HOD and Research Paper Idea

In my Heart of Darkness essay I plan to write about how Conrad and Marlow take on a racist view point throughout the story by identifying different cultures and races and making them appear lesser by comparing them to animals and making them seem incompetent compared to Marlow in the story. I plan on talking about the African Slaves, the Cannibals and the Pilgrims in the story and how the words Conrad uses to describe them personify them as animals or non-human like beings instead of these different races and cultures being equal to Marlow. From the book I found three quotes that prove this point:

1.) "Black rags were wound round their loins and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails...; each had an iron collar on his neck..." (pg.81)
   In this paragraph I plan to talk about how Conrad compared them to dogs. The way he calls the compares the rags they were given to tails and calls the shackles collars make the Africans appear to be more animal-like than human.

2.) "I don't think a single one of them had any clear idea of time...Certainly they had brought with them rotten hippo-meat, which couldn't have lasted very long anyway..." (pg.115)
   Here Conrad makes the Cannibals seem incompetent. What person has no idea of time? By mentioning the fact that all they had to eat was rotten hippo-meat shows that they aren't intelligent enough to find anything else. They just eat what is placed in front of them like animals at a zoo.

3.) "His hand roamed feebly amongst these papers. I was struck by the fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression." (pg.141)
   This quote is about a pilgrim. By using the word roamed Conrad made even the pilgrims appear to be like animals. He could have easily used walked or jogged or numerous words but he chose to use roamed which means he saw this man as a wild eyed and untamed beast, not a human. "The fire of his eyes" proves this point.

A topic I was thinking about doing for my research paper was smoking and specifically second hand smoke and the effect it has on people around you.For this I would interview my grandma who has smoked since she was 12, maybe I could talk about how back in her day it was considered a good thing to smoke. I'm not quite sure how I could write 15 pages about this though. Another idea I had was to talk about tanning and skin cancer although it was just a thought and I do not have an interviewer for this. I was considering elaborating on my effects of tanning paper I did earlier on in the year.

In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" one can make many inferences about the main character and the author, looking at it through a Post-Colonial lens. One aspect that stuck out to me was the racism that the main character, Marlow and Conrad portray through the story. At one point Marlow goes to a village on his journey. While there he sees starving African American workers almost on their death bed. "Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out,half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair." (pg. 83) When he first saw these bodies he doesn't even describe them as people. The way that they are described you aren't sure what they are. They seem to be figures or lifeless animals. He takes his time describing their every flaw and weakness, defacing them and making them seem pitiful and helpless. Showing that he has no respect for these people. It takes the author almost a page until he finally comes to tell you that they are the workers. By doing this it shows that him, nor his character have any compassion for these black people. The author carries this thought throughout the book that Marlow is better because he is a white Polish man, than any other colored person. By doing this you can see how you could conclude that the author and the main character, Marlow have racist view points throughout the book.

3 stories through a gender lens

Looking at it it through a gender lens, the three characters in the stories "Rufus at the Door", "Agatha McGee and the St. Isidore Seven", and "Dodger" take on different gender roles than are expected. In the two stories Rufus and Agatha McGee, the women take on more masculine characteristics. Both taking control of their situations and holding power over male figures with their bold and confident attitudes. In the story Dodger, the man in the story takes on feminine characteristics, almost appearing gay at some points with the way he acts and what he says about the other boy in the story named Dodger. All of these characters portray traits that aren't usually played by their typical gender, making them different and dynamic in the stories.

Rufus At The Door:

I chose to write about "Rufus at the Door" looking at it through a gender lens and how Miss Sylvestri takes on masculine features through the story. I changed my paragraph so that it talks about just one character in the story instead of two, and added in a quote with analysis on it so that it proves my gender thesis point better. I also added to the conclusion and changed some sentence structure around.

In the story “Rufus at the Door” The narrator plays the part of a 16 year old boy who goes on to talk about a moron named Rufus who is incompetent to the real world. Looking at it through a gender lense; all of the people in the story are either male or take on a masculine role.

The women in the story pose to have very masculine features. Miss Silvestri is a teacher whose name shows her independence. Since she isn’t a Mrs. This shows she isn’t married so she takes care of herself and most likely lives on her own. She is controlling and has order over the students. “...But Miss Silvestri begged to differ. She said nobody was having lunch until somebody came up with a moron.”(pg. 23, Rufus at the Door, Jon Hassler) She does not allow them to leave the bus until they answer the question she has asked overpowering Mr. Lance who said the children could go eat. Wanting to get her point across Miss Silvestri forced the students to puke out what she wanted to hear before they could engorge themselves at the cafe. The fact that she also finds it acceptable to talk to students about who in the town is an imbecile or a moron gives you the feeling she is a bit heartless or close minded which are also quite masculine features for a woman of her stature to possess. Especially a teacher who should be open to learning and accepting new and different things or people. Aside from Miss Silvestri, almost all of the characters in the story are men, which shows the authors point of view on the world and foreshadows how he sees his own authority as a male figure. The fact that he chose to do this makes the world he has created seem like a colder and rougher place to live compared to the real world.