The Conquest Narrative

The story of Cortes and the conquest of the New World has been retold in literature, as well as in popular film. Bernal Diaz Del Castillo's "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain" tells the story of Cortes, the Spanish Captain General, and his determination to capture the new world for himself. The DreamWorks movie "The Road to El Dorado" tells the story of Miguel and Tulio, two stowaways on ships making their way to the new world under the control of Cortes. While the stories differ in many ways, they also show similarities.

In both versions of the story, the Aztecs and the conquistadors are equally fascinated with each other. Diaz mentions resemblance between the Cortes and the Aztec leader, stating, "On account of this resemblance we in the camp called them 'our Cortes' and 'the other Cortes'" (Diaz 43). Later in his telling of the conquest, he describes the conquistadors entrance into the city of mexico: "Wide as though [the road] was, it was so crowded with people that there was hardly room for them all. Some were going to Mexico and others coming away, besides those who had come out to see us, and we could hardly get through the crowds that were there. For the towers and the cues were full, and they came in canoes from all parts of the lake. No wonder since they had never seen horses or men lie us before! With such wonderful sights to gaze on we did not know what to say, or if this was real that we saw before our eyes.  On the land side, there were great cities, and on the lake many more" (Diaz 45). The conquistadors found themselves fascinated with the Aztec culture, even though they were determined to claim the land for their own.

The Aztec people thought that Cortes was an Aztec god returning to earth (Ashworth). Upon accidentally discovering the city of gold, Miguel and Tulio, the main characters of "The Road to El Dorado" realize that the inhabitants of the city think that they are gods returning to earth. Whether or not Cortes knew of the natives thoughts, I do not know. Miguel and Tulio used the knowledge to their advantage, gaining wealth, power, and respect.

In both versions of the story, the greed for gold and personal gain motivate the conquistadors to adventure to the new world. They also desired to claim the new land for their own. The new world was seen as virgin territory, needing to be claimed by man and tamed. This need to conquer virgin land and territory often translated into sexual terms. The Spanish often discussed the new world in female terms. In political cartoons and other illustrations, the new world was illustrated as a naked native woman, ready to be taken by the conquistadors.

Even in the children's film version of the story, the native woman character Chel is portrayed as a highly sexual woman, using her feminine wiles to coerce Miguel and Tulio into taking her with them back to Spain. She uses her body and her femininity to her advantage, even seducing one of the men, who falls in love with her.

Throughout history, the conquest of land has been connected to the conquest of the body. Both gain power for the conquerer. Both minimize the importance and intelligence of the thing that has been conquered. The new world was seen as savage, wild, untamed, and needing to be claimed by a man, just like a virgin native woman.

Let's Blow This Out of Proportion a Little More, Shall We?

The main quote that struck me from my notes on our discussion on Cotton Mather's On Witchcraft is "anything that we didn't have a scientific explanation for, we blow it out of proportion entirely" (Class Notes 1/5). This has been the reason for the development of all religious thought in human history. Anything that there is no earthly explanation for according to the knowledge of the time, must be explained by supernatural or godly forces. All unexplainable things need a reason. Fear of the unknown motivates the intelligent in the society to create explanations for the things they, and others around them, fear.

Unexplainable positive things in life are attributed to God or a god, while negative things in life are explained by the devil or by a vindictive god. Humanity has problem taking credit or taking the blame for things that happen in life. While the belief that God has a hand in every part of daily life, this belief also provides an excuse not to take responsibility for one's actions and the results of actions. 


I thank Jacqlyn for giving me the idea of thinking of Tudor England. The "sweating sickness" was a violent fever that spread quickly throughout England in the warm weather months. The illness was similar to the plague, malaria, and scarlet fever. No one at the time knew the cause of the illness, why certain people did not contract it, or how to treat or prevent the disease. King Henry VIII, a king unsteady on his throne and without a male heir to leave the kingdom to, was terrified of dying early. He frantically tries any pill, elixer, or potion promised to keep the sickness away from him. He took to running from any city, after being told that the sickness manifested in the slums. Henry even left his lover, Anne Boleyn, after she became ill. While she fought off the illness at the family castle of Hever, he ran far away into the country with Catherine of Aragon, his legal wife and their daughter Mary. This absolute terror at the unknown was fueled by the deadly precision of the disease and Henry's fear of dying with no heir to the throne.

While in Henry VIII's time, disease was unknown and therefore terrifying, medical science today has come a long way, making it easier for us as humans to understand why disease happens and how to prevent it. Now other things are unknown and terrifying. Homosexuality is a hot button issue in today's society, one that particularly affects my life. One of the main arguments from anti-gay people is that gay people either choose to be gay, or are recruiting others to be gay. Instead of being an illness like the sweating sickness, the "gay" is the new unknown disease to be afraid of. Clearly because gay relationships are not able to reproduce, they aren't natural.

In my time being out as a lesbian, I've heard some of the most ridiculous things being cited as causes for homosexuality. From molestation as a child or rape as an adult to watching the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants, anti-gay media will use anything as the scapegoat for why people are gay. The television show Spongebob was almost taken off the air, because Spongebob holds hand with his male best friend Patrick, blows bubbles, and skips while attempting to catch jellyfish, the undersea version of butterflies. Why is it not ok that Spongebob does these things? And how on earth could watching a cartoon sponge skip make a child experience attractions to members of the same sex? It just doesn't make any sense to me. I don't think that any human being would choose to be gay if they had the option. I didn't wake up one day in seventh grade and decide "Hmm.. I think I'm going to like girls. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I really want my classmates to pick on me, refuse to talk to me, and bully me. Sounds like a blast!" No. It just doesn't work that way.


If it did, I think it would look something like this:

There might be some Lady Gaga lightning bolts in there as well. Gotta update for the new generation, don't ya know.

Oh and we also all get toasters if we convert someone. It goes up to a blender when we get to three converted!

Evil...

I'm going to have to borrow Hannah's idea and post Voldemort as my personal idea of evil. He is a pop culture representation of the idea that I truly see as evil. The theme of "For the Greater Good" can be seen not only in the historical accounts of the Salem witch trials, but in the popular culture references of the book series Harry Potter and the television series Bones.

When thinking on the idea of "For the Greater Good," the first thing that pops into my head is Harry Potter. The character of Grindelwald is one not central to the plot, but he is in the background of the entire series, known by the wizarding world for his epic final battle with Dumbledore. During his reign of terror, Grindelwald's motto throughout his reign of terror was "For the Greater Good." He believed that wizards should be brought out of hiding and that muggles should be put in their "proper" place, as slaves to the wizarding race. The deaths of muggles, muggle born witches and wizards, and half blooded witches and wizards would be a necessary extinction for the greater good of the pureblooded witches and wizards ruling the world. The deaths and enslavement of any non-pureblood witches and wizards were seen by Grindelwald as necessary and beneficial to those in power.

During the Salem witch trials, many citizens were burned at the stake simply for being accused of witchcraft. The women already accused attempted to get themselves out of trouble by accusing others in the community. The beginnings of the witch hunts came from the admission of one woman that she saw the devil’s book and saw nine names in the book. The woman could only remember the names of two of the women in the book, but new that there were nine. Logic tells me that the hunt should have been over after nine women had been found and accused of being witches. Yet it did not. The hunt continued as accusations kept coming in. It has been argued that the reasoning behind the witch hunts came from the desire of upper class citizens to protect the community as a whole. The thought that the deaths of many community members would be beneficial to the community is a horrible thought. This would imply that the overall human experience is more important than the life of one individual person.

The popular Fox television show Bones features the adventures and misadventures of Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist for the Jeffersonian and her FBI partner, Seely Booth as they attempt to solve murders. During an early season of the show, the team begins work on a case that makes all of the characters worry about each other. "Gormagon," as the killer is known, is a cannibalistic killer who focuses on members of supposed secret societies. After an explosion in the lab, it is evident that Gormagon's apprentice is a member of the lab itself, shuffling suspicion among the team members. When reviewing evidence, Brennan realizes that the killer is, in fact, her  intern and assistant, the young Zach Addy. He was approached by Gormagon and convinced of his logic. A normally extremely logical person, Zach is convinced by the killer's false logic. He even went as far as to plan a bomb explosion in the lab to allow the Gormagon to steal the silver skeleton, a key piece of evidence in the cases. During a conversation between Brennan and Zach after the explosion, she persuades Zach that his logic is false.

The explosion in the lab was delayed by Zach arguing with his best friend, fellow scientist Jack Hodgins. This delay allowed the explosion to get too large, severely injuring Zach in the process. While in the hospital, it becomes obvious that Zach is the killer. Brennan, confronting Zach, discusses his logic behind the entire affair with Gormagon. Zach's logic is based entirely on the statements that secret societies exist, that the human experience is negatively affected by the existence of secret societies, and that the overall human experience is more important that the life of one individual. When Zach agrees with all of the statements, confirming his logic behind his actions, Brennan mentions the fact that Zach refused to let Hodgins be the one severely injured in the explosion. He saved his best friend instead of letting him be injured, despite his belief that the human experience is more important than the life of one individual.

The idea that the human experience is greater than the life of one individual is an idea that connects with the idea of something being for the greater good. Death and murder are not and cannot be for the greater good. No human life is worth the supposed benefit to the overall human experience.