Detachment in Heart of Darkness
In the book Heart of Darkness, Marlowe only allows himself to
form only one bond. Marlowe allows himself to form a small "safe"
attachment to Kurtz because Kurtz is already very attached. He does not
form any other bonds. In fact, he uses his racism to eliminate the
possibility of having feelings for about ninety nine percent of the African
population. Marlowe not only looks at the African people as being to
different from him to be normal, but he goes so far as to describe
Africa as being another world, a world containing savages. He would not
let himself become attached to this land, or it's inhabitants. Anytime
he feels himself having a relationship with anyone, he purposely stops
himself from feeling, fearing that opening himself up may result in
rejection and/or heartbreak.
He claimed that he felt a connection with Kurtz this, I believe,
is because he knew that this was "safe." This was "safe" because he
knew that Kurtz would die before any real attachment could be made. He
also knew that Kurtz would not have the same feeling for him as he had
for Kurtz. This is because Kurtz already had two girlfriends, and a
best friend (the Russian). This was something that Marlowe could deal
with because Kurtz was already deeply involved so it held little risk
for intense attachment. This is also shown when the helmsman,
man who steers the ship, gets killed. Marlowe says that he liked that
man because he was reliable, and not mush else. He did not even shed a tear for a man that he worked everyday with for the last
six months. He simply threw him overboard, thinking about it for only a
few minutes and then, he walked away. The Cannibals on the ship were
starving. They had almost no food with them, and were not given the
opportunity to buy food. The helmsman body could have been enough food
for all of them for awhile. Marlowe, acting in character, did not care
about this. He said that it may start a bad chain of events. Because
of this all of the Cannibals went hungry for the rest of the trip.
Going along with his inability to have healthy relationships
with people and his inability to care, is his racism. This racism acts
as a good buffer against attachment.
Seventy-one years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear power is rarely recognized as a solution to the energy crisis. Instead, it is associated with the most violent pits of Hell: warfare. The demands of warfare exhaust the scientific community and deplete its resources, as well as decimating the human population.
Eric Schollser argues in his paper “Today’s Nuclear Dilemma,” that the nuclear weapons in the world, and the issues that they are associated with, should be of major concern to today’s society. Nuclear Weapons were of world wide concern during the time of the Cold War. These weapons, and their ability to cause colossal devastation, brought nightmares into reality as the threat of nuclear war was a serious and imminent issue. The US and Russia both built up their inventories of these pieces of artillery, along with the rest of their arsenals, in an attempt to overpower the other. This past terror has become a renewed concern because many of the countries with these nuclear weapons in their control have started to update their collections. One
According to Merriam-Webster, nuclear fission is defined as “the splitting of an atomic nucleus resulting in the release of large amounts of energy” (Nuclear Fission). In the book Remembering the Manhattan Project: Perspectives on the Making of the Atomic Bomb and Its Legacy, Richard Rhodes, an American journalist and historian, states that fission was essentially discovered by accident. On December 21, 1938, German physicists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, were performing an experiment in which they bombarded uranium atoms with neutrons (Rhodes 17). They saw that this procedure created mutated atoms that had strange characteristics. Hahn and Strassman found that the neutrons split the nuclei of the uranium in half producing radioactive barium and krypton (Rhodes 18). Rhodes explains that the physicists observed that the reaction was extremely exothermic, producing about ten times the energy needed for the fission to occur. After publishing their findings, physicists all over the world recreated the experiment. After conducting his own fission experiment, Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist at Colombia University, said, “A little bomb like that and it would all disappear” (qtd. Rhodes 19). Many of the world’s physicists came to the same conclusion; this reaction could be used to develop an atomic weapon. According to Rhodes, this discovery made the development of atomic weaponry seem essential to many countries because the only way to defend themselves against atomic weapons was to have similar weapons of their own.
Out of all the dangerous powers and authority our government wields, possibly the most threatening powers are nuclear weapons. People tend to be frightened by things they do not understand, which make nuclear weapons a perfect catalyst for fear. These weapons have the most overwhelming and destructive power known to man; although, nuclear weapons are only safe in countries that try to maintain harmony and stability. Nuclear weapons are defined as “explosive devices whose destructive potential derives from the release of energy that accompanies the splitting or combining of atomic nuclei.” This power is both dangerous and unstable in the hands of small erratic countries.
During last 50 years of development, the nuclear bomb, as the ultimate weapon became the peacekeeping force on the earth. The nuclear bomb was developed in Manhattan project during the WW II and was successfully tested in the New Mexico on July 16 1945. At this point started the change of nuclear weapon from ultimate weapon to political weapon. USA decided to use the atomic bomb to defeat Japan in order to save around 500.000 lives of American soldiers that were needed to end the war and in the summer 1945 the USA dropped two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The nuclear weapon raised the confidence of USA but president Truman did not ordered its mass production because at that time he saw no explicit political function for the bomb. USA even tried to internationalize control of the bomb under the UNITED NATIONS but the Soviets were reluctant to support American plan for two reasons. To stop soviet nuclear program before developing the first soviet bomb would give Americans permanent lead in nuclear weapons technology. Soviets believed that instruments of force always have political capabilities. For the Kremlin weapons were political tools. This led Americans to the same conclusion. The beginning of Cold War created several political functions of nuclear weapons: nuclear deterrence, alliance building, and international prestige.
In the early 1900’s, scientists learned that they had the ability to produce nuclear energy (Anderson 4). Though, throughout the early 1900’s how to produce this energy was still puzzling to most scientists. Leo Szilard, a Jewish man fleeing from Germany in 1933 figured out that colliding a neutron with a nucleus would start the chain reaction needed to produce massive amounts of energy. Then, this energy could be channeled into a weapon that could wipe out an entire city. Szilard was afraid that his new nuclear research might get into the wrong hands. Eventually, he turned to another German scientist that was known around the world, Albert Einstein. Einstein agreed that this research in the grasp of Germany could mean the end of days. Finally, they decided it was best to give it to a strong ally power, the United States (Anderson 12-17).
Nuclear weapons are the safest defense mechanism in the world. Although nuclear weapons can lead to mass destruction and the loss of thousands of lives when detonated, they are the optimal solution to the conflicts between countries in the future. The actual use of the nuclear weapon is not the deterrent, but rather just the mere fact that a country could use it against another country which avoids the large scale conflict. Thus, nuclear deterrence presents itself as a preferred security option. Firstly, based on deterrence theory, nuclear weapons will lead to Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). This means that if nuclear weapons are used in warfare, either side will not be able to succeed in winning, as the destruction caused by the weapons will be too much for either side to recuperate from. Since the detonation of “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, nuclear weapons have never been used in warfare again. The world saw the destruction which a nuclear bomb could have. Ever since, this has driven fear to never use nuclear weapons. Although many countries possess nuclear weapons today, they have yet to engage in a nuclear war. This has so far maintained “a tense but global peace” (Mutual Assured Destruction, 2014). As the use of nuclear weapons would lead to the ultimate destruction of humankind, nuclear deterrence is a viable security option as shown by the MAD principles, the application of the MAD doctrine throughout history and the current global stability.
Throughout the entirety of the twentieth century, the most disputed topic of discussion has perhaps been that of nuclear weapons. Some people argue these weapons of mass destruction are vital to the survival of order and decency in the world, while others contend that nuclear weapons will bring an end to civilization as we now know it. Regardless of both of these arguments, there are two things that just about nobody can deny – nuclear weapons are extremely expensive and enormously destructive.
In December 1938 a German chemist named Otto Hahn was experimenting in his lab. In the late1930s most scientists understood that everything in the universe is made up of little particles called atoms. (Even atoms are made up of little particles.) Hahn, already knew this so he began to experiment by placing a piece of metal called uranium by a radioactive element. He already knew that neutrons would speed out of the radioactive material and hit uranium
The inevitable discovery of atomic power started back in 1898. According to Fetter-Vorm, “The chemist Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, discovered the elements polonium and radium, which both emitted a mysterious energy. They called this energy radioactivity”(4). By 1911 a British physicist discovered
To detonate one of these bombs, enough mass of plutonium or uranium must be provided to reach what is known as "critical mass." Critical mass is the mass at which the nuclear reactions going on inside the material can make up for the neutrons that are leaving the material through its outside surface. These materials are usually separated within the bomb so that critical mass cannot be reached until the bomb is ready to explode. Once the chemical reactions within the bomb begin, the neutrons released by each reaction hit other atoms and create more fission reactions until all the material is scattered, or completely exhausted. This process releases enormous amounts of energy in the form of extreme heat and a massive shock wave. These nuclear explosions, in addition to their pressure waves, high winds, and flash burns, produce deadly radiation that contaminates soil and water, and destroyed living matter.
The Cold War was a time of great tension all over the world. From 1945 to 1989, the United States was the leader and nuclear power and was competing with the Soviet Union to create huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons. However, even though the Cold War ended, nuclear weapons are still a threat. Countries around the world strive to create nuclear power, and they do not promise to use it for peaceful purposes. Some examples of the struggles caused by nuclear weapons include the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Iran’s recent nuclear weapon program. Surely, nuclear weapons have created conflict all over the world since the Cold War era.
Fission weapons, or "Atomic Bombs", are based on nuclear fission. Nuclear fission occurs when the nuclei of certain isotopes of heavy elements (such as uranium or plutonium) capture neutrons. The result is that the nuclei become unstable and break apart into two smaller nuclei. This process converts some of the mass into energy and releases varying numbers of neutrons that go on to collide with other nuclei causing them to break apart and so on and so on. In nature this process is irrelevant due to the low natural occurrence and densities of radioactive isotopes. During weapons construction, however, isotopes are refined and concentrated to ultra-pure forms so that fission can occur at the ...
Another nuclear weapon used in World War II was the Uranium bomb. The Uranium bomb uses the energy released in Uranium-235. The explosive device can be made by positioning two masses of Uranium-235 so they can be forced together so quickly that they will form a critical mass and a rapid, uncontrolled fission chain.
Scientists from earlier times helped influence the discoveries that lead to the development of atomic energy. In the late 1800’s, Dalton created the Atomic Theory which explains atoms, elements and compounds (Henderson 1). This was important to the study of and understanding of atoms to future scientists. The Atomic Theory was a list of scientific laws regarding atoms and their potential abilities. Roentagen, used Dalton’s findings and discovered x-rays which could pass through solid objects (Henderson 1). Although he did not discover radiation from the x-rays, he did help lay the foundations for electromagnetic waves. Shortly after Roentagen’s findings, J.J. Thompson discovered the electron which was responsible for defining the atom’s characteristics (Henderson 2). The electron helped scientists uncover why an atom responds to reactions the way it does and how it received its “personality”. Dalton’s, Roentagen’s and Thompson’s findings helped guide other scientists to discovering the uses of atomic energy and reactions. Such applications were discovered in the early 1900’s by using Einstein’s equation, which stated that if a chain reaction occurred, cheap, reliable energy could b...