The Lagoon Essay

934 Words4 Pages
Advances in communication and travel made the world smaller, several wars tore it apart such as World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Between the wars, Europe’s economic problems gave rise to communism and fascism in a number of countries, which in time spawned the rise of dictators. By the 1960’s British society was changing rapidly because there was a large scale of immigration of India, Africa, and West Indies, greater equality among social classes, and new roles for women in science, business, education and the arts. The literary movement of Modernism dominated the time period. Some characteristics of the movement were use of symbols, focused on inner thoughts and feelings and disillusionment. All poems during the 20th century used everyday speech, free verse, precise language, striking words and phrases to communicate its message and suggests a message rather that states it directly. In Joseph Conrad’s work, “The Lagoon”, expresses the general use of imagism such as the use of symbols, focuses on the inner thoughts and feelings of the main character and disillusionment. “The Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad is a frame story, which is when one of the characters relates a story within the larger context of the story. Conrad spent 12 years as a sailor and explored exotic places, which provided settings for his stories. The voyages and jungles represented self-discovery and the dark unconscious motives that drive one behavior. In “The Lagoon” Arsat, the main character lives in a little home isolated in the jungle in Southeast Asia. He is a stranger who lives in an area that the Natives believed to be haunted. Arsat is facing an inner conflict with in him because he is blinded by love and cannot think of no one better then Diamelan. “She sat in the middle of the canoe with covered face; silent as she is now; unseeing as she is now- and I had no regret at what I
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