Wednesday, April 16, 2014
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.
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I really liked the start of your blog. It catches me to read more cause it's like a mystery that needs to be solved throughout the story. You are right when you say throughout the quote it doesn't exactly say what he is describing, he doesn't say if they are animals or people. Maybe go more into depth about how they could be animals instead of people because of how he says the things he says. When I think back to when we watched the video, the guy speaking says that Conrad is racist and Marlow isn't. The only thing I can see that I would add is more analysis of the quote. Like why he uses each word, for example "clinging to the earth" like those specific words show how they are dying but trying to live from clinging onto the earth. Like the word clinging shows how they are struggling to live and they are giving their all to try and survive.
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job analyzing the quote you picked, it fits really well with what you are saying. I like how you used both Conrad an Marlow to describe the racism. You are right about how they don't describe them as people. They are dehumanizing the slaves and don't think that it is wrong, because during that time it was seen as a perfectly normal thing to do. They probably were raised to think that it was okay to to treat them that way. One thing you could use is that Conrad uses a lot of imagery to describe this part of the book. I think you are right about the slaves are at their death beds. It is as if they know that they are dying and just waiting for it to happen. The slaves have been beaten down and over worked that they feel there is no hope to go on. Your comment about the author makes sense because the white people did see themselves as superior to the slave, even though they did not see it as wrong. Good Job explaining this clearly, you made it really easy for me to understand your points you made from the quote.
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