not a peaceful process and this explain why even the Spanish applied cruelty to stamp their authority like any other colonial authority to oppress the blacks in Dominica Republic. The world violence is almost synonymous to the Spanish colonial era and reminds the citizens and other literary audience of the dark past which its effects is still being felt to this date. The â€Å"plantations machine† is a common word used within the novel to illustrate the depth of inhuman treatment the slaves were subjected to. It also symbolises the fast diffusing power of the social restructuring that the Spanish community imposed in Caribbean Island. Symbolism plays a central role in exhibiting the heights of artifice in forcing the meaning of the literary work to the audience. The history of Caribbean is referred to as a culture of† gap† due to the in fills of the colonizers cultures within the culture of the inhabitants of Dominican Republic. It sends the racial apartheid that was set to wipe to reduce the influence and perpetuation of the slaves’ culture or completely wipe out their social structure and realign it to their own. By using the word erase, the author simply states that the western cultures was forcefully replacing the colony socio-cultural framework and rendering them confused in Spanish cultures that ranged from language to way of doing things (Rennison, 36-8). It is relatively simpler for any person reading to grasp the concept of eraser from the word go and this explains the suitability of th is literary tactic. The author I also stressing the use of refined language to convey meaning as this forms the basis of communication. Even if one look at the quote â€Å"gap†, it is quite clear before an individual go deep into the book to understand that there exists some spaces which are either created or existed before. It is worth noting these words are bound to stick in the mind of an