An Outpost of Progress

He creates tension and division between the Natives and the Napikawans (whites) to illustrate the relationship and encounters between the colonizer and colonized. He breaks the traditional stereotypes that Natives are savage by limiting the perspective to the Natives. From the Natives’ point of view, the reader is able to understand that the Napikawans formed treaties with the Natives, introduced new diseases, and scam a majority of their land. Fools Crow incorporates Pikuni’s words and theology with English vernacular to represent the intermingling of cultures. Welch deliberately excludes the translations of the Pikuni’s words to represent the resistance and rebellion of the Natives against European ways. It also illustrates the struggle on Napikawans to communicate and understand the colonized’s culture. On the other hand, Welch, a Native American, writes Fools Crow in English to depict mimicry and altering one’s culture to adapt to European standards. Welch uses oral storytelling to preserve the Pikuni’s culture as the Napikawans oppress the Blackfeet way of life. Welch effectively shows the first encounter between Napikawans and Natives from the indigenous perspective. As a descendant of Natives, I felt Welch brought awareness of Native life pre and post European contact. In Western society the indigenous people are viewed as savage and wild creatures who only smoke tobacco and

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has allowed me to view the world through a multitude of new lenses. In seeing Kurtz and Marlow’s disintegration when removed from society’s watchful eye, I began to understand that all people have a streak of darkness in them under the right circumstances. While the narrator, and many readers at the time of this novella’s publication, believed that the African natives being colonized were “savages”, this book sheds light on the true brutes in this scenario: the thoughtless Europeans. The other complexity that I never truly understood until reading this book, is the idea that there is a single story told about Africans in Western literature. Africa is portrayed as weak, primitive, and impoverished in most books

The native African people and the African setting are both metaphors for darkness to enable Conrad to reveal the evil in all of humanity. Kurtz’s book stated that “we whites... ‘must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings’” emphasizing the European viewpoint before journeying into Africa (65). Marlow also believed that these natives were savages until he too went into Africa, but upon all the chaos and uncleanliness of Africa, the Accountant maintained “an unexpected elegance” (21). The Accountant preserves his appearance among the untidiness because he clings to his ideals of civility and organization. However, the natives are mistreated and one even “had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck” (20).

There is an abundance of literature in which characters become caught between colliding cultures. Often, these characters experience a period of growth from their exposure to a culture that’s dissimilar to their own. Such is the case with Marlow, Joseph Conrad’s infamous protagonist from ‘Heart of Darkness’. Marlow sets off to Africa on an ivory conquest and promptly found himself sailing into the heart of the Congo River. Along the way he is faced with disgruntled natives, cannibals, and the ominous and foreboding landscape. Marlow’s response to these tribulations is an introspective one, in which he calls into question his identity. This transcending of his former self renders the work as a whole a

The term, progress, is synonymous with phrases that denote moving forward, growth, and advancement. It seems unorthodox then that Ronald Wright asserts the world has fallen into a progress trap, a paradox to how progress is typically portrayed as it contradicts the conventional way life is viewed: as being a natural progression from the outdated and tried towards the new and improved. Wright posits that it is the world’s relentless creation of innovative methods that ironically contributes to the progress trap rather than to progress itself, the intended objective. Wright’s coinage of the term “progress trap” refers to the phenomenon of innovations that create new complications that are typically left without resolve which exacerbate

It is easy to see that current events and issues of the world around them have had an impact on authors and what they have written from the stories in this time period. The Native American authors wrote stories describing life during and after white man came to America. We read Oratory’s by two Native American’s COCHISE and CHARLOT. They gave heart-wrenching speeches, giving great details into the history of the tribes and the devastating effect the white man had on them. Author Zitkala Sa gave us a powerful interpretation of her life as a Indian and how the white’s coming to America affected her life.

How may one classify prestige and dignity? The author of A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright, is what one would deem a civilized and modern critic, having attended the University of Cambridge for archeology and strengthened his environmentally supportive views throughout his years. His most notable aspect is that supports his views and further provides reasoning for his inherently anti-imperialistic views, likely with association to the field he pursued. Wright’s studies likely allowed him to comprehend exactly how much we have developed as a race throughout lifespans, but also, where detrimental effects began to emerge. One may identify the modern man and the ‘civil’ man as one, with education, wealth, and status boasting human dignity; but a clear contradiction can be made, for example, by comparing authors like Ronald Wright with politicians such as Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, whose policies and bigoted mindsets were highlighted in the presentation.

A famous criticism of Conrad’s novella is called An Image of Africa, which was written by an African native named Chinua Achebe. In Achebe’s criticisms of Heart of Darkness, he points out the difference between descriptions of the European woman and the African woman, who was Kurtz’s mistress. The narrator describes the European woman as being calm and mature, and the African woman as being “savage” (341 Norton). Even though many writers claim that Marlow is kind to the Africans by bringing light to their situation, the real problem does not lie in his description of their situations, but his descriptions of the people themselves (30 Heart of darkness Interpretations).

Marlow’s aunt characterizes the Africans as “those ignorant millions,” playing into the civilizing mission ideals of the time, the justification for colonization as spreading civilization to uncivilized people, a typical rationale used for the colonization of Africa. The description that this statement by his aunt causes Marlow to feel uncomfortable illustrates the fact that he does not agree with the civilizing mission sentiments or his aunt’s statement about the “ignorant millions” who are the Africans. Recounting his journey on the Congo River, Marlow describes, “The smell of mud, of primeval mud by Jove, was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek,” (Conrad, 26). The use of the word “primeval”, which means, “of or resembling the oldest ages of history in the world,” suggests that Marlow sees Africa as a place that has been around since the beginning and holds a rich past. The diction of this statement proves that Marlow sees Africa as a place with a vast history in the culture, landscape, and

The description shows the bleakness of the Congo compared to the outside world, is one of the first representations of the civilized (or outside) world contrasted to the Congo. The uncivilized/civilized comparison and the descriptions of darkness heighten when Conrad increases the contrast by moving Marlow into an oasis of civilization, the Main Station, a port outpost on the coast of Africa, owned and commanded by white Europeans, but kept alive by the slave work of black natives. Upon setting foot on shore,

Joseph Conrad often mocked the African peoples. In his novel, Heart of Darkness, he referred to the African people as “savages” and used strong language that looked down upon them. Conrad describes a passing native, “They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages.” Conrad depicts the Africans in very vivid descriptions and uses negative language with an almost disgusted tone. He sees the Africans as inhuman, feels they are not civilized, and believes himself to be far more superior than them. Conrad does not bother to try and understand their culture or language. He insults their language and believes it is merely just incomprehensible grunts. Conrad remarks that looking at an African “was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind legs.” The comparison he uses is very insulting to the African people and so degrading that Conrad found an African working as so surprising. He was taken away that an African could be civilized and Conrad was just mocking the natives. By using such cynical language, Conrad changes what the readers think of Africans to become negative. This view of African peoples from Conrad contrasts Achebe’s perspective of African peoples and their lives which was more influenced by his own race, culture, and beliefs just as Conrad’s novel was.

The desire to conquer land that was previously unexplored has existed throughout history. This desire forced many indigenous societies, who were usually dominated technologically, to adapt to the teachings and overall system of the ‘superior’ conqueror nation with destruction as the only alternative. This causes a major impact on how a certain society functions, even after seeking independence from the foreigners. The rise and fall of indigenous societies can be analyzed through various media. Chinua Achebe is a novelist specializing in African literature, and this essay deals with the themes regarding colonialism in one of his many novels. In

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe are two novellas written to make a statement about the struggles of early societies. Both stories stir up moments of hope, anger, disappointment, despair, and enlightenment in an attempt to inform the reader of the injustices and societal differences during the 1800’s. Heart of Darkness tells the story from a European Colonist perspective while Things Fall Apart illustrates the outlook of the African tribe member being colonized. Throughout this piece I will investigate these unique texts in hopes of revealing the symbolism behind the trying stories. I will compare and contrast the narratives and decipher the outlooks so that the reader can learn to appreciate and

This paper reflects the novel “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe in 1958. Achebe gives an overview of pre-colonialism and post-colonialism on Igbo, detailing how local traditions and cultural practices can “fall apart” in some scenarios through some introduced, externally created hassles elevated because of colonization. The protagonist named Okonkwo mentioned in the story is a proof showing the lifestyle of the tribe. My main objective and focus is to lay emphasis on Africa specifically the Igbo society, before and after the arrival of the Europeans in Umuofia community; the results of their arrival concerning Igbo culture, thus leading to the clash of cultures between the two categories. I will also draw on post-colonialism with respect to globalization.

The book takes place in the Umuofia and Mbanta villages around the 1900s. During the 1900s the rise of European Imperialism in Africa becomes very much prevalent between 1881 and 1914.