An inescapable ignorance dominates the way we define "culture". It is all too easy to define culture when a group of people feel as though they are part of the same culture. A bias arises when defining this term, because we consider ourselves to be "cultured". We define culture with our own definitions, and we judge it through our own prejudiced eyes. To accurately define culture, we must take ourselves out of the cultural boundaries we have been accustomed to. Of course, this is impossible. Accordingly, defining the essence of culture is something I cannot attempt to do.
In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the attempt to define the cultural line leads to the corruption, greed, and evil of the white man. Even when knowledge would seem to counteract lines of hatred, the enlightenment only provides a striking reminder of the inescapable darkness that can still reside in the hearts of man. Throughout the novel, the white man is plagued by his comprised definition of culture. In the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad sheds light on how ignorance destroys the balance between nature and culture.
To the white man, the natives of Africa are animals. Raymond Williams claims that "things and creatures can carry an assumption of something common to all of them...the bare fact of their existence"(Williams Nature 220), yet the English don't even acknowledge mere human equality with the Africans. To the natives of Africa, the white men are gods. Neither 'culture' accurately places the other in the correct context. Each group is defined by preconceptions that quickly creates an obvious boundary. In the novel, the white man is recognized as those who work, and those who do not. Those who do not work, become prisoners ...
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Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” Norton Anthology of British Literature. 7th Edition. Vol. B. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et. al. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Gould, Stephen Jay. "The Mismeasure of Man" W. W. Norton & Company; 1996. Web. 7 June 2015.
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Walker, Alice. "Am I Blue?" Seventy-five Readings: An Anthology. Ed. Santi Buscemi. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001. 301-305. Web. 2 June 2015.
http://faculty.wiu.edu/D-Banash/eng195/WalkerOrwell.pdf
Williams, Raymond. "Nature." New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1976. 219-224. Web. 11 June 2015.
http://en3326pastoral.blogspot.com/2011/10/raymond-williams-nature-from-keywords_25.html
Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. W.W. Norton & Company. New York, London. 1981.
Illegal drug trade in Colombia is the practice of producing and distributing narcotics domestically and around the world. As of 2012, Colombia was the world leading cocaine producer in the world (Neuman, 2012). Cocaine, marijuana and heroin along with other illegal drugs have become a big part of Colombians lifestyle and a major source of income for many people. Since the establishment of the War on Drugs in the late 20th century, European countries and United States have provided billions of dollars, logistics and military aid to the Colombia government to combat the illegal drug trade (Lilley, 2006). As of 1999, Plan Colombia has been one of the biggest movements towards Colombia’s biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The movement was implemented as Colombia supplies 80% of cocaine to American citizens (Vellinga, 2000). The US Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that Colombia’s annual profit ranges between $5-7 billion from drugs smuggled into the United States.
Narcoterrorism has a long past in the history of Colombia, focusing mainly on the market development of one drug: cocaine. Colombia, with its arid tropical climate and lush land, is an ideal place for the sowing and reaping of the coca plant whose extracts are synthesized into the powder cocaine drug. As Colombian cocaine production skyrocketed in the 1970’s and 1980’s thanks to booming demand for the product in Americas, drug kingpins in Colombia began to wield immense power in the country. ...
In Heart of Darkness, cultural identity and the dominance of the European, white male is constructed and asserted through the constructions of the "other", that is the African natives and females, largely through language and setting. Thus, while claims of Conrad's forwardness in producing a text that critiques colonialism may be valid, Heart of Darkness is ultimately a product of it's time and therefore confirms the contextual notions of difference.
Guy Philippe was not selling cocaine directly, but as the police chief he was charged with the security of the country. He sold his integrity and shirked his responsibilities for millions of dollars. Money he used to purchase houses in Florida, Dominican Republic and Haiti. According to our sources (one of his co-conspirators), and contrary to what the US prosecutor in Miami said, Philippe pocketed more than 10 million dollars in bribes between 1999 and 2005. Saint Surin whose assets were seized by the US government is estimated to have made nearly 50 million dollars
Bausch, Richard, and R. V. Cassill. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 126-86. Print.
The crack and cocaine epidemic of the United States has shaped America’s basis on the war against drugs. In the early 1980s, the majority of cocaine began to be shipped to the United States, landing in Miami originally coming through the Bahamas and Dominican Republic (UDOJ)”. The foreign origin from the drug made it easier for dealer to quietly return to the United States with the drug and also its receipt. “Soon there was a huge amount of cocaine powder in these islands, which caused the price to drop by as much as 80 percent (UDJ)”. Thus making it more assessable for shipment to America.
has risen an estimated 260%. Coca production in Colombia has more than tripled, making Colombia
The key influence of the coca market comes from the Andean countries of South America: Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. These countries are responsible for almost exclusively cultivating the coca plant, but Colombia is the main processing nation of the plant into cocaine, at nearly 70 percent (Stares, 2).
In Jeanette Schmidt’s article, Transporting Cocaine states, “Colombian cartels would pay the Mexican groups as much as $1,000/kilo to smuggle cocaine into the United States” (Schmidt, 2). The Colombian cartels would then pick up the drugs and resume distribution and sales efforts, making personal profits that are unrecorded. In order to seize these individuals who are growing in power and numbers, the U.S. must control the connections between Mexico and Columbia. Mexico is the biggest transporter amongst Columbia and the U.S. because it shares a border with the U.S. This increasingly poisonous drug trafficking leads to drug dealers...
This Universal Human Condition is a very broad topic which can be analyzed from many perspectives. The human condition composes the essentials of human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict, and mortality. In the Heart of Darkness, “darkness” displays the inability to see any description of the human condition and its has profound implications. The racism in the Heart of Darkness is the result of the failure to see others. Failing to see another human being, failing to understand different religions, philosophy, history, art, literature, sociology, psychology, and biology, means failing to understand that individual and failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with him or her. Joseph Conrad illustrates
Rios, V. (2008). Evaluating the economic impact of Mexico’s drug trafficking industry. Retrieved from Harvard University, Department of Government website: http://www.gov.harvard.edu/files/Rios2008_MexicanDrugMarket.pdf
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a great example of a Modernist novel because of its general obscurity. The language is thick and opaque. The novel is littered with words such as: inconceivable, inscrutable, gloom. Rather than defining characters in black and white terms, like good and bad, they entire novel is in different shades of gray. The unfolding of events takes the reader between many a foggy bank; the action in the book and not just the language echoes tones of gray.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton Critical, 1988.
The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, displays the power of humans and nature. Joseph Conrad says, “ My task is by the power of the written word before all, to make you see.” His words display, the contradiction of humanity and their actions through the manipulation of the light and dark forces. The heart of darkness is ambiguity between humans, their malcontent with themselves, and how they bend to natures will.