Morataya 1

Nancy Morataya

Professor Batty

English 102

October 18, 2017

Revolutionary Power in the Heart

When I was growing up I was thin, unpretty, and awkward girl. I quickly grew up

thinking, I needed certain characteristics to be beautiful looking, acting, and behaving a certain

way. Wearing clothes that was revealing or putting makeup to look older. To fit in and be

accepted, I did things out of character. When reading David Henry Hwangs play M. Butterfly, I

can relate how doing things out of character and being accepted has an appeal to Rene

Gallimard. M. Butterfly has a post-colonial theory on West versus East, the story is told by a

French Diplomat Rene Gallimard, who falls in love with the fantasy of a perfect woman Song

Liling. To learn later in the story Song is a man and spy working for the Chinese government to

gain information for the Communist party during the Vietnam war. While most people would

believe M. Butterfly to be a political struggle between the West and East culture, I believe the

traditions are being called into question by traditional power dominance, cultural stereotypes,

and relationship standards.

With the power dominance post-colonial theory speaks to the stereotypes between the

West and East culture, how westerners are the superior race. The East is considered weak and

obedient because of how cultural imperialism has taught the West to be all knowing and

powerful. Subjecting the orient to the ways of the west and making assumptions of their

culture from how the women are submissive and the men are weak. Hwang writes in the plays

Afterword, good natives serve Whites, bad natives rebel -is consistent with the mentality
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colonialism. Because they are submissive and obedient (99), the power and dominance is what

the West expects from the East. Leaving no room for freedom of thought or individualization.

When I read into the characters of M. Butterfly there is a power dominance each character

searches. Gallimard stands out because he is a representation of the West as a French Diplomat,

he can give his opinions and views on the East from his perspective. Gallimard says, The

Orientals simply want to be associated with whoever shows the most strength and power.

Orientals will always submit to a greater force (45-46), stating clearly his superiority to Eastern

culture because of what he believes and learned. Gallimard is influence by his peers and

expectations as a man. He quickly believes this power is the definition of being a true man and

how the Western culture works.

An example of power dominance, In Myths of the East, Myths of the West, Jerry R.

Dicker reinforces how Hwangs M. Butterfly describes the power stereotype depictions of the

West and East. Explaining how the West has given a description of the East by suppressing the

Asian-Americans history with demeaning Asian stereotypes. Going into much more detail on

gender specifics the Asian male will be a helpless, asexual, broken-English, loyal but docile

servant (Dicker), and the Asian female being more a sexual slave a perfect companion for the

Western male who, perhaps subconsciously at least, desires a pre-feminist ideal of womanhood,

someone less independent and less assertive (Dicker). This relates to how Song is viewed and

projected throughout the play as a fragile and delicate butterfly. Gallimards views of the women

of the West are more independent and intellectual without modesty. When he talks to Song she

gives him what he has never had a beautiful woman at his disposal. Gallimard shows his power

dominance over Song the same way the West shows power dominance over the East proving
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cultural stereotypes. This culture stereotype is what M. Butterfly is demonstrating the opposite

by showing the East can have dominance and overcome traditional stereotypes.

The cultural stereotype and power dominance intertwined together because when the

assumption that Asians are the weaker race, then the westerners will show their superiority and

dominance. Because this is the expectation, when Song meets Gallimard he expresses how

heartfelt and beautiful her interpretation of Madame Butterfly was. Song doesnt have the same

views as Gallimard because she understands the implications Madame Butterfly has on her and

the Eastern culture.

Song: Its one of your fantasies, isnt it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel

white man. ... Consider it this way: what would you say if a blonde homecoming queen

fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, Then, when she

learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now, I believe you would consider this girl to

be a deranged idiot, correct? (17).

This exact stereotype is one of the many fantasies created in the Westerners mind, the Asian

culture can be at the disposal of white man, but a westerner woman wouldnt think twice to be

with an easterner man. Even more outrageous the thought of a woman waiting around for a man

who has moved on and for death to be the only honorable acceptance.

In M. Butterfly the traditional stereotype is being called into question. When Gallimard is

deceived by Song while being a spy and a man, demonstrating the East has the advantage and

willing take the power back from the West. When Angelo Pao gives an introductory review on

M. Butterfly, Pao describes the stereotypical standards are changed in this play. How the Chinese

man had apparently been able to turn the tables on a gullible French diplomat. Gallimard love
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the fantasy of a woman, giving her shame to a man for love. The standard expectation was

broken and not only the cultural stereotype but the relationship standards.

The relationship standards in M. Butterfly come into question when Song is revealed as a

man acting as a woman. The bigger question becomes did Gallimard know or was he not willing

to accept himself, because the relationship went on for 20 years. Gallimard was praised at the

French Embassy when rumor of his affair spreads and he is even praised. Once the truth comes

out, the French are appalled but even Gallimard is surprised with the revelation. Gallimard says,

You showed me your true self. When all I loved was the lie. A perfect lie, which you let fall to

the ground- and now, its old and soiled (89). He loved the illusion of loving a woman but not

the reality of loving a man. This calls into the question Gallimards relationship standards

because he believes a man and a woman should be together. Not realizing he should put love

before acceptable societal standards.

Gallimard and Songs Sexual Fluidity is changing for both. Song is a man dressed as a

woman and performing sexual pleasures for a man. Gallimard is unaware of Songs gender but

Gallimard had a wife so he knew intimacy with a woman. I believe their gender roles grow as

their relationship grows. The relationship standards are not as they seem and are interchangeable,

Colleen Lye has an insight in M. Butterfly and the Rhetoric of Antiessentialism. Lye examines

the portrayals of gender, Not only do Song and Gallimard switch fates, they also switch

genders, and this gender-crossing, represented in Songs final assumption of an Armani suit and

Gallimards donning of a Japanese kimono. Lye explains how gender fluidity happens between

Gallimard and Song, emphasizing the gender roles switching and West versus East roles

changing. Gallimard becomes what he desires the most but in return he loses his power, identity,
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and partner. Throughout M. Butterfly Gallimard believes to have the control but in truth he has

given his heart and soul to another undeserving.

Undeserving is how the West and the East has let the past dictate the future, instead of

keeping an open mind and learning from each other. Leaving the battle of the power dominance,

letting go of all the cultural stereotypes, and not being ruled by relationship standards. M.

Butterfly gives the mind something to explore and to many possibilities in life. The East and the

West struggle to come together because somebody must dominate. But the roles quickly turn and

are interchangeable at any time. Political struggles will always be part of society, but the

importance is that everybody gets to voice their opinions with no preconceived notions and with

an open mind. By having an open mind and not letting society tell you what to think, who to

love, or how to live. Learning to break cultural imperialism by evolving the mind with

knowledge and creating a new narrative. Letting traditions being called into questions is a sign of

evolution and how tradition dont dictate the future.

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Work Cited

Dickey, Jerry R. "'Myths of the East, Myths of the West': Shattering Racial and Gender

Stereotypes in the Plays of David Henry Hwang." Drama Criticism, edited by Timothy J.

Sisler, vol. 23, Gale, 2004. Literary Sources, Accessed 13 Oct. 2017. Originally

published in Old West-New West: Centennial Essays, edited by Barbara Howard

Meldrum, University of Idaho Press, 1993, pp. 272-280.

Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. Plume,1989. Print.

Lye, Colleen. "M. Butterfly and the Rhetoric of Antiessentialism: Minority Discourse in an

International Frame." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol.

196, Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center, Accessed 13 Oct. 2017. Originally

published in The Ethnic Canon: Histories, Institutions, and Interventions, edited by

David Palumbo-Liu, University of Minnesota Press, 1995, pp. 260-289.

Pao, Angela. "M. Butterfly." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol.

196, Gale, 2005. Literary Sources, Accessed 13 Oct. 2017. Originally published in A

Resource Guide to Asian American Literature, edited by Sau-ling Cynthia Wong and

Stephen H. Sumida, Modern Language Association of America, 2001, pp. 200-208.