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Heart of darkness joseph conrad analysis
Heart of darkness joseph conrad analysis
Conrad's heart of darkness analysis
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The White Collars in Heart of Darkness
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 ...
In book one of Heart of Darkness, Conrad describes a mass of black bodies clinging to life in order to show the “horror” of colonialism in Africa. Conrad describes a scene of “black shapes crouched . . clinging to the earth . . . in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” Conrad uses the language of “pain, abandonment, and despair” to show the unjustifiable acts committed by the Europeans against the native Africans. The bodies “cling” to life because of the lack of empathy exhibited by the colonists. In addition, Conrad describes a man with a thread around his neck: “it looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas.” The white thread symbolizes the act of white colonialism strangling the resources and life out of Africa. Furthermore, Conrad depicts the body’s “black neck” to emphasize the injustice the natives receive from the Europeans. Additionally, Conrad uses the mass of abandoned bodies to argue against any sympathy for colonialism. Moreover, Conrad uses the criticism of colonialism to explain the European attitude towards native Africans. Conrad uses imagery to describe the natives as animals in order to demonstrate the European perception of Africa. Conrad compares Marlow’s companions as a “hyena.” The animal imagery is used to compare the physical and mental bodies of the native Africans as less than “white people.”
Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” Inquirey to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader. Eds. Leasa Burton and Stephen A. Scipione. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 277-293. Print.
Before we can look at how grading affects learning Farber suggests we look at how it has affected students (333-334). The greatest effect of being graded happens to the individual. Farber asks, “Did you need grades to learn how to drive?” We have become “grade junkies.” Without the grades students can’t learn (333). Vogel agrees that students believe grades are the motivating factor in learning, but only for the money. Students want the grades because high GPA’s equal high paying jobs (338-339). Another negative effect of grades is that students want the best grade with the least amount of learning but this causes conflict with professors because the professor’s goal is different compared to the student’s (339). Grades have positive effects too. Farber believes that grades give us discipline, but not self-discipline. True self-discipline comes from wanting something not coercion (334). Farber defines self-discipline as revising one paragraph all night because one enjoys it (334.)
Palmer, Barbara. “Pressure for Good Grades Often Lead to high stress, cheating, professors say.” Stanford News. 23 Feb. 2005. n. pag. Web. 4 March 2014.
Muller, Gilbert H., ed. The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. Print.
In the 1900s novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the protagonist often encounters women at landmarks of his life. Charlie Marlow is a sailor and imperialist who sets out along the Congo River to “civilize” the “savages.” The novella begins with a crew on the Thames waiting for the tides to change. During their wait, a character named Marlow tells of his exploits on the African continent. In his recounted travels, Marlow meets other imperialists such as Mr. Kurtz, a man who is obsessed with the pursuit of ivory and riches. Like Mr. Kurtz, Marlow embarks across the African continent in hopes of earning both money and respect. One early critic of the novel, Edward Garnett, wrote in his review that “[Heart of Darkness] is simply a piece of art…the artist is intent on presenting his sensations in that sequence and arrangements whereby the meaning or meaninglessness of the white man in uncivilized Africa can be felt in its really significant aspects,” (Garnett). What Garnett fails to observe is that Heart of Darkness is not only an observation of “the white man,” but the white woman as well.
“ The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” (Conrad 65) So stated Marlow as though this was his justification for ravaging the Congo in his search for ivory. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness shows the disparity between the European ideal of civilization and the reality of it as is evidenced by the domination, torture, exploitation and dehumanization of the African population. Heart of Darkness is indicative of the evil and greed in humanity as personified by Kurtz and Marlow.
Grading practices have been a controversial issue for years among educators. Many educators want to know the true functions of grades (Reeves, 2001). Are they in place to communicate a student’s performance in certain areas, including behavior and participation, or should they represent a student’s proficiency in a given subject? (Hanover, 2011) I personally argue it is the latter. When grades are used as a form of punishment, in my opinion, it takes away the right of the student to get an education.
Mansfield, Harvey C. 2001. “Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 47(30):
Clifford H. Edwards; Laurie Edwards, “Let’s end the grading game”, The Clearing House, May-June 1999, v72, i5, p260(4)
The public high schools began a grading system as a way of telling an individual how they were performing. There was no interest by the public in reporting the school’s progress at teaching. Teachers, in an effort to recognize outstanding performers, looked for a way of rewarding hard-working students for their efforts The grading structure changed from superior and excellent to A’s and B’s. This placed much of the burden of recognizing academic talent on the high schools.
An Image of Africa Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]. Achebe argues that the racist observed in the Heart of Darkness is expressed due to the western psychology or as Achebe states “desire,” this being to show Africa as an antithesis to Europe.
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as "so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness" (Conrad 94), as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life, but he also manages to depict Africans as though they are not worthy of the respect commonly due to the white man. At one point the main character, Marlow, describes one of the paths he follows: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement" (48). Conrad's description of Africa and Africans served to misinform the Western world, and went uncontested for many years.
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.
The thought of not being exceptional enough, smart enough, having all these expectations and standards, the feeling of failing, being stressed, not being able to fix a problem, ruining self-esteem, staying up all night studying just to fail, and no longer being motivated is taking a toll on students. According to debate.org, “When students see their grade in a class and it is not good, all they can think about is that it is over and they cannot fix it. They think that seeing a grade that they are unhappy [with] determines their future.” For those students who are thinking about the future, certain grades may make or break them. They try their best and then they find out they didn’t do as well as they thought, they think the worst and how it’ll affect them in the future. There comes a time when students stop caring when they know they can’t do something or they can’t get better. That tragic realization when a student gives up hope on their grades and school in general when they feel there is no hope left. Students are kept to these certain expectations and are having progressively more trouble keeping up and they just stop completely; they simply give up. Once there’s a ‘slip-up’, they become categorized into something less than they actually are and it becomes harder to get out of the lesser category. Students slowly think less of themselves and believe they aren’t exceptional