In this essay I will discuss the relevance of socio-cultural context in the novel; I will discuss various topics, such as: slavery, colonialism (politics) and the author’s nationality. I have chosen these three main topics because they are the most relevant and debated ones,, especially slavery (it was argued if the text was racist).
Firstly, I will talk about slavery because of the way Joseph Conrad describes the African slaves (the black people), for example: “Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner, his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre of a pestilence. He lapped out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his shins in front of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his breastbone.", but especially because of how amazed he is (like a little kid when he goes to the zoo for the first time) when he describes them. It has been said that the novel dehumanizes black people, and so it is racist. From my point of view, I don’t find the novel racist, and I don’t consider those elements as racists. It is true that I hesitated in the beginning but after discussing it with my teacher I concluded that, it is not a racist text at all, I even like the novel more than at the beginning because of how fairly he described everything at that time.
I think that we should consider the time in which this novel was written, and that by that time slaves were not even regarded as nicely as Marlow did. Since the beginning of the novel Marlow is des...
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...hat his mentality and his points of view are going to differ from the English people in general, and this is why he was able to write such a good and sophisticated novel. As a polish, he also felt himself different from the rest and he didn’t let the propaganda brainwash him.
Overall, I think that when talking about human nature, colonialism, and slavery in such a subtle way, he was able to hide a huge critique to society and especially to the country in which he was living in a simple and brilliant adventure novel. He achieved his objective so well that not only people still study his works now a day, and even raises debates, but captured problems which are still present in the modern society (such as racism, people won’t accept it, but many of them still regard different people as weird and as a, must avoid people, which as Conrad did, I find intolerable.
The novel showed a pivotal point prior to the Civil War and how these issues ultimately led to the fueling of quarrel between Americans. While such institutions of slavery no longer exist in the United States, the message resonates with the struggles many groups ostracized today who continue to face prejudice from those in higher
middle of paper ... ... Although Nat’s expectations were not met, the rebellion injected some sense of slavery and more need for freeing the slaves. In conclusion, this book shows us that slavery is against mankind and all people are equal concerned with the race. Racism has become wide-ranging in many of the countries, mostly in northern Europe and Russia.
This book is also one of the first non-fiction books that I’ve had to write a reaction about. I thought it was going to be difficult to write about a non-fiction book, especially this one, as most non-fiction books are more stories and character development and not cut-and-dry fact. Although this was a non-fiction account, the personal accounts Bales used (such as that of Ronald in Mato Grasso [Bales 127]) did have characters with personal stories, which made it much easier to both relate to the book as a reader and write about the book as a student. These small stories also gave me, as a student, more substance to write about then just numbers and statistics. Overall, Bales did an astounding job mixing those two separate entities, the statistics and the personal, to forge a lasting account of a fairly unknown problem in today’s world. Bales is desperately trying to enlighten the world about slavery, and with this novel, he is well on his way.
Racism is a relative term. While many people argue that Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, contains the theme of racism, they tend to ignore the fact that this novel was written around the turn of the century. During this time period it was accepted practice to think of a black man as savage because that was how the popular culture viewed the African American race. If someone called a black man "savage" today, that someone would be considered a racist. Of course, this turn of the century view of blacks is inexcusable but it was the accepted norm of the time. The problem is that modern critics tend to apply modern thinking to all novels, including those written in a specific time period with beliefs different from today. These critics do not incorporate the context of the novel and simply rage forward with a directed, ignorant viewpoint, arguing from a more civilized stance. The definition of a racist has changed a great deal since the early 1900s, and we must consider this when analyzing any piece of literature. The problem arises when modern thinkers assume that we must continue to build on our ever-expanding knowledge instead of looking into the past and trying to relate to the accepted views of the time.
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano” is a captivating story in which Equiano, the author, reflects on his life from becoming a slave to a freeman during the 19th century. Through his experiences and writing, Equiano paints a vivid picture of the atrocities and cruelties of European slavery. Ultimately through his narrative, Equiano intends to persuade his audience, the British government, to abolish the Atlantic slave trade as well as alert them of the harsh treatment of slaves. He successfully accomplishes his goal by subtly making arguments through the use of character, action, and setting.
"I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,' [Conrad] began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would most like to hear" (Conrad, 9). Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's best-known work, has been examined on many bases more than I can possibly list here, but including imperialism, colonialism, and racism. I would reason that all bases of analysis are perfectly acceptable through which to critique Conrad's novella, or any piece of writing. I would reason this, were some of these bases mainly, racism not taken to an extreme level. In arguing racism, many critics seem to take Heart of Darkness as Conrad's unwavering view on Africa, Africans, life, or whatever else one may please to take it as. I, therefore, propose that Heart of Darkness be taken for what it truly is: a work of fiction set in late 19th century Europe and Africa.
In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...
Marlow observes many kinds of abuse of power by other whites, simply because they have better weapons of war. When the manager severely battered a young black boy for the burnt shed Marlow disapproves. However, when he sees abuses and unjust treatment he does not physically try to stop it. Instead, he just turns away and accepts that it is happening. That is one of Marlow's flaws, he does not support his convictions.
The Heart of Darkness, a complex text was written by Joseph Conrad around the 19th century, when Europeans were colonizing Africa for wealth and power and were attempting to spread their culture and religion in Africa. It was also a period in which women were not allowed to participate in worldly affairs. Therefore, the text deals with issues such as racism, European imperialism, and misogyny. This essay will look at the different themes in the novel and argue whether or not The Heart of Darkness is a work of art.
Many authors argue that Conrad was racist throughout his writing of the book, which came out through his main character Marlow and the way that he presented himself. A large racial contrast in the book was between the white people like Marlow and the black slaves of Africa. This opposition is shown through the white “pilgrims” and the black “cannibals.” Marlow describes a pilgrim in the story as a rough and disorderly man who is a: “bloodthirsty little gingery beggar”(67). Whereas he describes a cannibal as a quiet man who has control and is essentially the opposite of how pilgrims are described. This interesting because cannibals are usually known as humans that eat other human beings, so having pilgrims described as “bloodthirsty” shows an ironic contradiction. The connotations associated with these terms are ironic because during this time period, white men were usually described as having control over black people and black people could be described as beggars. Yet, Conrad chooses to give the opposite connotations to the pilgrims and cannibals in his story.
Heart of Darkness describes a voyage to Africa, common for the British still, despite the horrific treatment which was apparent of colonization. The chaotic, stream-of-consciousness style Conrad took on helped to display the confusion, and made the reader have to interpret for themselves what they thought the writer meant. Conrad experiments with this style, leaving some sentences without ending: "not a sentimental pretense but an idea;…something you can set up…and offer a sacrifice to…." (Conrad, Longman p. 2195), a very choppy form of literature and causes the reader to fill in the holes and interpret themselves, alone. Conrad skips about from talking of the "two women knitted black wool feverishly" at the gate of the city (of hell), to his aunt which he feels women are "out of touch with truth," to how the British are as "weak-eyed devil(s) of a rapacious and pitiless folly" (Conrad, Longman pp. 2198, 2199, & 2202). Conrad's mind moves about as ours do along a large duration of literary monologue to convey to the reader the author's ideas, as interpreted by the reader.
He first states Conrad as “one of the great stylists of modern fiction.” [pg.1] He praises Conrad’s talents in writing but believes Conrad’s obvious racism has not been addressed. He later describes in more detail that Conrad’s “methods amount to no more than a steady, ponderous, fake-ritualistic repetition of two antithetical sentences.” Allow me to elaborate by stating some of Achebe’s arguments and critiques. Achebe first points to Conrad’s “adjective insistence upon inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery.”
Anyone can read Heart Of Darkness and easily sense the attitude of Conrad toward English politics. Many times throughout Heart Of Darkness Conrad points out the pointlessness and savagery of English colonization. Conrad also comments a bit on society as a whole. With these two ideas added to the book, there is no wonder of why Heart of Darkness is such a touching novel.
This can be shown through the way that Marlow describes some of the Africans he comes across on his journey though the Belgian Congo. The following line shows how Marlow described one of the Africans, “Their headman, a young, broad-chested, severely draped in dark-blue fringed cloths, with a fierce nostril and his hair all done up artfully in oily ringlets, stood near me” (Conrad 330). Some feel this shows how Conrad is racist because he writes such an in-depth description of how the African looks different than someone he is used to seeing. It can be thought that Conrad thinks the way he looks is weird, but in truth he writes this description because he does not yet fully understand the African culture, not many people of his time did understand it yet. Conrad and Marlow understand the concept of them both being man and having the same physical and mental abilities, but they are just still trying to figure out how they live, dress, act and many other things. All Conrad wanted to do was help the lives of the
Our world has been plagued by racism before biblical times. Two of the most inhumane outgrowths of racism are detribalization and slavery. During the nineteenth-century European Imperialism, racism led to many acts of inhumanity by Europeans, particularly in Africa. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness presents us with a fictional account of these inhumane acts in Africa illustrating that racism and its outgrowths are the most cruel examples of man's inhumanity to man.