Hybridity and Mimicry in Alex Haley’s Roots
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Date
2025
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Publisher
UMT, Lahore
Abstract
This research study aims to explore the concept of hybridity and mimicry in the characters,
which is the result of colonialism in Alex Haley’s Roots. It highlights how different characters
throughout the novel face the horrors of slavery and colonialism and how that horror haunts them
throughout their lives. It also hunts down the ways through which the slaves save themselves from
the brutalities of the colonizers. The theoretical framework applied while conducting this research
is Homi K. Bhabha’s Post Colonial theory of Hybridity and Mimicry. Homi K. Bhabha’s work is
influenced by the ideas of Frantz Fanon and Jacquez Derrida, which talks about colonial
psychology and identity. Through their ideas Homi K. Bhabha developed the idea of hybridity and
mimicry. The method used in conducting this research is qualitative research method and the data
has been collected by in-depth reading of the text and by analyzing different related articles. This
research is going to unfold the cruel and dark history of slaves in America through the characters
of Kunta Kinte, Kizzy, Chicken George, Tom Lea, and their ultimate struggle to find freedom. It
shows that how African people were uprooted from their homeland, and how it affects their whole
generation. This research study is also going to uncover the ways through which the slaves showed
their resistance against slavery