The Life of Joseph Conrad

574 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Background information on joseph conrad

The Life of Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad was born Joseph Teodor Konrad Korzenioski in 1857 in Berdichev, Ukraine. He officially changed his name to Joseph Conrad in 1886, when he became a British citizen (Liukkonen). Although Conrad discouraged people from interpreting his literature through analysis his life, his life did shape his writing.

Much of his anti-imperialistic views could have sprouted in childhood, when he was under the rule of Russians the Ukraine. His father Apollo Korzeniowski was arrested for suspicious involvement in revolutionary activities (online-literature). Apollo spent much time writing plays and social satires. Although his works were not well known, they gave Joseph an early appreciation for literature.

Apollo died of tuberculosis in 1869, four years the same disease claimed his wife, Conrad’s mother. Joseph, only 11, was sent to live with his uncle in Switzerland (online-literature). He went to school for a few years before convincing his uncle to let him go to sea in the mid 1870's. In that decade he made three trips to the Wes...

Show More
Related

  • The Fear of Communism in The United States: Joseph McCarthy Era

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born on a farm in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, on November 15, 1908. His parents, Timothy McCarthy and Bridget Tierney, were devout Roman Catholics. The Catholic faith places great emphasis on love, kindness, and charity; ideals that would soon be forgotten by a power-hungry Joseph. As the fifth child of nine children, expectations for Joseph were high. Sibling rivalries instilled in him a great desire to be the center of attention that would carry through his adult life. No one would expect such a historical impact from such simple roots.

    Read More

  • The Oppression of Poland During Joseph Conrad’s Childhood

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in south-eastern Poland. He grew up during one of Poland’s most difficult times. The Polish people were oppressed by three imperial rulers. Joseph Conrad’s parents died as a result of the oppression imposed on the Polish population. Conrad ultimately left Poland mainly due to its political situation.

    Read More

  • Mandatory Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients and Public Assistance

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    "States Consider Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients." FoxNews.com - Breaking News | Latest News | Current News. 26 March 2009. Web. 31 January 2011

    Read More

  • Should Welfare Recipients Be Drug Tested?

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    , implying that because they are poor, they must be drug addicts. However, individuals that support the law, express that the plan being put in effect is to ensure that tax payer’s money isn’t being thrown away on people who only plan to abuse this assistance. Out of the fifty states, only nine have proceeded with the drug testing of candidates. The drug testing has proven to be quite expensive. Consequently, some of the states only test subjects with whom they find suspicion, or that have admitted to drug use in the past. Though the proposal of drug testing Welfare applicants appears to be a good idea to weed out spongers from getting assistance, it seems that more money may be wasted on the testing itself, which would be imprudent in proving this law worthwhile.

    Read More

  • The Heart of Darkness in Joseph Conrad

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    As a child Conrad was born in Berdichev, Ukraine on the third day of December in 1857. although born in the Ukraine, he was of Polish ethnicity. Conrad’s full birth name was Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski which explains why he went more simply by Joseph (Witkoski 2). He was born into a wealthy noble family and was not considered a commoner on the streets. Despite the fact that his family was of noble status, the parents of his mother, Ewa Bobrowski, thought Conrad’s father, Apollo Korzeniowski, was born with tainted blood (Witkoski 2). Conrad’s father was a political writer and translator of Alfred de Vigny, Charles Dickens and Shakespeare (Zacks). Logically, because of Korzeniowski’s passion for literature it inspired Conrad to begin exploring literature himself. Conrad’s literary exploration commenced in his native language, but by his mid teens he had expanded to other languages including French and English (Zacks). At the age of four Conrad’s father was exiled to the city of Vologda for organizing an uprising. Within four months of his father’s exultation his mother died from tuberculosis. Then four years later his father passed away leaving Conrad an orphan (Zacks).

    Read More

  • Universal Human Condition In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    162 Words  | 1 Pages

    This Universal Human Condition is a very broad topic which can be analyzed from many perspectives. The human condition composes the essentials of human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict, and mortality. In the Heart of Darkness, “darkness” displays the inability to see any description of the human condition and its has profound implications. The racism in the Heart of Darkness is the result of the failure to see others. Failing to see another human being, failing to understand different religions, philosophy, history, art, literature, sociology, psychology, and biology, means failing to understand that individual and failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with him or her. Joseph Conrad illustrates

    Read More

  • Should Welfare Recipients Be Drug Tested?

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is an ongoing debate over whether or not welfare recipients should be drug tested to receive the benefits. Both sides of the argument have merit. Those who oppose the idea of drug testing say that it is unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment. Furthermore, they claim that this law stereotypes and discriminates against those from low socioeconomic demographics, implying that because they are poor, they must be drug addicts. However, those who support the law note that its intended purpose is to ensure that taxpayer money is not being squandered on people who only plan to abuse this assistance. Only nine states so far have instituted drug testing of candidates for welfare assistance. This drug testing has proven to be prohibitively expensive in many cases. Consequently, some states only test subjects with whom they find suspicion, or who have admitted to past drug use. Though proposed drug testing of welfare applicants initially appears to be a good idea to eliminate potential abusers of the system from receiving assistance, it appears that even more money may be wasted on the testing process, which negates the savings that are the primary objective of the law.

    Read More

  • The Martyr of Joseph Smith

    1817 Words  | 4 Pages

    Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, to Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack. When he was 14, Joseph Smith received a vision in answer to his prayer about which church to join (Church History). He said, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me […] When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Joseph Smith-History 1:16-17). During his twenties, Joseph Smith suffered persecution and hardship as he translated The Book of Mormon, a set of gold plates that were given to him by the angel Moroni, using the Urim and Thummim (Church History). Early Mormons withstood oppression because they were considered commercial, political and religious threat to their neighbors (mormon.org). In January of 1844 Joseph Smith was nominated at candidate for president of the United States. Later that year, on June 27, Joseph Smith was martyred, along with his brother Hyrum Smith, at Carthage Jail. (Churc...

    Read More

  • Criticism And Moralism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes place in the late 19th century at the height of colonialism in Europe and tells the tale of an experienced sailor named Marlow, who is hired as a riverboat captain for a Belgian company in the Congo and is responsible for collecting ivory and transporting it back to Europe. The contemporary film adaptation of the novel, Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is set during the peak of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War in 1970. Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, goes on a journey upriver to find and assassinate Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando, with “extreme prejudice”. Louis K. Greiff, in “Conrad’s Ethics and the Margins of Apocalypse Now,” claims that Coppola

    Read More

  • The Life Of Joseph Stalin

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joseph Stalin’s full name is Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili He was born on December 18, 1878, in Gori, Georgia, which was a small part of the Russian empire. When he grew up he chose the name Stalin, which meant “man of steel” in Russian. Stalin was brought up in a poor family and was an only child. When he was little, Stalin caught smallpox, which game him facial scars that he had for life. He got a scholarship to join a university in the city of Tblisi. When he was there, he secretly was reading book called “Communist Manifesto”, written by the social philosopher, Karl Marx. He became interested in the radical movement against the Russian monarchy. Stalin was eventually kicked out of the school because of missing, however he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda.

    Read More

  • Contrasts and Paradoxes: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout its entirety, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness utilizes many contrasts and paradoxes in an attempt to teach readers about the complexities of both human nature and the world. Some are more easily distinguishable, such as the comparison between civilized and uncivilized people, and some are more difficult to identify, like the usage of vagueness and clarity to contrast each other. One of the most prominent inversions contradicts the typical views of light and dark. While typically light is imagined to expose the truth and darkness to conceal it, Conrad creates a paradox in which darkness displays the truth and light blinds us from it.

    Read More

  • Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients

    562 Words  | 2 Pages

    More drug testing should be used for welfare recipients because it would help ensure help is going to those who truly need it. If someone fails, it doesn’t mean they would stop receiving assistance, they would just have to prove that it’s prescribed by a physician (Haerens 1). They can enroll in a rehab center or correctional facility of some sort and continue to receive welfare while overcoming they drug abuse. Some people honestly do need it to support their families but others just use it to play the system and spend the money on drugs (Haerens 1).

    Read More

  • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Through a Freudian Lens

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    Without personal access to authors, readers are left to themselves to interpret literature. This can become challenging with more difficult texts, such as Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Fortunately, literary audiences are not abandoned to flounder in pieces such as this; active readers may look through many different lenses to see possible meanings in a work. For example, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be deciphered with a post-colonial, feminist, or archetypal mindset, or analyzed with Freudian psycho-analytic theory. The latter two would effectively reveal the greater roles of Kurtz and Marlow as the id and the ego, respectively, and offer the opportunity to draw a conclusion about the work as a whole.

    Read More

  • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness - A Modernist Novel

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    Modernism began as a movement in that late 19th, early 20th centuries. Artists started to feel restricted by the styles and conventions of the Renaissance period. Thusly came the dawn of Modernism in many different forms, ranging from Impressionism to Cubism.

    Read More

  • The Hero and Anti-Hero in Joseph Conrad?s Heart of Darkness

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    In studying Joseph Conrad's, The Heart of Darkness, many critics dwell on the issue of heroism. Who is the hero, Marlow or Kurtz? It is clear that both Marlow and Kurtz are the protagonists of the story; however, protagonist and hero are not always synonymous. Marlow is the hero in the traditional sense of the word, while Kurtz is the more modern hero, often referred to as the anti-hero.

    Read More

More about The Life of Joseph Conrad

Open Document