The Wretched of the Earth

by

Frantz Fanon

The Colonists/Colonialists Character Analysis

The members of a colonial country who take a weaker Third World nation over by force with the intention of exploiting them economically and politically. The colonists are exceedingly violent, and they oppress and neglect the colonized at every turn. They spread racist assumptions about the colonized, and systematically strip them of their nation, their culture, and their dignity.

The Colonists/Colonialists Quotes in The Wretched of the Earth

The The Wretched of the Earth quotes below are all either spoken by The Colonists/Colonialists or refer to The Colonists/Colonialists. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1: On Violence Quotes

Decolonization, therefore, implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation. Its definition can, if we want to describe it accurately, be summed up in the well-known words: “The last shall be first.” Decolonization is verification of this. At a descriptive level, therefore, any decolonization is a success.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

In its bare reality, decolonization reeks of red-hot cannonballs and bloody knives. For the last can be the first only after a murderous and decisive confrontation between the two protagonists. This determination to have the last move up to the front, to have them clamber up (too quickly, say some) the famous echelons of an organized society, can only succeed by resorting to every means, including, of course, violence.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity Quotes

The people who in the early days of the struggle had adopted the primitive Manichaeanism of the colonizer—Black versus White, Arab versus Infidel—realize en route that some blacks can be whiter than the whites, and that the prospect of a national flag or independence does not automatically result in certain segments of the population giving up their privileges and their interests.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: The Trials and Tribulations... Quotes

Since the bourgeoisie has neither the material means nor adequate intellectual resources such as engineers and technicians, it limits its claims to the takeover of businesses and firms previously held by the colonists. The national bourgeoisie replaces the former European settlers as doctors, lawyers, tradesmen, agents, dealers, and shipping agents. For the dignity of the country and to safeguard its own interests, it considers it its duty to occupy all these positions. Henceforth it demands that every major foreign company must operate through them, if it wants to remain in the country or establish trade.

Related Characters: The Colonists/Colonialists, The National Bourgeoisie, The Urban Proletariat
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: On National Culture Quotes

Within the political parties, or rather parallel to them, we find the cultured class of colonized intellectuals. The recognition of a national culture and its right to exist represent their favorite stamping ground. Whereas the politicians integrate their action in the present, the intellectuals place themselves in the context of history. Faced with the colonized intellectual’s debunking of the colonialist theory of a precolonial barbarism, colonialism’s response is mute.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: Mutual Foundations... Quotes

National culture under colonial domination is a culture under interrogation whose destruction is sought systematically. Very quickly it becomes a culture condemned to clandestinity. This notion of clandestinity can immediately be perceived in the reactions of the occupier who interprets this complacent attachment to traditions as a sign of loyalty to the national spirit and a refusal to submit. This persistence of cultural expression condemned by colonial society is already a demonstration of nationhood.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 171-1
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: Colonial War and Mental Disorders Quotes

When colonization remains unchallenged by armed resistance, when the sum of harmful stimulants exceeds a certain threshold, the colonized’s defenses collapse, and many of them end up in psychiatric institutions. In the calm of this period of triumphant colonization, a constant and considerable stream of mental symptoms are direct sequels of this oppression.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: Series A Quotes

Today I can tell just which stage the interrogation has reached by the sound of the screams. The guy who has been punched twice and given a blow behind the ear has a certain way of talking, screaming, and saying that he is innocent. After he has been hanging by his wrists for two hours, his voice changes. After the bathtub, a different voice. And so on. But it’s after the electricity that it becomes unbearable. You’d think he was going to die at any moment.

Related Characters: A (speaker), The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:
Conclusion Quotes

We must abandon our dreams and say farewell to our old beliefs and former friendships. Let us not lose time in useless laments or sickening mimicry. Let us leave this Europe which never stops talking of man yet massacres him at every one of its street corners, at every corner of the world.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 235
Explanation and Analysis:

Let us decide not to imitate Europe and let us tense our muscles and our brains in a new direction. Let us endeavor to invent a man in full, something which Europe has been incapable of achieving.

Two centuries ago, a former European colony took it into its head to catch up with Europe. It has been so successful that the United States of America has become a monster where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Related Symbols: Tense Muscles
Page Number: 236
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Colonists/Colonialists Quotes in The Wretched of the Earth

The The Wretched of the Earth quotes below are all either spoken by The Colonists/Colonialists or refer to The Colonists/Colonialists. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1: On Violence Quotes

Decolonization, therefore, implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation. Its definition can, if we want to describe it accurately, be summed up in the well-known words: “The last shall be first.” Decolonization is verification of this. At a descriptive level, therefore, any decolonization is a success.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

In its bare reality, decolonization reeks of red-hot cannonballs and bloody knives. For the last can be the first only after a murderous and decisive confrontation between the two protagonists. This determination to have the last move up to the front, to have them clamber up (too quickly, say some) the famous echelons of an organized society, can only succeed by resorting to every means, including, of course, violence.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity Quotes

The people who in the early days of the struggle had adopted the primitive Manichaeanism of the colonizer—Black versus White, Arab versus Infidel—realize en route that some blacks can be whiter than the whites, and that the prospect of a national flag or independence does not automatically result in certain segments of the population giving up their privileges and their interests.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: The Trials and Tribulations... Quotes

Since the bourgeoisie has neither the material means nor adequate intellectual resources such as engineers and technicians, it limits its claims to the takeover of businesses and firms previously held by the colonists. The national bourgeoisie replaces the former European settlers as doctors, lawyers, tradesmen, agents, dealers, and shipping agents. For the dignity of the country and to safeguard its own interests, it considers it its duty to occupy all these positions. Henceforth it demands that every major foreign company must operate through them, if it wants to remain in the country or establish trade.

Related Characters: The Colonists/Colonialists, The National Bourgeoisie, The Urban Proletariat
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: On National Culture Quotes

Within the political parties, or rather parallel to them, we find the cultured class of colonized intellectuals. The recognition of a national culture and its right to exist represent their favorite stamping ground. Whereas the politicians integrate their action in the present, the intellectuals place themselves in the context of history. Faced with the colonized intellectual’s debunking of the colonialist theory of a precolonial barbarism, colonialism’s response is mute.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: Mutual Foundations... Quotes

National culture under colonial domination is a culture under interrogation whose destruction is sought systematically. Very quickly it becomes a culture condemned to clandestinity. This notion of clandestinity can immediately be perceived in the reactions of the occupier who interprets this complacent attachment to traditions as a sign of loyalty to the national spirit and a refusal to submit. This persistence of cultural expression condemned by colonial society is already a demonstration of nationhood.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 171-1
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: Colonial War and Mental Disorders Quotes

When colonization remains unchallenged by armed resistance, when the sum of harmful stimulants exceeds a certain threshold, the colonized’s defenses collapse, and many of them end up in psychiatric institutions. In the calm of this period of triumphant colonization, a constant and considerable stream of mental symptoms are direct sequels of this oppression.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: Series A Quotes

Today I can tell just which stage the interrogation has reached by the sound of the screams. The guy who has been punched twice and given a blow behind the ear has a certain way of talking, screaming, and saying that he is innocent. After he has been hanging by his wrists for two hours, his voice changes. After the bathtub, a different voice. And so on. But it’s after the electricity that it becomes unbearable. You’d think he was going to die at any moment.

Related Characters: A (speaker), The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 195
Explanation and Analysis:
Conclusion Quotes

We must abandon our dreams and say farewell to our old beliefs and former friendships. Let us not lose time in useless laments or sickening mimicry. Let us leave this Europe which never stops talking of man yet massacres him at every one of its street corners, at every corner of the world.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 235
Explanation and Analysis:

Let us decide not to imitate Europe and let us tense our muscles and our brains in a new direction. Let us endeavor to invent a man in full, something which Europe has been incapable of achieving.

Two centuries ago, a former European colony took it into its head to catch up with Europe. It has been so successful that the United States of America has become a monster where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Related Symbols: Tense Muscles
Page Number: 236
Explanation and Analysis: