Non-European Cultures In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign Of Four

In The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle writes about non-European cultures with a negative connotation that is discriminatory towards cultures that are not of European decent. These views are dominantly expressed through either the character Sherlock Holmes or the character Jonathan Small. Jonathan Small’s description and treatment of Tonga, his companion, are the perfect example of how non-Europeans are viewed and treated during the time period in which this novel was written. Small also talks about his interactions with the Sikhs in this story and essentially blames his own wrongdoings on the influences of the Sikhs. Sherlock Holmes however, believes that judging a person by the way they look is wrong but contradicts his own beliefs because he judges people by the colour of their skin and the way they look, showing that Doyle also possesses these biases. In The Sign of Four, Arthur …show more content…
In The Sign of Four, Doyle attempts to convey the Sikhs as evil because they convinced Jonathan Small, an white man, to murder a man for his riches. Doyle writes as though Small would never have thought about committing a crime like this, but the Sikhs would because Doyle perceives them as murderers and thieves. When Jonathan Small describes the Sikh characters, he says “They preferred to stand together, and jabber all night in their queer Sikh lingo” (Doyle, 100-101). Small alienates the way the Sikhs talk because the author views this culture as abnormal and displays his views through the thoughts of this character. In this story, Doyle portrays the Sikhs simply as money hungry people that cannot be trusted because they will take advantage of white people if they get the chance. This generalized assumption about the Sikh culture show that there is a subtle racism within the story that is common to European people and their views on non-European people and