Essay Questions

What does the author mean when using the “container” metaphor?

The author makes an interesting assertion that by itself would make for a perfectly fine use of metaphor: “Each of us is in a container of some kind. The label signals to the world what is presumed to be inside and what is to be done with it. The label tells you which shelf your container supposedly belongs on.” But as insightful and creative as that use of figurative language is, mere utilization is not enough to make the point. The author immediately goes on to clarify that point by insisting that a caste system is able to only able to survive—and continuing to thrive—when those labels are wrongly attributing to the outside world what is really found inside them.

Consider this scenario: you rush to the store in desperate last-minute need of salt for the meal that’s already half-way done cooking. When you get there, however, you discover that there is no salt for sale on the spice shelf. What you don’t realize, however, is that while there seems to be no salt at all, there are, in fact, twenty different containers of salt, but you cannot know this because the containers have all been mislabeled as another spice. This is hardly a perfect representation of the author’s intent for the metaphor until one fits the scenario into the context of the closing line of this particular paragraph: “In a caste system, the label is frequently out of sync with the contents, mistakenly put on the wrong shelf and this hurts people and institutions in ways we may not always know.”

What popular science fiction film does the author use to draw a metaphorical parallel with the concept of a caste system?

The original entry in The Matrix film series has been adopted by author writing about a number of philosophical and political issues. The ideas and concepts raised in the film offer wide open territory for analysis of everything from virtual reality to totalitarian governance to the perception of reality. In this case, the author turns to the film as a metaphor for how silently and efficiently an organized caste system works within a societal framework. The key element from the film drawn upon is the idea—expressed by the character known as the Oracle—that an intelligence has written a program to create even the illusion of a flock of birds landing on the pavement. Something that is considered so benign as to beyond the need for intellectual guidance and repair is the key to a successful caste system. It is a concept that needs to seem as natural and beyond the need for programming as the landing path of birds ending their flight through the air.

What does the author identify as the ultimate target of a dehumanization campaign?

The symptoms of attempts to dehumanize one group of people by another intent on oppressing them can vary widely. In some cases, it manifests itself as being stripped of their names while in other examples the focus begins by stripping them of their dignity. While a name gives one individual identity, the concept of what qualifies as retaining dignity can take many different forms depending upon the person. The purpose of dehumanization is broader intent than attacking the individual; the group as an coherent entity must be deprived of the essence of humanity not as the oppressed views it, necessarily, but as the oppressors identify humanity.

Obviously, the more broadly defined the elements of humanity are—one that crosses equally well across the existence of both oppressed and oppressor—the more effective the system of dehumanization will be if those elements can be successfully removed. The iconic example the author chooses is slave owners taking away from their “property” the right to respond to extreme situations as they themselves would respond under the same circumstances. Thus, enslaved Africans “were punished for the very responses a human being would be expected to have in the circumstances forced upon them. Whatever humanity shone through them was an affront to what the dominant caste kept telling itself. They were punished for being the humans that they could not help but be.”