Clarel vs. Dear White People
Though separated by over a century, Herman Melville’s poem Clarel and Justin Simien’s movie Dear White People prove to have similar underlying themes. Melville’s poem follows an American man named Clarel who finds himself in a crisis of faith. To resolve his own doubts and confusion, Clarel travels to the holy land in search of answers. While reading the poem, I found Clarel’s journey to be more about finding his own identity, rather than uncovering the meaning of life and death. Not only did he seem to be experiencing a crisis of faith but a crisis of identity as well. What you believe in can define who you are. Without a way of understanding the world around him, how can Clarel establish who he is as a man?
The four main protagonists of Simien’s film Dear White People are also experiencing a crisis of identity as they navigate their way through a predominantly white university. As Simien said during the discussion portion of the presentation, this film is about identity. It’s about four very different people who are forced to define themselves at a school that imposes very strict boundaries for what it means to be black or white. One character in particular, Samantha White, desperately clings to her ideals of black culture and assumptions of white delusions. Her beliefs prove to define who she is and chooses to be, even if they may not match her skin tone. Melville’s holy land is Simien’s university as both authors set the scene for their characters to make their own decisions and discover their own identities.