Analysis Of Tintin In Congo

1600 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay of the congo

“Tintin is me… I believe I’m the only one who can animate him, who can give him a soul” (qtd in Luxford 32). The universal appeal of Tintin, starting from his birthplace in Brussels to the obscure and far more dangerous corners of the world, where he had numerous experiences in his globe-trotting adventures, is integrally related to Hergé’s own life and has a rock-solid foundation in reality, allowing him to transcend the limitations of age, fashion and nationality. Just like the other heroes of comic books, Tintin gained popularity in the postwar period. On one hand, the unique adventures of Tintin provided escapism and on the other hand, mirrored real events thereby providing the readers with an insight into the political turmoil of the The story is full of numerous hunting scenes ending with the departure of Tintin and Snowy from Congo by an aircraft. Tintin in Congo is actually the story of the encounter between the white European reporter and the black natives of Belgian, Congo- an encounter which can be described as the intercultural collision. Most of the narrative of Tintin in Congo rests on the caricature of the African people and their culture which is portrayed as backward, and most importantly, inferior to the European society and their culture. Though the story, its originality and style of presentation stands apart, yet this particular voyage of Tintin is infamous for its depiction of the intersection of modernity on the part of the European reporter and barbarity of the African natives. We now move onto an alternate site/location in the Hergean ordinance, as to specify of the attributes of ‘Other’. The division between Tintin and ‘Other’ is prepared by the (post)colonial theorist Said as he

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Basil Davidson's 'Different But Equal'

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization

    Read More

  • Oppression of Imperialism in Poisonwood Bible and Heart of Darkness

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ion of imperialism has evolved. In both Heart of Darkness by Conrad, and The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver, Africa is invaded and altered to conform to the desires of more “civilized” people. While this oppression in the Congo never seems to cease, the natives are consistently able to overcome the obstacles, and the tyrants, and thus prove to be civilized in their own regard and as capable of development as the white nations. As Orleanna says herself: “Call it oppression, complicity, stupefaction, call it what you’d like…Africa swallowed the conqueror’s music and sang a new song of her own” (Kingsolver 385). Kingsolver illustrates that though individuals may always seek to control and alter the region, the inhabitants and victims of the tyranny and oppression live on and continue past it, making the state of the area almost as perpetual as the desire to control it.

    Read More

  • The Spread of Islam and the Slave Trade

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Underneath the tale of Segu is the hushed and disloyal question few people tend to voice: how did they lose the rights to use the land and resources of an entire continent? This novel explains that it was not just Europe’s greed and Christianity pretense that led to the fall of Africa. It shows that Islam was a major force that endangered Segu as well. However, aside from the tragedy’s that were outlined, there lies a captivating story about culture, spirituality, and diversity.

    Read More

  • Segu a Novel by Maryse Conde

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.

    Read More

  • Race And Revolution: Lumumba, By Franz Fanon

    3724 Words  | 8 Pages

    In the French film entitled Lumumba, director Raoul Peck recreates the revolutionary struggle of Patrice Lumumba, the newly elected Prime Minister of The Congolese Republic. In the movie, we do not see much of the independence struggle against the Belgian government, but we begin to see the reconstruction of the African state in African hands. While no one ever claimed that decolonization was easy, maybe this particular example can best be explained by Fanon’s simplified little quip “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. ” In this paper, I will seek to locate where this post-colonial violence is located in discourses regarding race, class and gender. Particularly, I will look at the representations of race and class, and the lack of the representation of gender, in order to draw conclusions about the nature of representation and the effects this has on anti-colonial film.

    Read More

  • Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contrary to his own experiences with the French Jesuit missionaries’ educational methods, Malidoma invokes his audience in the first part of his story through an innocence in tone and a profoundness in concept. This statement also parallels the plight of African indigenous culture in the presence of the white man. To be more specific, Malidoma explained that the Western world seemed to attack the traditions of Africa or several countries, which the white man did not understand. Although they feared much of the white man’s culture, Africans tended to accept the non-threatening aspects of other cultures as different and even tried to incorporate ideas into their own lives. Malidoma himself went even further in this approach by being educated in both societies. In his life, he has tried to understand the motives and values of both cultures, point out the differences, and even draw out some parallels in the two. Malidoma recognizes the equality of importance of both cultures. Of Water and Spirit seems to be his way of trying to instill this same recognition to other...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Nigel Barley's The Innocent Anthropologist

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nigel Barley’s The Innocent Anthropologist explores the lives and culture of the Cameroonian Dowayo tribe. The book follows Barley’s fieldwork gathered during his stay amongst the tribe, affording insight into their ceremonies, language, social norms, and beliefs. Barley’s book stands out in the highly personal tone with which he recounts his time spent with the Dowayo, acknowledging bureaucratic troubles and, oftentimes humorous, misunderstandings. With a translator, Barley embarks on his attempt to immerse himself into the culture of the Dowayo, not hesitating to participate in their festivals (to a certain degree) and incorporate himself in their daily lives. Barley regals the audience with the entire experience of his fieldwork in West Africa, making sure to include how more modern technological and political inventions, such as voting and refrigerators, are regarded by the Dowayo. Barley writes with emphasis on the difficulties of the language, which is tonal and consists of multiple dialects, the Dowayo’s fondness for

    Read More

  • Different Environments In Jared Diamond's Guns Germs And Steel

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” (Jared Diamond). In the book Guns Germs and Steel he accounted a conversation with Yali, a New Guinean politician that had asked “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”. Diamond tries to answer this by describing the difference in use of government throughout history by bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.

    Read More

  • The Congo Free State

    1971 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.

    Read More

  • The White Collars in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Charles Marlow relates to his listeners aboard the Nellie the story of his service with a European company operating in the African Congo. Arriving in this European country to interview for employment, Marlow recalls, "I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a white sepulchre. Prejudice no doubt" (73). But whose prejudice is he speaking of: his or that of the citizens of that commercial center? Either way, his image is prophetic. The white sepulchre contains the remains of the countless Africans slaughtered by these colonizers--not in the form of corpses, but in the wealth that has been stolen from the African continent. The significance of the sepulchre's whiteness (and that of the longed-for ivory) lies in the contrasting images of a piece of white worsted and the starched white collars that Marlow comes upon in the jungles of the Congo. While the collars represent the violence, oppression, and hatred that dominate the European's treatment of the African, the white worsted is an attempt by ...

    Read More

  • Belgian Colonialism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this paper, I would like to examine how Conrad's Heart of Darkness has played an important role in exposing the brutal reality of Belgian colonialism of the Congo Free State under the pretence of a civilizing mission . The study focuses on how historicizing Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been instrumental in uncovering atrocities committed by King Leopold II's agents in their desperate scramble for the rich resources of Congo like ivory and rubber. King Leopold II's atrocities may account for the death of almost ten million Congolese natives, a crime of a genocidal scale which has terribly affected the future of the Congo and its people till today. Conrad renders his own anti colonial critique through his central character,

    Read More

  • Imperialism in Heart of Darkness

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Marlow passes through the waters of the Congo, it is easily visible the trouble of the natives. “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.” (20) Show that the holding of these colonies has started. The soldiers have come in and taken the inhabitants and are destroying them and taking from them the one thing they deserve over everything, life. The imperialists seem to not care about the Africans and are just there for their land.

    Read More

  • The Masque Of Congo Hoango Essay

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    Revolting against the white plantation masters who had subjugated them to an inhumane existence of brutality and extreme suffering, the slaves of Santo Domingue’s numerous plantations took up arms and began to slaughter anyone that was ‘white’ and of European descent. Against the backdrop of the Haitian Revolution of 1791, Kleist’s love story does not just portray the political and social situation of those who were on opposite sides of the revolt, but also the conflict of emotions and ethics of those who were caught in between.

    Read More

  • Heart Of Darkness Analysis

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article "Queer Complicity in the Belgian Congo: Autobiography and Racial Fetishism in Jef Geeraerts's (post)colonial Novels" Thomas Hendriks explains that in Africa’s interior white men and women are considered supernatural and godly.

    Read More

  • African American Literature

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    Written literature wasn’t a familiarity to most of Africa until the later 16th century after visits from missionaries and explorers, but in its place were verbal fables and tales. These African tales “are used to...

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Tintin In Congo

Open Document