Racism in The Jewel in the Crown and Heart of Darkness
The effects of British colonialism are reflected in literature from both early modernism and post colonialism. Racial discrimination tainted both eras portrayed in the British morale of white supremacy over non-European counties unfolded. Heart of Darkness exemplifies early modernism in the British explorers viewed African natives of the Congo as incapable of human equality due to perceived uncivilized savagery. Personal interaction between races was little to none, as the freshly conquered Africans were still viewed as alien. Likewise, Jewel in the Crown, exemplifies of post colonialism, echoes racism from the British Rule in India. Postcolonial literature evolved from early modernism as the focus was of the interactions between the British and the people they conquered in modernism. Racism was still prevalent in post colonialism, yet the literature offers a slightly lees subhuman view of the Indians. The characters in both literary works express reactions to " learned prejudice" as white people in
"control of a black man's country" (Jewel of the Crown, P.150). Furthermore, the theme common human bonds between blacks and whites develop as British characters reject racism in " the critique of the traditional values of the culture" (Modern Literature handout, P.4). Through the recognized human bond, the need to bridge the gap between black and white people develops.
The modernism theory of British " awareness of primitiveness and savagery civilization built, and therefore an interest in the non-European peoples" (), was still evident in Post colonialism literature. The British explorer of uncivilzed Africa, Marlow in Heart of Darkness, has...
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...ived in early Modernism and Postcolonial Literature. The British value of learned prejudice produced a fear of dark skin, especially when curious attraction and primitive instinct felt natural to the British. However, as values are questioned, and basic human emotion is shared, human bond become blind to skin color. The theme in both literary pieces reflect Carl Jung's theory that " all humans share a common spiritual/psychic heritage, collective unconsciousness, racial memories"(English 103 handout HofDEaarly Modernism, p., 2).
Works Cited
Agatucci, Cora .Conrad Study Guide
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.
Scott, Paul. The Jewel in the Crown. [1966.] Vol. 1 of the Raj Quartet. Rpt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
McCabe, Michael E. “The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrust as Historical Context for Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”.”
When he arrived at the home the servant who took his hoarse and directed him to the room that Mr. Usher was in greeted him. Inside the house was also very ornate, but it to had also been left alone for to long. The entire house had a gloomy atmosphere that would put a chill down most people’s spines. When he entered the room his friend was staying in he was warmly welcomed. He could not believe the changes that his dear childhood friend had endured.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory. Hawthorne’s moral story is told through the perversion of a religious leader, Goodman Brown. Goodman is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride interfere with his relations with the community after he meets with the devil. The result is that Goodman lives the rest of his life in exile within his own community.
Internal conflict caused by culture is a concept that Edward Hall explores in his book “Beyond Culture”. In this examination of intercultural interactions, Hall argues that people are born into the cultural prison of one’s primary culture. He then goes on to claim that from people can only be free of this prison and experiencing being lost in another (Hall). For Coates, this cultural prison is the permeating fear resulting from the blackness of his body. His internal conflict is therefore created when seeing the world of white, suburban culture. Because this world of pot-roasts and ice cream Sundays seems impossibly distant from the world of fear for his black body, Coates comes to feel the contrast of cultures. He tells his son, “I knew my portion of the American galaxy, where bodies were enslaved by tenacious gravity, was black and that the other, liberated portion was not” (21). As a result of the shocking divide, Coates comprehends the burden of his race. Coates therefore feels “a cosmic injustice, a profound cruelty, which infused an biding, irrepressible desire to unshackle my body and achieve the velocity of escape (21). The quality of life between the culture belonging to Coates’s skin in contrast to the culture of suburban America creates for Coates a sense of otherness between himself and the rest of the world. Disillusioned, Coates avidly pursues answers to this divide. Coates thereby embarks on a quest to satiate this internal conflict of cultures, beginning his journey towards
i. legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and
In the present era of decolonization, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents one of fictions strongest accounts of British imperialism. Conrad’s attitude towards imperialism and race has been the subject of much literary and historical debate. Many literary critics view Conrad as accepting blindly the arrogant attitude of the white male European and condemn Conrad to be a racist and imperialists. The other side vehemently defends Conrad, perceiving the novel to be an attack on imperialism and the colonial experience. Understanding the two viewpoints side by side provides a unique understanding that leads to a commonality that both share; the novel simply presents a criticism of colonialists in Africa. The novel merely portrays a fictional account of British imperialism in the African jungle, where fiction offers maximum entertainment it lacks in focus. The novel is not a critique of European colonialism and imperialism, but rather a presentation of colonialism and the theme of darkness throughout the novel sheds a negative light on the selfishness of humanity and the system that was taking advantage of the native peoples. In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad presents a criticism of British imperial colonization not for the purpose of taking sides, but with aims of bettering the system that was in place during Conrad’s experience in the African Congo. Conrad uses the character of Marlow and his original justification of imperialism so long as it was efficient and unselfish that was later transformed when the reality of colonialism displayed the selfishness of man, to show that colonialism throughout history displaces the needs of the mother country over the colonized peoples and is thus always selfish.
Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of American Literature's legendary and prolific writers, and it is normal to say that his works touched on many aspects of the human psyche and personality. While he was no psychologist, he wrote about things that could evoke the reasons behind every person's character, whether flawed or not. Some would say his works are of the horror genre, succeeding in frightening his audience into trying to finish reading the book in one sitting, but making them think beyond the story and analyze it through imagery. The "Fall of the House of Usher" is one such tale that uses such frightening imagery that one can only sigh in relief that it is just a work of fiction. However, based on the biography of Poe, events that surrounded his life while he was working on his tales were enough to show the emotions he undoubtedly was experiencing during that time.
“Of all the Buddhist groups in America, those focusing on meditation have been most attractive to young people from the drug scene, and it is these groups that have taken the strongest stand against drug use. The psychological literature as well as the literature on Zen abounds in descriptions of the altered states of consciousness experienced under the influence of LSD-25 and other hallucinogenic drugs. Descriptions of these drug-induced states often compare them with the experience of satori or enlightenment which may result from Buddhist meditation. Frequently the opinion is expressed that, under certain circumstances, the LSD experience is a satori experience. ”
(1265) along with other disturbing words to stress the mood of horror. Furthermore, the house evokes suspense as it strikes the reader with curiosity as to why the building presents such a dreadful and uneasy feeling. Poe describes the house with further detail emphasizing its ghostly traits: “Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene” (1267). Poe describes the house using very descriptive and daunting words contributing to the story’s depressive mood as well as its suspense.
In this Award winning novel the 1900 display an astonishing amount of racism, and makes us realize that is is still going on till this very day. “I was just shootin a negro in my collard patch” (pg72Lee). This quote shows us that even maybe the gentlest most kind people are very judgemental and racist. That's the problem even today before even getting to know someone we automatically process the way they look and say to ourself he is black so he will steal something or we will say he has tattoos so we have to hold our belongings a little tighter, and without even knowing, we ourself have become something that we have all feared which is not give everyone a fair chance based on what they look like. Today racism is still very much apart of our culture
Shakespeare’s influence continues even in the world of film, not invented until several hundreds of years after his death in 1616. As well as the inevitable BBC remakes of most of his plays, newer adaptation such as Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (starring Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington) and Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (featuring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio) have met critical acclaim and can be credited with bringing Shakespeare to a new generation not inclined to visiting theatres.
He describes his superstition one night, "I endeavored to believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the phantasmagoric influence of the gloomy furniture of the room…" (1468). Hence, Poe makes use of the house to create a supernatural effect. Likewise, Poe describes the house to create a terrifying effect. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a horror story. In order to develop a mood to get the reader frightened, Poe must portray the setting of the story. The house is described initially by the narrator, who sees the image of the house as a skull or death’s head looming out of the dead. He is not sure what to think and comments of the properties of the old house: "What was it, I paused to think, what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the house of Usher?
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a work that strongly attacks colonialism and its affects not only upon the native population but also upon the colonizers invading the land. Conrad experienced being colonized as a young boy in a Poland under Russian occupation. He also witnessed the affects of colonialism upon a colonizer while he commanded a river steamer in the Dutch Congo. He relays these experiences through the eyes of his character Marlow who is a riverboat captain as well. The attacks upon colonialism come in three classes: directly, ironically, and metaphorically.
When the topic like racism is left untouched in the Heart of Darkness, it indicates that there was never a problem nor the case. However, there is so much room to analyze the racialism that is embedded throughout in the novel: "They are called criminals, and they outraged law, like in the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered. The eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages.” (46). The natives were enslaved and chained yet, Marlow manages to describe then as dangerous savages who are about to rebel. It is impossible to overlook the stereotypes and ruthless language that are used to depict the Congolese people. Hence, by leaving the racism topic away shows how oblivious the critics are to racialism; Therefore, failing to acknowledge the inferiorities that are used to describe black people. In An Image of Africa, Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic, who focus on traditional African values during and after the colonial era, challenged the prestige of The Heart of Darkness: “And the question is whether in the novel which celebrates this
Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, was written in the year 1902, a time of modernist literature. Heart of Darkness talks about the problems with alienation and confusion as much as it does about imperialism. In the early 1900’s, the lifestyle in England veered towards the Victorian values. Conrad’s novella makes a bridge to connect the Victorian values with the ideas of modernism. Thus “it belongs to a period of change.”(Sardar) For example, the natives are following in the footsteps of their predecessors, following a life of tradition, and their ideas of life are constantly being attacked by people like Mr. Kurtz who think they are doing what is best, when in reality they are creating more confusion