Everybody wants to be Greek -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 07:12:37 01/28/08 Mon
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Everybody wants to be Greek

In chapter two of "The Scapegoat," Girard writes, "The barbaros is not the person who speaks a different language but the person who mixes the only truly significant distinctions, those of the Greek language" (22). He seems to be saying that members of a particular culture disrespect foreigners, not because they are different, but because they are not different in the same way. Despising foreigners in this way seems to be the only way to maintain the necessary difference which Girard says sustains culture. This reminded me of a line from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," where the father says "There are only two kinds of people - Greeks and everybody else who wishes they was Greek." Even in a foreign country, this father must maintain his differences from his neighbors in order to keep his culture alive as a different thing.

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