This essay will be about a comparative study of the representation of colonialism as a positive or negative force. The texts that are being used are my core text ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad and ‘Collected Poems’ by Rudyard Kipling. The partner text will be ‘Swami and Friends’ by R. K. Narayan.
‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad was written in 1902 at the turn of the century. It is a novella and published in 3 parts in the Blackwood’s Magazine. It is regarded as a significant work of English literature and is part of the Western Cannon. The work was well received by a fairly bewildered Victorian Audience. Joseph Conrad born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was Polish-born. Conrad had become a naturalized British Citizen although he could not speak fluent English until he was in his twenties. Conrad had served in the British marines for over 10 years had travelled to Africa, which meant that he had experience what he was writing about. Conrad was actually sent up the Congo River to an inner station to rescue an agent as did Marlow in ‘Hear of Darkness’. The novella is somewhat representative of Conrad’s own experiences.
‘Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling’. Kipling born on 30 December 1865 and died 18 January 1936 was a British author and poet. Born in Bombay, in British India he is well known for his works of fiction The Jungle Book (1894) and his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), and If (1910). Kipling came to be recognized by George Orwell as a "prophet of British imperialism."(1) Orwell statement show Kipling as a literature Genious. The poems that will be discussed in this essay are from a Selected Poems by Rudyard Kipling are ‘Mandalay’, ‘This is England’, ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘The White Man’s Bur...
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...he title connotes that other races (in all probability Indians) are a ‘burden’ to the ‘white man’ (probably the British), from the title it is distinguishable that there may be a hint of racism. The speaker in the poem refers to the natives as ‘Half-devil and half-child’ this phrase is derogatory to the natives and shows Kipling as being racist. At the time of Kipling writing racism was not uncommon so it may not be a racist attack but the poem could have been misinterpreted in today’s society. The poem is unlikely to be meant as racist but as anti-imperialism as Kipling wrote many anti-racism poems such as ‘Gunga Din’.
Works Cited
(1) http://www.george-orwell.org/Rudyard_Kipling/0.html
(2) http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/narayan-r-k
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man's_Burden
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_of_Africa
Joseph Conrad is the author of the novel, The Heart of Darkness, along with many other profound works. Compared on any scale, Conrad is nowhere near average. Joseph Conrad is a very interesting character who sees the world through wide eyes. By traveling the world and exploring the many walks of life he is able to discuss common global views and habits that include injustices which are explained in his renowned novel, The Heart of Darkness.
Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden” articulates the imperialism of the English empire into India, Cambodia, China, and Africa. The English thought it their duty to go out and take over these barbaric nations to civilize them. They justified their act of westernizing and destroying others’ cultures as the “burden’ they were born to bear. “And when your goal is nearest the end for others sought, watch sloth and heathen folly bring all your hopes to nought.” They blamed the ineffectiveness of their efforts on the native’s laziness. They are the ones whose whole world is being flipped upside down; being submerged in a new culture with new laws and strange people. Yet, somehow they are the lazy ones and despite the trails for the white man at the end of the day it is beneficial to the savages.
Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness Written by Joseph Conrad in the early 20th century, "The Heart of
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness uses character development and character analysis to really tell the story of European colonization. Within Conrad's characters one can find both racist and colonialist views, and it is the opinion, and the interpretation of the reader which decides what Conrad is really trying to say in his work.
Joseph Conrad’s own experiences during his trip through the Congo helped him provide a foundation for the writing of Heart of Darkness. In 1890, Conrad took a job as a captain on the river steamer Kinshasa. Before Conrad took this job, he had worked for the French merchant navy as a way to escape Russian military service and also to escape the emotional troubles that had plagued him. Conrad had been in a financial crisis that was resolved with help from his uncle. After this series of events, Conrad joined the British merchant navy at the beckoning of his uncle and took the job as the captain of a steamboat in the Congo River. An important fact to remember is that Conrad was a young and inexperienced man when he was exposed to the harsh and dangerous life of a sailor. His experiences in the West Indies and especially in the Belgium Congo were eye opening and facilitated his strong outlooks that are reflected in the book Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s journey through the Belgian Congo gave him the experiences and knowledge to write about a place that most Europeans would never see in their lives.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel about a man named Marlow and his journey into the depths of the African Congo. Marlow is in search of a man named Kurtz, an ivory trader. Though Marlow?s physical journey seems rather simple, it takes him further into his own heart and soul than into the Congo. The setting, symbols and characters each contain light and dark images, these images shape the central theme of the novel.
Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 6th ed. vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993. 1759-1817.
The novella Heart of Darkness has, since it's publication in 1899, caused much controversy and invited much criticism. While some have hailed it's author, Joseph Conrad as producing a work ahead of it's time in it's treatment and criticism of colonialist practices in the Congo, others, most notably Chinua Achebe, have criticized it for it's racist and sexist construction of cultural identity. Heart of Darkness can therefore be described as a text of it's time, as the cultural identity of the dominant society, that is, the European male is constructed in opposition to "the other", "the other" in Heart of Darkness being defined as black and/or female. Notions of cultural identity are largely constructed through language and setting and are essential to the reader's understanding of the text.
...ived from England, he was uneasy about many of the central pillars of the British will to power in India, such as the police, government, and missionary church. Kipling is guilty of a middle-class tendency to romanticise private soldiers and racial stereotypes, such as Mulvaney, or the "woild" and "dissolute" Pathan. Yet he should not be dismissed as unworthy of further study, and the common critical tendency that consigns him, along with Edmund Burke, to the dustbin of right-wing writers is intellectually weak, unquestioning and manifestly uncritical
Watts, Cedric. 'Heart of Darkness.' The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad. Ed. J.H. Stape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 45-62.
social status is important because it has powerful ramifications about the colonial power-dynamics within a particular historical milieu. The Hindu caste system and various stereotypes also play an important role in Kipling’s story. For example, every person Kim encounters is immediately identified as either a member of a certain caste, religion, or race. Kipling depicts these stereotypes as...
Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is, as Edward Said says, a story about European "acts of imperial mastery" (1503)-its methods, and the effects it has on human nature-and it is presumable that Conrad incorporates much of his own experience in the Congo and his opinions about imperialism into the story, as another recent critic also suggests: "he seems to approve of Marlow," the narrator (Achebe 1492). These revelations of the author are conveyed to the reader through Marlow's observations, descriptions, reactions, and statements. While "Heart of Darkness" is at times very critical of European imperialism, that criticism for the most part is directed at the false idealistic claims made about the enterprise and the inefficient and savage methods employed by the Belgians; the book does not question imperialism when undertaken competently, particularly by the British.
In a historical context, the two texts differ greatly: Heart of Darkness is Conrad’s autobiographical description of his trip up the river of Congo and his encounter with the atrocities of European rule in Africa.3 Conversely, Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden” was written to welcome the United States of America to the club of imperialistic nations. The event that prompted Kipling to write this poem was the United States’ intervention in the Philippines. Under the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the Philippine sovereignty was transferred from Spain to the United States and thus the United States emerged as an imperialistic nation dedicated to progress. This is the core of the matter – progress. Kipling speaks of ‘a Law’ in his poem “Recessional.” The code of behaviour and the enlightenment that Kipling wished to be aggrandised to all ‘primitive’ nations. In other words: Progress in the means of railroads across continents, telegraph lines over deep seas, commerce beyond boundaries and steam boat lines criss-crossing the earth.
Aschcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, eds. 'The Post-Colonial Studies Reader'. London; Routledge, 1995.
The "Heart of Darkness," written by Joseph Conrad in 1899 as a short story, is about two men who face their own identities as what they consider to be civilized Europeans and the struggle to not to abandon their themselves and their morality once they venture into the "darkness." The use of "darkness" is in the book's title and in throughout the story and takes on a number of meanings that are not easily understood until the story progresses. As you read the story you realize that the meaning of "darkness" is not something that is constant but changes depending on the context it used.