Post-colonialism and Shakepeare's The Tempest

There is evidence in The Tempest that suggests that Caliban is indeed a representation of Native peoples. In Act 1 Scene 2 when Caliban says “This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first Thou strok’st me, and made much of me.” He is claiming that he had been born on the island and been there first, yet he was made into a servant.  The article on post-colonialism claims that the native people’s cultures are oppressed by the dominant Anglo-Saxon’s. The article asks the question, “What happens, however, when one’s ideas, thinking or personal background does not conform? What happens, for example, when the dominant culture consists of white, Anglo-Saxon men and you are a black woman?” In The Tempest, I believe that Caliban represents the oppressed native minority, who is dominated by the incoming conquerors’ culture and literature. Caliban is portrayed in Act 2 Scene 2 negatively when Trinculo says, “What have we here? A man or a fish? Dead or alive? Were I in England now, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver,” referring to Caliban. This shows how those of Native origin are looked down upon and dominated by the superior “white man.” In Act 3 Scene 2, Caliban once again is shown to portray the Native who is wronged when he claims, “As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, A sorcerer, that by his cunning hath Cheated me of the island.” I believe that Shakespeare portrays Caliban in a negative light because he wants to show what the Natives have gone through. Many mentions of Caliban’s mother’s island being “stolen” from him can be compared to the claims that the white man stole the Native Americans’ land. By allowing Caliban’s point of view to be shown and expressed lividly, Shakespeare is arguing against colonization and the oppression of Native people’s ideas and culture.