The Native Americans are portrayed speaking broken English, having exaggerated of similar features, particularly long noses. The white character, Bobby Smiles, refers to them as “Redskins” (Hergé, 21). The Native Americans are also depicted as lacking intelligence and easily manipulated by Smiles. The Mexican also speaks broken English; we know this because it is written incorrectly, trying to represent his accent. The African men portrayed in the Cigars of the Pharaoh have the complexion of black skin and exaggeratedly large lips. The African men are depicted as monkeys and are worked as slave and shares no conversations with any of the characters in the story. The Japanese in The Blue Lotus are portrayed with small slanted eyes, round glasses and bucked teeth.
Hergé’s representations of the colored characters are stereotypical and demonstrate his lack of understanding of their culture.
I too, as was, I'm assuming, all of the class, put off by the characterizations of race in these comics. With that said, I was a bit heartened (just a little bit) when I discovered, after some diligent wikipedia research, that Hergé initially wished to draw the Native Americans in a more sympathetic light (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tintin_and_the_Red_Indian.jpg). It's rather funny, if disappointing, that the social commentary was more upfront in the black and white iterations of Tintin.
ReplyDelete