Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel a journey into the core of the African Congo of a man called Marlow. Marlow is in pursuit of an ivory trader named Kurtz. Though Marlow's physical journey seems rather simple, it takes him further into his soul than into the Congo and transformed into a whole different person after the journey. Imagery in literature helps to show the main idea through a picture painted in one's mind. Imagery is very vivid in the this novel and insightful, particularly the jungle imagery.
How does Conrad provide a critique on European colonisation in his novella? Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad regarding the imperialism that occurred in Africa, specifically the Congo area. Conrad uses the protagonist, Marlow to show the truth of the colonisation occurring in Congo. Marlow, a curious sailor who is fascinated by Africa received a job from a European trading company and sets off on a journey to the Congo believing the illusion that Europeans had good intentions of imperialism. As Marlow’s journey progresses, he is slowly exposed to the “colonisation” in action.
In "Roots" by Alex Haley, Kunta is taken from Africa and enslaved in America. In the village of Juffure where Kunta was raised, everything was tribal and community oriented. He was the son of a respected man in his community and had just reached adolescence. His African heritage and moral values clashed with what the Toubab wanted of him therefore giving him the desire to do whatever it took to regain his freedom. Having no prior knowledge of America, the setting has a detrimental impact on Kunta in that it is foreign and exotic.
Paper #4 In Aime Cesaire, A Tempest, the role of Caliban is a monster that is controlled by Prospero who later plots a revolt against him. Through the character of Caliban, Cesaire addresses the acts of British Imperialism in Africa. Throughout the play we see Prospero overpower Caliban with his orders and magic. Caliban is constantly put into an inferior position. One of the key tools to Caliban’s inferior stature is his ability to understand the language of the Europeans’, which Prospero had taught him.
In the novel Of Love and Dust, Jim becomes enveloped in the plantation’s racial tensions with the introduction of Marcus. Marcus, sentenced to serve on the plantation under the guidance of Jim, seeks revenge on the plantations overseer, Bonbon, for treating him so harshly. Controlled by the white community, Marcus must overcome racial deficits to be content with himself. However, Jim must maintain peace on the plantation by restraining Marcus and his destructive habits. In doing so, Jim is tempted to remain quite about the events that take place on the plantation.
The books Heart of Darkness and Blood River both show connotations of physically and emotionally challenging dangers that they are faced with during their journey through Africa. Heart of Darkness is a work of fictions, whereas Blood River is a work of non-fiction that describes Butcher’s journey through the Congo. Blood River’s primary purpose is to entertain however its secondary purpose is to inform and Heart of Darkness’s purpose is to entertain; however shows subtle hints of a secondary purpose of informing. Heart of Darkness presents a war like environment and Conrad employs a lower register in comparison to the rest of the text, to convey the fact that the narrator is in a dangerous situation; this is seen in the use of the minor exclamatory, ‘Arrows, by Jove!’ and the simple sentence ‘We were being shot at!’. This shows that the narrator is in shock and there for his use of language is less considered than in other parts of the narrative where a higher register has been employed.
He also makes loose references throughout the text that go unexplained. The plight he tells about is intended to leave readers pondering the magnitude of loss in identity, culture, and number of people when being brought over from Africa in stream-of-consciousness. These and other elements help to make this work a modernistic piece. The narrator describes the Middle Passage as a “voyage through death to life upon these shores.” He also says “sharks follow[ed] the moans, the fever, and the dying.” This gives readers the first indication of modernism. The voyage, in his personal view, was a journey of turmoil and hardships to get to American “shores,” and the ships that carried the slaves were a “festering hold” that harbored an entire people who were dying, ill, and “blacks [who were] rebellious.” “Some try to starve themselves… [some] leaped with crazy laughter to the waiting sharks.” The narrator’s depictions of the events taking place, like much of this story, are written in stream-of-consciousness, a major characteristic of modernism.
Boldly described as a “fateful event in the history of fiction” (Watt: 365), Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness delves into Imperialism in the 1890s, loosely based on his experiences travelling through the Congo into the ‘heart’ of Africa. This essay will explore Ian Watt’s essay ‘Impressionism and Symbolism in Heart of Darkness’ in relation to the veracity of his definitions of impressionism and symbolism, and his application of the definitions to the text. It will compare these with other understandings of impression and symbolism, and against Conrad’s own opinions of the writing techniques. In Watt’s assessment of the nature of Heart of Darkness, he uses the establishment of the narrative frame to dissect the novella’s plot, and provide the grounds from which to begin his critical essay. The act of placing the ‘story within a story’ is categorised by Watt to be a symbolic act, and the content of the ‘inner kernel’ of the story displays impressionistic elements (350).
The ID is considered part of the unconscious personality, and is driven by impulses to seek pleasure and satisfaction. The Ego experiences and reacts to the world as well as mediating between the sometimes contrary drives of the ID and super ego. This is often considered to be a front put on for society, and is part of the pre conscious and conscious parts of the conscience according to Freud’s iceberg. Finally the Super-Ego is the ‘censor’ of the personality, and is used to restrain the ID, due to its association with guilt. When a person interprets some form of disapproval from society, this is ‘internalised’ to form the super-ego.
Many have taken the African culture and education to incorporate it into their way of living and learning. For example, artist like Paul Clay, Picasso, and Amedeo Modigliani have been “inspired” by African art, and have incorporated it into their works. In the poem Of the Origin of Things, the author says “They learned from you: Newton, Pythagoras, Kepler, and Galileo too,” explaining how Arthur the Great tore through Egypt in search of books so that he could be knowledgeable. During the Alexander’s invasion, he destroyed a civilization he did not understand. Prior to Alexander’s invasion, the Egyptians and Nubians were a smart civilization, creating the first social reform and going through twenty-five dynasties.