...Heart of Darkness Criticism Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a novella that despite its short length constructs a tale that is as dense and complex as the undergrowth of the jungle through which the main character travels. The tale, which begins as a frame narrative on the Thames in London, chronicles Charlie Marlow’s descent from Belgium into the heart of Africa in search of Kurtz, the infamous chief of the inner station. As Marlow travels through Africa, we are treated to a wildly different view of Africa then we typically see in popular culture, with the book portraying the harsh realities of Colonialism while also creating an atmosphere of dread and horror. This atmosphere is incredibly critical to the way in which we view the story, which has been criticized both as a racist text and as the first truly critical account of Imperialism. The journey culminates at the inner station where Marlow meets the legendary Kurtz, a character so complex that critics are still analyzing his purpose in the story. Heart of Darkness, is certainly one of the most polarizing novels of the last few centuries, with critical essays singing its praises and damning its aesthetics being almost equal in sheer volume. The watershed of criticisms towards Conrad’s visionary novella burst with Chinua Achebe’s scathing write up of the story, with its famous defaming of Conrad as a “bloody racist” (Achebe 343), that ends with the suggestion that it be banned from student book lists. Achebe’s essay...
Words: 987 - Pages: 4
...Comparing the Theme of Madness in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” This Essay is going to compare theme of madness presented to reader in two short stories ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’ both by Edgar Allan Poe. One might argue that the theme of madness is presented quite differently in both short stories if compared to each other. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ presents us a true madman; the main character kills the old man because of the look of the old mans eye. This is highlighted by the piece, which was extracted from the story itself “I loved the old man. He had never wrong me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes it was this” Furthermore it is clearly shown that the madman liked the old man and he didn’t want old mans money. Madman committed the most atrocious of crimes because of the old mans appearance. However the main character doesn’t think he is mad and strongly believes that the old mans eye was pure evil, and this is highlighted by the quotes from “The Tell-Tale Heart”. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him”. The main character almost tries to compensate the murder by saying that he was nice to the old man before he killed him. Moreover, the main character...
Words: 1527 - Pages: 7
...Props Analysis and Procedural Essay The following items were used during the making of this Sweded Video production: • A Chainsaw (not turned on because it could possible injure someone) • A piece of liver • Red bell pepper • Red paint • A meat tenderizer(to represent an axe) • Black North Face jackets (all the devils needed to wear black) • Black boots • Ipod(to record the production) • Private property sign • An orange tube that makes a howling or wind like sound(forgot the name) Most of these items I already had, but some of them like the bell pepper, paint, and liver I did not have so I bought it from a store. Some of the other members in the group needed to help me with the ipod, private property sign, and a chainsaw. All of these items have a meaning to this video because they all play an important role in symbolizing or portraying the story The Devils and Tom Walker. The ipod is the most important item because its filming the entire production of the Sweded Video. Without the Ipod, there wouldn’t be a film to watch. The chainsaw is with Tom Walker as he goes through the woods and begins to cut down the trees. While walking he stumbles upon a sign that is planted deep in the ground of the woods. He picks the sign up and throws it away as if the words “private property” meant absolutely nothing to him. The private property sign is present in this film because it adds more of a curiousness toward the viewer since Tom did not care what that sign said....
Words: 723 - Pages: 3
...The novel, The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin, is a narrative composed of two essays, “My Dungeon Shook” and "Down at the Cross”. Both of these essays discuss the problems faced in America in the 1960s, surrounding the time of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrative has quite a few different themes but the themes that stuck out to me from both the reading and the lectures are the ineffectiveness of religion and “the negro problem”. These two themes, as different as they may seem, are both interconnected. “The Negro Problem” refers to the racial tension primarily between black and white Americans during this time and is a very important concept. The ineffectiveness of religion has to do with religion’s inability to deal with “the Negro Problem”....
Words: 523 - Pages: 3
...P. Emond Due Date: 16th Dec, 2009 Analytical Essay Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, he wrote this masterpiece in 1603. The play mainly revolves around four central characters: Othello, the Moorish general in the Venetian army; his wife, Desdemona; his lieutenant, Cassio and his ancient, Iago. In this play, by not showing Othello at the beginning of the first scene, Shakespeare creates an uncomfortable feeling to the story. Furthermore, he foreshadows the conflicts to come later in the plot. One of the conflicts is Iago becoming the archetypal evil villain who ruins Othello and Desdemona’s relationship. Iago manipulates Othello’s weakness his jealousy; Iago hates and does not respect women which is one of the main reason of his plan for revenge against Othello. Firstly, Iago knows how to observe people and uses human psychology to manipulate people’s minds. Iago manipulates Othello’s weaknesses which make Othello feels insecure. For example, after Cassio looks for help with Desdemona, Iago gets a golden chance to talk to Othello in private. Iago starts to plant the seed of jealousy in Othello concerning Desdemona and Cassio. Iago tells Othello to “beware …of jealousy” (III/III/l.195) which makes Othello nervous and start to suspect that Desdemona is cheating on him. Moreover, Iago warns Othello to “observe her well with Cassio.” (III/III/l.228) which causes Othello believes from the bottom of his heart that Desdemona is being unfaithful to him. Furthermore...
Words: 1432 - Pages: 6
...was attracted to the author Maya Angelou, because I am personally interested in civil rights. In this essay, I am going to research whole biography about her which includes lots of work that she has completed, her general perspective and important event which affected people in that century. The reason why I chose her is to explore whether she should have been much popular or not. First I will find historical background of her so that every audience can know at least who she is. And then I will find her major works that she has done, popularity of work at that time, popularity of herself and hidden work which has potential to be popular at that time so...
Words: 1148 - Pages: 5
...An Image of Africa An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is the published (and amended) version of the second Chancellor’s Lecture given by Chinua Achebe at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in February 1975. The essay was included in his 1988 collection, Hopes and Impediments. The text is considered to be part of the Postcolonial critical movement, which advocates considering the viewpoints of non-Westernized nations, as well as peoples coping with the effects of colonialism. In An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Achebe accuses Joseph Conrad of being "a thoroughgoing racist" for depicting Africa as "the other world". The essay [edit] According to Achebe, Conrad refuses to bestow "human expression" on Africans, even depriving them of language. Africa itself is rendered as "a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest". Conrad, he says, portrays Africa as " 'the other world', the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization", which Achebe attributes to Conrad's "residue of antipathy to black people". Achebe moves beyond the text of Conrad's Heart of Darkness in advancing his argument. Achebe quotes a passage from Conrad, as Conrad recalls his first encounter with an African in his own life: A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning...
Words: 291 - Pages: 2
...I am writing to recommend W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903) as a required reading for the American Literary Realism unit in the ENG 51 syllabus. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Du Bois calls on the reader to understand the world of African Americans in a time of oppression with a series of essays. The Soul of Black Folks is a perfect representative of American Literary Realism At Bronx community college a predominantly Hispanic and black school because it shows the social injustice W.E.B Du Bois experience which us as minorities even though not at the same level can relate to. I believe anyone can admired W.E.B Du Bois struggle at that point in time, where hate was a norm, but most important his ability to overcome adversity....
Words: 523 - Pages: 3
... Florida. From there, she talks about life experiences she encounters and discusses some of her reactions to those encounters. In the beginning of the essay, Hurston talks about her childhood. Her childhood was an easy going one. Hurston grew up in a small town described to be exclusively of only colored people. While living there, she, from time to time, would see what she refers to them as Southerners and Northerners. Right here, she is already distinguishing the difference between her people (Southerners) and the people to the north of them (Northerners). Although she doesn’t know it, she is already beginning to label others. Why? This might be due to the fact that she is a part of a town that is mainly colored people. But the Northerners were something else again. They were peered at cautiously from behind curtains by the timid here (Hurston, 265). She goes into detail on how white people are unknown to her in the city she grew up in. If we were to dissect this sentence, a bigger picture is “painted”. “But the Northerners were something else again.” What exactly does this mean? Could she be referring to them as a different breed of humans? Or, could she be referring to them as a new group of white people passing through her town with a different reaction when they see an entire city with no other color but black? Hurston, who was born in 1891, was growing up in a time when...
Words: 1231 - Pages: 5
...Many share the same principles, such as kindness. Kindness is a key element of human existence; it is a universal concept that does not differentiate between people of different backgrounds. In Sarah Adams essay, “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude,” she expresses several steps and reasons to be kind to others. Sarah writes about equality and universal kindness; “After all, the dude is delivering pizza to young and old, families and singletons, gays and straights, blacks, whites, and browns, rich and poor, and vegetarians, and meat lovers alike” (Adams 8). In Sarah's first principle she highlights that the pizza delivery dude is a link between people of all branches of life. He does not discriminate between race, age, religion, and delivers pizza to everyone alike. She conveys to the reader that kindness is not exclusive to people of...
Words: 659 - Pages: 3
...would not read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf to learn about Germans’ anti Semitic views in the 20th Century, or to learn about how the Jews “bastardized the white race” (Hitler 56). Surprisingly, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is still taught in high schools in 2016 even though the likes of Wilson Follett in 1915 have noted that the novel “Contained an implicit moral injunction to the white man: keep racial purity” (Adelman). Students would learn about the state of colonialist Europe at the end of the 19th Century equally from history books as they do from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Until racism is completely eradicated from our society today, it is not acceptable to propagate any form of literature or art which supports it. Similar to sexism, racism is...
Words: 967 - Pages: 4
...his essay discusses how The Minister's Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is considered a part of American Romanticism. There are certain characteristics, symbols, themes and characters that make it a part of American Romanticism literature. Those characteristics and parts that make up an American Romanticism piece, those items are presented in this essay. So, in this parable, there are only a few examples of specific characteristics which make a story or piece of literature a part of American Romanticism. The typical characteristics of American Romanticism stories, are the value of feeling and intuition over reason, the value of the imagination over reality, civilization is bad Nature is good, educated sophistication is bad, youthful innocence is good, individual freedom is important,nature is the way to find God, the idea that progress is bad, also, most settings are in exotic locales or the supernatural. Some examples from the text are,However, in The Minister's Black Veil, the characteristics of American Romanticism present are, the connection to the supernatural, the belief that individual freedom is important, and the value of feelings and intuition over reason....
Words: 675 - Pages: 3
...“I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet” (Hughes 348). In his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes covers many important points but his hook is one to mention. This hook focuses a lot on the main issue of the essay itself. The issue is that the negro poets want to write like the white poets implying that colored artists want to be white. This then leads to the fact that the white audiences turned to the artists of color and saw them as stereotypical entertainment mainly because these black artists were afraid of being themselves. Langston Hughes’s poem, “The Weary Blues” engages with themes of the Harlem Renaissance and the content of the poem expresses various issues Hughes discussed in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” The poem, “The Weary Blues” is a powerful poem because it highlights the cultural traditions of the African American descent during a time of the Harlem Renaissance. The audience is able to...
Words: 1284 - Pages: 6
...construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of documents A-K and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. In your essay, you should strive to support your assertions both by citing key pieces of evidence from the documents and by drawing on your knowledge of the period. High scores will he earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period. Analyze the changes that occurred during the 1960's in the goals, strategies, and support of the movement for African American civil rights. Use the documents and your knowledge of the history of the 1960's to construct your response. Document A “We affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose, the presupposition of our faith, and the manner of our action. Nonviolence as it grows from Judaic-Christian traditions seeks a social order of justice permeated by love. Integration of human endeavor represents the crucial first step towards such a society. Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear; love transforms hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice; hope ends despair. Peace dominates war; faith reconciles doubt. Mutual regard cancels enmity. Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive community supersedes systems of gross social immorality.” Source: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) statement of purpose, April 1960. Document B “The Black Panther Party...
Words: 1993 - Pages: 8
...LITR211 16 February 2014 Heart of Darkness Criticism Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a novella that despite its short length constructs a tale that is as dense and complex as the undergrowth of the jungle through which the main character travels. The tale, which begins as a frame narrative on the Thames in London, chronicles Charlie Marlow’s descent from Belgium into the heart of Africa in search of Kurtz, the infamous chief of the inner station. As Marlow travels through Africa, we are treated to a wildly different view of Africa then we typically see in popular culture, with the book portraying the harsh realities of Colonialism while also creating an atmosphere of dread and horror. This atmosphere is incredibly critical to the way in which we view the story, which has been criticized both as a racist text and as the first truly critical account of Imperialism. The journey culminates at the inner station where Marlow meets the legendary Kurtz, a character so complex that critics are still analyzing his purpose in the story. Heart of Darkness, is certainly one of the most polarizing novels of the last few centuries, with critical essays singing its praises and damning its aesthetics being almost equal in sheer volume. The watershed of criticisms towards Conrad’s visionary novella burst with Chinua Achebe’s scathing write up of the story, with its famous defaming of Conrad as a “bloody racist” (Achebe 343), that ends with the suggestion that it be banned from student...
Words: 1643 - Pages: 7
