No offense to Reinard! But that was one of the funniest lines of the entire play (it’s not directly quoted, but it was what I could scribble down while he babbled on). Not that I wasn’t laughing the entire time anyway. Who knew Jesse Eisenberg could be so funny! I didn’t. I loved the entire thing, from beginning to end and thoroughly enjoyed it though I thought I wouldn’t.
Back to the quote! The reason it caught my eye (or ear, rather) was because it showed the complete clashing of cultures as well as a bit of ignorance on the part of others who feel the need to categorize everything even if the categories don’t quite fit. This particular line combines different cultures of the world as well as our connotations of where each one comes from with such ignorance that it’s funny. It is to some extent a little true, but this mixture of cultures is in most every country. We tend to forget that cultural diffusion is a large part of the world and that we greet and interact with it all the time.
Was this play effective? Well, it was effective in entertaining me, that’s for sure. I could also see the point Eisenberg was trying to make. We have a lot of preconceived notions of who people are based on where they are from. Sometimes it occurs when it comes to what people look like. I am Egyptian but I may “look” something else. Where are people basing this “look” from? On a majority? Well, let me tell you, Egyptians range from the whitest of whites (my cousin) to full on black (my uncle), so skin color should not be a deciding factor. Edgar’s mistake in the play was not that he judged Asuncíon by her color, but by her origin. He believes he knows all about her because he visited Cambodia, once, by accident. Cambodia and the Philippines are approximately 1,000 miles apart, that’s why the joke was so funny: not just because they’re entirely different countries, but because there’s an entire sea between them, so it shouldn’t be confusing. He thinks that because there are so many stories about immigrants coming to America because of the sex trade, Asuncíon must immediately be a part of that group.
This innocent youth, blinded by the stereotypes and prejudices of the world, wanting to be politically correct and helpful in all ways possible, doesn’t know the first thing about any of these things. Edgar does not know how to serve without being overbearing, he does not know how to separate fact from opinion, and when he tries so hard to treat people well, he cannot help but offend, as he did to poor Asuncíon. His goal in writing this story or article was because he genuinely wanted to help her. He wanted the same success others got when they wrote about these types of things and be able to help others relate to her enough to get help. In the process of these supposed good intentions, he ends of offending Asuncíon, angering his brother, and frustrating his roommate.
This play as a whole brought to the surface a lot of the prejudice we can have as a people who don’t live in a country where there is unison in ethnicity. It definitely brought out the ignorance some people can have and showed how people can be completely convinced with their opinion that they completely miss the truth, sometimes even ignoring the truth.
None taken 🙂