“The article purports itself to uncover “the inner workings of Arab behavior,” which from our point of view is “aberrant” but for Arabs is “normal” ( Said 48).
Throughout the article Said uses multiple people trying to explain how the Western world is above Egypt because of how they act and govern themselves. He explains how ‘knowledge is power’, and since the only European knowledge of The Orient is that the Arabs are dumb, dirty, cant follow directions, etc: England wants to take over and colonize Egypt because they feel it would benefit them. The point of having different cultures is experiencing the differences between them. Since England doesn’t understand these changes, they think that the Arabs are less than and unworthy, even going so far as to say that they are “incapable of drawing the most obvious conclusions” (Cromer 38) and more insults against them. Said spends his time in the article to combat these views, explaining how Egypt actually has a longstanding history of self-government that has succeeded throughout the years, and how their justification for taking over is not enough.
Claim: Throughout the article there is a big contrast between the Oriental image and Europeans, where the European view is more civil and noble and this in addition to the importance of their ‘knowledge’ of the Middle East gives Europe the justification to colonize Egypt.
“And authority here means for “us” to deny autonomy to “it”- the Oriental country- since we know it and it exists, in a sense, as we know it. (Said 32)
