“[Postcolonialist Criticism] is distinguished … by its subject: the examination of postcolonial writings that explore the way in which the colonizers imposed their culture and values on native peoples and thus distorted or suppressed their past.” – (R. Abcarian, 1135)
I read this quote late last night; some reflection today then brought me ask, “Hey… Is Luffy a postcolonialist?”
Now, sure, Luffy is certainly a postcolonialist in the chronological sense, since One Piece was created after colonial times (although real time might hold different implications for fictive works). Yet, I felt the need to know if Luffy (and maybe the whole series) would fit in some postcolonialist narrative, or, the less tasteful choice, not. If a central tenet for postcolonialism is studying the relationship and implications between the oppressor and the oppressed, I feel there might be strong correlation between Japan, where the created of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, is from, and its meaning as related to Luffy (and maybe other cultural objects for discourse too). As many may remember, or at least have some prior knowledge about, Japan is the only country in human history that has had a massive nuclear weapon be sent to explore on its territory (two places). The effects of them were terrible; if you don’t know, please google it. Not strongly arguably, the Japanese people who’s lives rotated closed to that particular event know what it’s like to have someone “power” themselves (in one way or another, here meaning the deployment of a nuclear bomb) over you. Arguably, that bomb could be said to have effected the Japanese people’s lives in some ways similar to how colonialism in other areas around the world in their times may have affected the lives of those involved.
Interestingly, in following the principle of binary value in deconstructive theory, when I conjure the subjects of postcolonialism, I think of “the oppressed/the oppressor” in that order. This is an interesting case where the “more powerful” part of the binary is the one to the right of the slash, and not the first one.
Some of the commentators online have challenged that Luffy is a weak leader, specifically for not being serious enough in his ship and being to child-like, goofy. So, like, in their minds, if they had a hypothetical binary structure to propose for leader and non-leader relationships, they would have “leader/other”. Because, to them, Luffy is not a leader, their binary representation for luffy as related to leadership might then look like this, “Leader/Luffy.” Now, if we suppose that leader is the person who is serious, calls shots, and takes order on the ship (as they suggest this is what a leader might be), BUT if we use the postcolonial binary I think of that I mentioned earlier, the binary structure might look like this “Luffy/the oppressor.” Perhaps this can bring to light the idea that the person that claims or imposes more power over others’ will is not necessarily the most powerful in the relationship (although this might be a latent realization), and, thus, they might not actually be a leader in the sense that the people who don’t oppress others are. Japan has risen again to economic (electronic technology) and cultural prominence (cultural artifacts like One Piece) after the nuclear bomb attacks, could this be because of a beneficial turn from being ones who oppressed back in the days of the Axis powers, to being the ones who been oppressed (perhaps still are?) and risen as “postcolonial” leader? Considering the above quote and much about Luffy and Japan have lead me from my first question mentioned after the quote to this one here….
Source:
Abcarian R., Marvin Klotz. Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2007. Text. 1135.