Two Themes in Heart Of Darkness
There are many themes that run through the novel Heart of Darkness.
There are however two main and significant ones. These are the theme of
restraint and man's journey into self.
The importance of restraint is stressed throughout Heart of
Darkness. In the novel Marlow is saved by restraint, while Kurtz is doomed
by his lack of it.
Marlow felt different about Africa before he went, because the
colonization of the Congo had "an idea at the back of it." Despite an
uneasiness, he assumed that restraint would operate there. He soon reaches
the Company station and receives his first shock, everything there seems
meaningless. He sees no evidence here of that "devotion to efficiency"
that makes the idea work. In the middle of this, Marlow meets a "miracle".
The chief accountant has the restraint that it takes to get the job done.
He keeps up his apearance and his books are in "apple-pie order." Marlow
respects this fellow because he has a backbone.
"The cannibals some of those ignorant millions, are almost totally
characterized by restraint." They outnumber the whites "thirty to five"
and could easily fill their starving bellies. Marlow "would have as soon
expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a
battlefield." The cannibals action is "one of those human secrets that
baffle probability." This helps Marlow keep his restraint, for if the
natives can possess this quality Marlow feels he certainly can.
Kurtz is the essence of the lack of restraint Marlow sees
everywhere. Kurtz has "kicked himself loose from the earth." "He owes no
allegiance to anything except those animal powers, those various lusts,
those unpermitted aspirations lurking in the darkness of his inner station.
Marlow also responds to these dark callings, and he almost becomes their
captive. He confuses the beat of the drum (the call to man's primitive
side) with his own heartbeat, and is pleased. Yet he does not slip over
the edge as Kurtz does. Marlow keeps to the track. When he is confronted
with the ultimate evil where a man "must fall back on (his) own innate
strength, upon (his) own capacity for faithfulness," he is able to do so,
Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
In the book “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad wrote about the horrors that were committed by Leopold’s regime. As one of the first insider to witness these horrors, he wrote “Heart of Darkness”, with this book, he was able to spread the word about the atrocities he had seen in Leopold’s greedy pursuit of rubber and ivory in the congo. This book details closely how Leopold made his humongous profit. Leopold issued decrees on the Congo such as that the native people may only trade with his state agents or with his concessions. Leopold’s concessions were private companies that would sell the ivory and rubber, they would give Leopold 50% of their profits. The Abir Congo Company was one of these concessions that harvest the natural rubber of the Congo.They were granted a large portion of the land in the north and had the right to impose a rubber tax on its inhabitants. It was through concessions like these but also from his personal company (the Congo Free State) that Leopold created his personal wealth. This book brings us one step closer to answering our question since it tells us how Leopold got ahold of all of his profits. But this brings us to another question of, exactly how much money did the Congo bring to Leopold II?
Joseph Conrad is the author of the novel, The Heart of Darkness, along with many other profound works. Compared on any scale, Conrad is nowhere near average. Joseph Conrad is a very interesting character who sees the world through wide eyes. By traveling the world and exploring the many walks of life he is able to discuss common global views and habits that include injustices which are explained in his renowned novel, The Heart of Darkness.
In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, symbolism is quite prevalently used to portray the development of the heart of darkness. Conrad used a variety of symbols, including characters, objects, and ideologies.
There are several aspects involved in human resource management. The topics we will focus on are: recruitment of personnel, training and development function, and performance appraisal. We will also examine how these topics are related and how they fit into human resource management.
The realism movement of the late nineteenth century produced works in literature that were marked by reduced sentimentality and increased objectivity. The goal was to let details tell the story, and remove noticeable bias of the author through scientific and detailed descriptions. While this form of storytelling undoubtedly is most accurate, it creates difficulties for authors to incorporate their themes into the story. This resulted in an increase in symbolism in realist works. The objects and descriptions within the story are the author’s vehicle for displaying the values and themes of the work. Light and darkness are symbols commonly used in literature, and have held specific symbolic meanings for hundreds of years. Simply stated, light commonly symbolizes good, while darkness symbolizes its antithesis - evil. (Cooper) For centuries light vs. dark has been quite possibly the most common symbol in all literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses detail to create a feeling that transcends the literal text - most notably through his use of light and dark and the inversion of their traditional meanings. The end goal of this inversion is the establishment of the theme that not everything is as it seems. More specifically, Conrad uses detailed imagery of light and dark to show often times white men can be more savage than the natives.
According to the above table, total employment, which includes employees, employers, own-account workers and so on in Spain from 1997 to 2002 base on female with the highest level, continue with male and female.
Jules and Holzer (2001) noted that Strategic Human Resource Management enhances employee productivity and the ability of government agencies to achieve their mission. One can conclude that it is the same for learning institutions as SHRM focuses on the issues and goals of the organisation and strive to implement plans collectively to achieve those goals. In contrast to traditional Human resource management, SHRM focuses on improving the effectiveness of the entire learning community and helps to improve the organisations by creating and implementing plans that will continuously raise the competencies and capabilities of the members of an organization for the overall achievement of the organization (Ulrich 1997).
Distancing Strategies: This refers to the increased use of other firms that undertake non-core activities such as catering, cleaning and transport. Such a strategy will be cheaper.
Also, in relation to devolution, Bevan and Hayday (1994) found that line managers were not adequately consulted about the devolution of responsibilities and were, as a result, unclear about their roles. In any case, they were reluctant to take on personnel responsibilities, because they felt that they were really the work of the personnel function. This, in turn, meant that many human resource departments were reluctant to devolve responsibilities to the line.
Lewis, Clive (2007) Human resource management international digest. Bradford: 2007. Vol 15, Iss.4: pg. 3.
It seems that HRM is so crucial to the organization, for what it does has nearly covered all aspects of the business – from strategic planning to the training and development, but unfortunately, its importance has not been accepted by everyone. As proposed by Morton, C, Newall, A. & Sparkes, J. (2001) there are three different views of HR function within the...
Human Resource Management (HRM) is fundamentally another name for personnel management. It is the process of making sure the employees are as creative as they can be. HRM is a way of grouping the range of activities associated with managing people that are variously categorised under employee relations, industrial/labour relations, personnel management and organisational behaviour. Many academic departments where research and teaching in all these areas take place have adopted the title department of human resources management. HRM is a coordinated approach to managing people that seeks to integrate the various personnel activates so that they are compatible with each other. Therefore the key areas of employee resourcing, employee development, employee reward and employee involvement are considered to be interrelated. Policy-making and procedures in one of these areas will have an impact on other areas, therefore human resources management is an approach that takes a holistic view and considers how various areas can be integrated.
Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, was written in the year 1902, a time of modernist literature. Heart of Darkness talks about the problems with alienation and confusion as much as it does about imperialism. In the early 1900’s, the lifestyle in England veered towards the Victorian values. Conrad’s novella makes a bridge to connect the Victorian values with the ideas of modernism. Thus “it belongs to a period of change.”(Sardar) For example, the natives are following in the footsteps of their predecessors, following a life of tradition, and their ideas of life are constantly being attacked by people like Mr. Kurtz who think they are doing what is best, when in reality they are creating more confusion
Changing Roles. Traditionally, HR has been an administrative position-processing paperwork, benefits, hiring and firing, and compensation. However, recently HRM has moved from a traditional to a strategic role, the emphasis is on catering to the needs of consumers and workers. Before, HR was seen as the enemy and employees believed that HR’s main purpose was to protect management. Now, the position requires HRM to be more people oriented and protect their human capitol, the staff. In addition, human resource management has to be business savvy and think of themselves as strategic partners in the 21st century.