The Story Of Racism In Lord Jim By Joseph Conrad

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Han Byul Song English 1C Paper #3 April 1, 2014 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim is about the life of a man named Jim. His story is told through the words of Marlow, a close acquaintance of Jim’s. Ever since Jim read stories of heroes in books, Jim has always had big dreams about becoming the hero of his own story. Jim’s dreams take him far enough to the higher ranks of a sea officer, although he lacks experience at sea and against the waters. Jim later becomes a sailor of the Patna, a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims to Mecca. One day, the ship is hit and starts to flood. The crew leaves the passengers behind and quickly get onto the escape boat. Jim has no time to think and follows the crew and abandons the Patna, believing the ship will sink. However, the Patna does not sink. Jim and the rest of the crew that abandoned the ship eventually relay details of the event to the sea generals, leading to Jim being stripped of his position. This is when Jim first meets Marlow. Marlow sees something in Jim, and after hearing what has happened to Jim, decides to help him. Jim is still haunted by the Patna incident, and this affects Jim’s consistency with keeping his jobs. Marlow helps him get jobs here and there but finally lands Jim somewhere more suitable. With the help of Stein, a trader, Marlow gets Jim to be the post manager of a remote territory called Patusan. Jim gets captured by an enemy of Patusan, but he escapes and defeats the bandit. This makes Jim a hero of Patusan. The Patusan citizens now look up to Jim as their leader, trust him, and expect him to lead the people. Jim also falls in love with a girl named Jewel, who is the stepdaughter of a man named Cornelius. One day a man named Gentlemen Brown arrives in Patusan. Corn... ... middle of paper ... .... This ends up with Jim being killed by a grieving Doramin. This part of the novel is not talking about Jim specifically, but the novel explains the central theme of the novel when it says "Thus ended the first and adventurous part of his existence. What followed was so different that, but for the reality of sorrow which remained with him, this strange past must have resembled a dream." (Conrad 207). Jim’s death seems to be left unfinished in the novel. Many people die with regrets but Jim’s story is a little different. Ever since Jim arrived in Patusan, it is as if Jim has entered a world for himself. A dream world. Where all of his dreams can be achieved. However, because Jim failed to accept the mistakes of his past, it has caught up to even his own dream world. Jim is held back at times in his stay at Patusan because of his lack of understanding his own past.

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