Is it true Conrad? Are you a racist writer?

Hi readers! As some of you may or may not know, we have just finished reading Heart of Darkness by and excellent writer named Joseph Conrad. Just to provide a little backstory about the author, when he came from his country of origin, he barely knew English and had to learn it over time. I just thought I would include that little tidbit because his writing style is impeccable despite the fact that English was not his primary language. Anyway, let's get into the nitty gritty things.

Personally, while reading Heart of Darkness, I did not find any part of it racist. To me, it was simply a man recounting his journey through Africa and the Congo. Charlie Marlow, the main character telling the story, does a very good job of providing the reader with imagery that makes them feel like they are really there. However, I do see where Chinua Achebe is coming from in his essay, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness, when he says that Joseph Conrad might be racist.

From the beginning, there was a section in this essay that stood out to me. It reads:

“Then he asked me if I was a student too. I said no, I was a teacher. What did I teach? African literature. Now that was funny, he said, because he knew a fellow who taught the same thing, or perhaps it was African history, in a certain Community College not far from here. It always surprised him, he went on to say, because he never had thought of Africa as having that kind of stuff, you know.”

Now if you have ever read Achebe’s essay, this line would probably stick out to you as well. One of the reason it grabbed my attention was because the man’s response to Achebe undermined the ability and qualities of Africa. Granted, he probably did not mean for it to sound the way it did but some people could easily take this statement the wrong way.

To be honest, I do think that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness could have caused people to have that same perspective of Africa. But, I don't think he was racist. At least, not on purpose. The way that Joseph Conrad portrays the Congolese people is from his own personal experience and from what he has seen. I don't think in everyday life Joseph Conrad would flat out describe the Congolese people as dirty savages. Again, I do understand where Achebe is coming from. If I was reading a novel and I read what sounded like racist things about people that are the same as me, I would suspect a little racism as well.

To finish off though, I still do not think that Joseph Conrad was racist and I don't think that Heart of Darkness was written in a racist light. I just think that many people might misinterpret what Conrad was really trying to say about the horrid things he had seen on his journey. Hopefully, some of you out there will go out and read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I also hope some of you go take a look at An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness by Chinua Achebe and form an opinion for yourselves. Comment down below if you agree with me or disagree with me and thanks for reading! 

Details... I. Need. Details.

At first glance, one may or may not be able to recognize immediately that this is a poem written about the military life. At least, I know I did not realize it at first. It was not until I went back to reread the directions that I actually realized what the poem was about. The directions said to consider the title of the poem and that was the major clue that helped me decipher the poem. Anyway, let us move to bigger and more important details… Ha-ha, see what I did there with the word details? No? Okay, let us really move on.

To be quite honest, it was difficult for me to find the right poetic device that would adequately put the speaker’s attitude on display. After some thinking, I decided that imagery would be the best device to use. While actively reading the poem, there were many words of imagery that immediately popped out at me such as “guzzling and gulping” (5) and “toddle safely home” (10). This lead me to believe that the writer, Siegfried Sassoon, uses heavy imagery in “Base Details” to show that older soldiers, such as Sergeants and Generals, generally contradict the qualities that normal, young soldiers are supposed to have and they ultimately allow their younger, newer soldiers to be the first to die during a war.

The first place where Sassoon uses imagery to show contradiction is line 1. From the moment the poem says, “If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath”, a reader should be able to see that this poem is meant to be read as if the person were a younger soldier (1). Now, as we can see, the writer uses very strong visual words, such as fierce and bald, to describe an older soldier. This provides contradiction within the readers mind because of what they think of when they hear the word soldier. For example, whenever someone says that word, I usually think of a young, broad shouldered, fit man who is timid but ready to fight their first war. I do not think of a short, bald man who is indifferent about war because he has fought so many. These visual words contradict the preconceived notion that soldiers are supposed to be, well, attractive. This sentence is basically the driving force of the poem because it kind of tricks the reader into thinking that being an older soldier is much better than being a younger soldier.

In the second half of the poem, around lines 9 and 10, Sassoon transitions and uses imagery to show that the older soldiers lead their younger soldiers to their deaths and ultimately do not have those soldiers’ best interests in mind. If you look at line 9 where it says, “when the war is over and the youth stoned dead,” the poem almost blatantly tells you that the younger soldiers are easy targets and are almost immediately killed (9). Take the word “stoned” for example. When someone is being stoned, they are purposely fully exposed which makes it easier for them to be stoned. In translation, this means that the younger soldiers are placed in the front line on purpose, fully exposed in order for them to be the first to die. If one also looks at line 10, where the poem says, “I’d toddle safely home and die – in bed,” this shows that the older soldiers would rather let the younger soldiers die first just so they can go safely home, unscathed to be with their families (10). The older soldiers do not have their young soldiers’ best interests in mind, but rather, their own personal interests. They would rather be “guzzling and gulping in the best hotels” instead of making sure they try their hardest to save their fellow soldiers.

Overall, Siegfried Sassoon uses heavy imagery and the sarcastic voice of a young soldier to show that older soldiers do not really care about the well-being of their younger soldiers. It kind of gets readers to think about what is really going on at those military bases. We think that soldiers get everything they need and are really cared for but in reality… is that really true? 

What On Earth Am I Reading?

Hello again, my wonderful readers! Welcome back to my blog. I want to introduce you all to the book I am currently reading which is Jennifer Government, by Max Barry.

To be completely honest, I do not have a specific topic for this essay so I am mostly going to talk about the things that caught my attention while reading. But first, let me provide you with some background about the book.

It is set in a type of dystopian era where things are almost perfect for the people living in that society. The entire world is basically owned by corporate companies that are for profit organizations. In most markets, the government has some type of influence on how things are produced, bought, and sold, however, in this society, the government basically has no say in anything that any company does. Finally, it can be compared to the novel 1984 by George Orwell, however, it criticizes the fact that there is not enough political power as opposed to too much political power. But that is basically an overall breakdown of the whole book. Let us get into the weirder things.

Now, the first thing that caught my eye was the fact that this girl had a barcode tattooed under her eye. Out of all the tattoos, someone could possibly get, she chooses a barcode.  Really? It probably has some deeper meaning in the rest of the book so maybe I should not judge just yet.

Another thing I noticed was the fact that every single chapter that I have read so far has been named after some type of company. When I first started reading, I thought it was coincidental how the first couple of chapters were named after big name companies. As I kept reading, I saw that literally every single last chapter was named after a company whether it be big or small. Weird, right?

This next thing actually kind of scares me. Remember how in the beginning I said that the whole world is basically controlled by corporate companies? Well, the United States has control over those companies and all of the other countries in the world. That’s kind of scary. The United States is already very powerful as it is, but to have control over every single country in the world? Now that is something else.

Another aspect that I am sure most adults would love is the fact that taxes are illegal. Other places in the world are ridiculed if they still allow their citizens to pay taxes. I thought this was so funny because the way they were making fun of other countries was probably the funniest thing I have ever read in a single book. I thought it was probably the dumbest thing to allow taxes to be illegal because how would the world even make money? But I mean, I'm not one to judge how people make their money so shout out to the world of Jennifer Government. 

Mirror, mirror on the wall… who is to blame of them all?

I know, I know. The title sounds corny but at least I tried. Anyway, let us get into the more serious stuff. Who really is to blame for all the mischief that went on in Othello?

 Now most people would automatically assume that it was fully Iago’s fault just because he was the one who plotted the most against Othello. I mean, I can understand why one would believe that because usually, the person who does the most plotting is the person who holds the most blame. Since Iago basically ruined everyone’s life in the play, he should hold the most blame, right? In my opinion, that is completely wrong.

I wouldn’t say that Othello deserves all the blame but he does hold a significant amount. While reading, there were so many things that irked me about Othello’s character and the way he handled everything he was told. I honestly do not even know where to start. Let me just explain my thought process while reading Othello. At first, I thought Othello was such a good person. Maybe a little cocky, but nonetheless still a good person. As the play progressed, I started to see some changes, like him getting progressively angrier, which made m ad because he had no reason to get mad. At least, that’s what I thought. Then at the end, I thought that Othello was the dumbest person alive because he should never have believed Iago in the first place, even if he was his right-hand man. But enough ranting. Let’s get back to the real issue.

Wait… what was it again? Oh yeah, Othello causing all the trouble. In my opinion, Othello is the person I blame the most for various reasons. The first being that he did not appoint Iago as his lieutenant. Let’s think about it for a second. If Othello had appointed Iago to be the lieutenant in the first place, do you really think Iago would have gotten everyone involved in his tangled web of revenge and jealousy? Actually, that question is up for debate because Iago is a very surprising, angry, little person. But moving on….

The second reason is the fact that Othello would rather believe his lieutenant, Iago, over his own wife, Desdemona. Granted, your lieutenant is never supposed to lie to you and everything he says should be credible, but you obviously married your wife because she wouldn’t lie to you either, right? The amount of trust Othello placed in the hands of Iago were absolutely shocking to me. Even friends in our modern age do not put that same amount of trust in the hands of their other friends. That amount of trust allowed Iago to play Othello like a toy therefore leading to a bunch of important characters to their death. Othello’s anger played right into the hands of Iago and Iago was able to control almost everyone in the play. Not cool man…

I really did not want to throw Othello under the bus like this but sadly, I had to hand the blame over to him. His simple mistake was trusting Iago too much with basically his entire life. It was as if Othello was the marionette being controlled by Iago, the evil puppet master. But now, I want to know what you, my blog readers, think. As readers, we could tell that all the characters thought Iago was mostly to blame but tell me. Do you agree with me or do you think I’m entirely wrong? Tell me in the comments; I would love to know what you think! 

While I was reading through the essential questions, I kept asking myself what essential question would allow for the best, quality blog post. Honestly, I wish I had more questions to choose from but question number 3 was my favorite.

HOW DOES YOUR CULTURE HELP OR HINDER THE CREATION OF ONE’S IDENTITY?

We all know that culture can either help or hinder you identity creation but, why does it have to be either/or? Can it be both?

In my opinion, Bigger Thomas is the perfect example of how someone’s culture can help the creation of their identity but hinder the creation at the same time. As I read Native Son by Richard Wright, it seemed to me that Bigger had already made an identity for himself. Then I realized. Bigger had been living with an identity he did not create for himself, but an identity that the society around him had created FOR him. He was perceived a just this 20 year old, poor black man, that could barely afford his rent and a delinquent that goes around robbing stores with his friends. He was not perceived as a regular human being. He was perceived as an animal or a thing, even.

Native Son explored the effects of discrimination and racism on a black man within the society and you could tell that because of this, Bigger was trying to break free of the stereotypes. He was always longing for more. He was struggling to find his true identity because his culture/society had basically done everything they could to keep him from finding who he truly was. His society murdered the identity he could have developed. If someone called you an ape everyday because you were black or they thought you were uneducated because you were black, wouldn’t you grow up believing it because that is what you were so used to hearing your society say about you? Bigger grew up with preconceived notions about who he was supposed to be which hindered the creation of his own identity.

In most novels I have read, the protagonist finds their identity and it usually helps their life in a positive way. Bigger Thomas, however, took me by surprise because the person he turned into was completely unexpected. Now, don’t get me wrong, but in a way, the fact that Bigger murdered two people really helped him figure out the type of person he was and it ultimately helped him find his true identity. We can blame his culture and society for turning him into a homicidal murder machine, but we can give his society some credit too.

After murdering Mary and Bessie, he finally realized that he is a black man that is capable of doing anything. Even though he got caught in the end, he was able to hide the murders long enough without people even suspecting that he could have killed the two women. Bigger saw that he was smarter than his society perceived him to be and that he was capable of doing things just like white people could. Maybe murdering people is not the best example to use to describe how someone’s culture could help them find their identity but you get the gist.

Side note: I just want to say I really enjoyed this book. I honestly thought at the beginning that I was going to hate this book one, because it looked really long, and two, because it didn’t even look interesting. Apparently, I was wrong and I think I am going to add this to my list of favorite books! I really hope we can read more books like this!

TKAM IS HONESTLY JUST GREAT

When I hear the words “a work of literary merit,” I normally think that means if my book is a good book. But, I feel like there is a lot more meaning to those words. I feel like literary merit means that a book is so well written and popular that when writers are writing or English teachers are teaching courses, they must always go back to this book a reference something from it, whether it be specific passage or a literary device. The book has to provide some type of significance importance in the literary world in order for it to be considered “a work of literary merit.” I personally think that To Kill A Mockingbird is a work of literary merit because it has been referenced or mentioned so many times that I can’t even count. There are so many passages in the book that have significance not only to the book, but to the outside world as well. For example, the title itself connects to the real world by saying it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. I love the message behind this because it explains that you cannot kill innocent people because all they have done is good for the community around them. While reading TKAM, many life lessons have been explained throughout the book and I felt like it was an entertainment book as much as it was a life lesson book. 

About ettenel moon

Let me start off by introducing myself. Hi! I am ettenel moon. Notice how I did not capitalize my name. Want to know why? Well I won’t tell you why because that will ruin the mystery of who I really am, and I like being mysterious.

Honestly, from the first grade to maybe sixth or seventh grade, I can confidently say I was obsessed with reading. Every time there was a book fair, I was so excited to get a free book and I even loved those scholastic book catalogs even when no one else seemed to be interested in them. As a kid, I never had anything to do in my house. We had basic cable so watching TV was out of the question and my family did not get a real computer with internet until the sixth grade so surfing the internet for hours was out of the question too. Books were the only things that would keep me busy from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep.

Now though, I would not say I am the best reader. I never pick up a book unless I have to read it for school. I feel like I am always reading for a grade and never for actual pleasure and it just gets boring to me. Hopefully, this blog will make me enjoy reading again because I actually do want to get back into reading. I felt like I was Einstein when I reading books that no one else was reading. But to close out, I hope all you book readers and bloggers enjoy my precious little blog and I really hope you all read the books that I am going to talk about!

-          ettenel moon