Examples Of Othering In The New World

Othering in “The New World”
The discrimination of various people and groups that are perceived as different from one’s own community or heritage has been ongoing for as long as recorded history and almost certainly long before. Whether it is because of differing factors such as race, religion, interest or perhaps even solely based on one’s geographical location, humans always seem to find a reason to mistreat, alienate, and other those that are different from them. A particular scene in the 2005 film, “The New World,” in which John Smith is captured by the Native Americans seems to portray this unfortunate struggle of human nature perfectly. Not only does director and writer, Terrance Mallick, perfectly emulate othering in a very raw form with the Native American’s treatment of Smith, he perhaps subconsciously others the Native American culture as a whole by his animalistic portrayal of the people.
He keeps his head on swivel as he takes each step with caution. He knows that a group of Native Americans, or “savages” as he describes them, inhabit this foreign swampland. The “savages” differ greatly from any one he has ever seen or come into contact with across the Atlantic Ocean in his highly cultured home country, England. The Natives have differing skin tones, languages, religions, and also lack the sophistication of a European upbringing. These vast dissimilarities frighten John, causing him to be extremely paranoid as he treads through the