Criticism
According to author, professor, and director of the cinema department at San Francisco State University, Daniel Leonard Bernardi in his book, Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future: ""The Paradise Syndrome" stereotypes Native-Americans as noble savages and whites as "normal" and even divineMiramanee cannot figure out how to pull Kirk's shirt off, as she cannot find any lacing. She is portrayed as simpleminded, not that bright. This is not the case with Kirk. Moments before, he has fashioned a lamp from an old piece of pottery and saved a boy by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Despite his amnesia, he is shown as naturally superiorWhen the Indians realize that Kirk is not a god, they stone both him and Miramanee (it's the Indians who are violent in this version of the noble savage stereotype). Spock and McCoy eventually intervene, but only Kirk survives. In this take on a standard white/red miscegenation narrative, the native girl dies so that Kirk, the white male hero, isn't shown unheroically and immorally leaving her and their unborn baby behind."
Read more about this topic: The Paradise Syndrome
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