Otherness

LCT Task 2 Otherness basically means being different. Not different because you want to be, but different because somebody else makes you different. It’s when another group of people who may have some differences than you act as if they are better than you. They are making you an other. You are someone other or not like them and not up to their standards. According to the course of study, otherness results in prejudice, discrimination, inequality, oppression, and genocide. (Pearson, pg 12) Otherness results in a person being outcast or a group of people being outcast because of their differences. The course of study tells us that if you are different but accepted, then you are not an other. You have to be different and not accepted. Your difference can be anything from face, gender, class, societal differences, and a handicap, anything that makes you different and makes someone or a group of people ridicule you or make fun of you or ostracize you because of these differences. (“The Other”, 2009) The story “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona” written by Sherman Alexie includes someone being an other. Otherness is represented in this work by a community of people of the same ethnicity not liking and ignoring someone else because of a behavior they have. By reading this story, I would assume that the author’s perspective on othering is that those you other may be the ones you need one day. The other in this work is Thomas Builds-The-Fire. Thomas is a man that lives on an Indian reservation with other Indians. Thomas is able to see into the future and talk to animals. This is what makes him an other. Thomas tells stories based on his visions and dreams. He tends to repeat the stories over and over. People hate to see him coming because they think he is crazy. Everybody in the community has made him an other and do not talk to him. “Nobody talks to Thomas anymore because he told the same damn stories over and over again” (Alexie, pg3). Victor is a