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.
Savanna, I like your idea of talking about smoking for your paper. I think you could start off by talking about the history of smoking. When it started, how people were not aware of the risks at the time, etc. After talking about the history you could then bring in the interview you had with your Grandma, and how it may have affected her life and the lives of others around her. I think it would interesting to hear about the modern day percentages of people that smoke and how it is affecting our health care system. You could talk about all the risks, lung cancer, etc... And tie into that the expenses that go into the treatment and medical bills. You could also look at how the patients are treated, and where the future of medicine is moving in regards to the treatment of smoking patients. If you are looking for more to write about you could also tie in laws that have been passes in public place that ban smoking and also other regulations that the government is looking at enforcing or has enforced to try and cut down on second hand smoke.
ReplyDeleteI have been through a similar situation concerning smoking because both my grandma and grandpa smoke and they both have since the age of 15. I think is a very good topic to talk about because my grandpa got lymphoma and was asked to quit smoking or else his cancer would get worse. He never quit however, he is still alive thank goodness. But talking about risks of smoking is endless. I think it's a good topic to talk about. Lots and lots of risks and I also agree with claire when she said you could start of with the history of smoking and how it was "the big thing to do" back in the day and some people still considerate to be to this day. Good topic Sav!!
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