Heart Of Darkness Masculinity Essay

We often hear the phrase nowadays of “toxic masculinity”. Many use it but often without explanation. What exactly is toxic masculinity? Why is masculinity and the history of hypermasculinity in American culture so toxic? In American culture, there is a history of a “survival of the fittest” mentality. The strongest men are domineering and powerful, and take no nonsense from women, or progressives, or gay people. These traits are hypermasculine, an extremeness of generic masculinity, both of which should be handled with care, as masculinity itself is a fragile construct. American masculinity can be extremely toxic and dangerous to both the men themselves and the people around them. Masculinity can often be a cage to men, whom society

Joseph Conrad’s varying depiction of women in his novel Heart of Darkness provides feminist literary theory with ample opportunity to explore the overlying societal dictation of women’s gender roles and expectations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The majority of feminist theorists claim that Conrad perpetuates patriarchal ideology, yet there are a few that argue the novel is gendered feminine. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar claim “Conrad’s Heart of Darkness…penetrates more ironically and thus more inquiringly into the dark core of otherness that had so disturbed the patriarchal, the imperialist, and the psychoanalytic imaginations…Conrad designs for Marlow a pilgrimage whose

The definition of masculinity; Is the fact of being a man or having qualities considered typical of a man.

In the world people idolize the idea of the aggressive and powerful man, but this is a dangerous icon to present to children. Taken to an extreme it can cause the cycle of toxic masculinity to begin. Toxic masculinity is a dangerous set of ideals and beliefs, it provides a dangerous mindset of violent behavior to young boys, leads to anger issues, depression, and a severe urge to compensate for perceived inadequacies by the use of violence in the teenage years, can lead to an adulthood filled with violence towards family, and others, and allows the cycle to repeat.

In contemporary society, hegemonic masculinity is defined by physical strength and boldness, heterosexuality, economic independence, authority over women and other men, and an interest in sexual relationships. While most men do not embody all of these qualities, society supports hegemonic masculinity within all its institutions, including the educational institute, the religious institute and other institutes which form the ideological state apparatus.

The article that I will be examines is “Booty call sex, violence, and images of black masculinity” by Patricia Hill Collins. The author has examined the black experience and how the media misrepresents black men; these effects are still felt in the present. Collins was using different forms of media such as sport, film, and historic events. To help the readers to learn where hyper sexuality, violet, and criminal stereotypes of black male come from.

When someone thinks of a man the first thing that comes to mind is a large man, the epitome of strength and toughness, but where did they get that idea. More often than not people get their ideas of masculinity from the shows and movies they watch throughout their lives. In the article Hegemonic masculinity in media contents, by Peter J. Kareithi, he focuses much more specifically on how the media has presented it to the public, and less of the why, and how it started. The paper by Connell and Messerschmidt, Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept, does a much better job at explaining the history of hegemonic masculinity and how it came to be. Though together the two articles give the reader a complete sense of what the focus is, and

Being a male in today’s society is not about living and enjoyment, it has become more of a task. Social pressures and media have made it difficult for males to live a life in which they are not being pressured to act or perform a certain way. In order to reassure themselves of their masculinity, violence has become the main method in assuring themselves and those around them that they are powerful. Not only is this violence being perpetrated against others, but self-inflicted violence also exists. The violence being used is not only physical but it is emotional abuse as well. Masculinity has forced many males to perform in ways that are detrimental to their own health as well as their loved ones. Furthermore, it has also put males in the

Your fingertips followed the movement of your hand as they brushed over the wood grain, barely making contact as each one dragged against the oak. Occasionally, your path was interrupted by pools of spilt alcohol, fluid spawning ripples with every beat of unidentified music. The vocals could have been French, Spanish or Enochian. You didn’t know, nor did you care. Alternative rock. Classical. Rap. Whatever the label, it was all just a distant murmur of voices and instruments. But the smell, you certainly noticed. The stench of summer sex and CK eternity, oh, hell, yes. In all honesty, the only reason you chose the company of intoxicated minds over the depths of bed blankets was the promise of some form of gain. From a free drink to the occasional pickpocketing, you would take anything considering your situation. Maybe things would be different if you didn’t call a different motel room every night ‘home’ and dinner meant whatever you could swap for what little cash you owned.

Representation refers to the construction of media languages which are used to portray a particular type of filmic world to an audience (slide). This essay shall outline different treatments of filmmaking used to establish certain societal groups from the critically acclaim superhero film The Dark Knight (2008) directed by Christopher Nolan. This sequel film follows Batman, with help from Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent eradicating crime from Gotham city until a crazy mastermind criminal, the Joker appears in Gotham, creating chaos. The first paragraph introduces the stereotypical representation of masculinity in superhero film through the aspects of mise-en-scene and acting of the male protagonist. Storyline and mise-en-scene help establish the representation of pretty, leading- female characters that semi-disrupts the damsel in distress stereotype. Before lastly describing the representation of menacing villains through cinematography decisions, sound and an actor’s performance.

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land explores modernism, specifically focusing on the troubling of binaries and the breakdown of the traditional. The boundaries between life and death, wet and dry, male and female, and more are called into question in Eliot’s conception of modernity and the waste land. The blurring of gender boundaries—significantly through Tiresias and the hooded figure scene in “What the Thunder Said”— in the poem lends itself to Eliot’s suggestion that traditional masculinity breaks down and decays in the waste land. Traditional masculinity is further challenged through Eliot’s criticism of hyper-masculinity and heterosexual relations in the modern era through allusions to the myth of Philomela and the “young man carbuncular” scene in “The Fire Sermon.” Along with this, Eliot stages scenes charged with homoeroticism to further challenge ideas of traditional masculinity. Homoerotic scenes such as the “hyacinth girl” scene in “The Burial of the Dead” and the Mr. Eugenides scene in “The Fire Sermon” suggest an intensity and enticement towards male-male relations, while also offering a different depiction of masculinity than is laid out in the heterosexual romance scenes. Through scenes depicting queer desire and homosexual behavior, Eliot suggests that masculinity in the modern era does not need to be marked by aggression and

In the Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, the main character, shows his opinion of women in a well masked, descriptive manner. Although women are not given a large speaking role ,the readers still feel their presence throughout the novel. In the scene at the Central Station, the description of the symbols in the painting,the blindfold, the torch, and the darkness, allow the readers to see the darkness in the world and the thought that women should not be exposed to that darkness. Marlow believe that women are too fragile to know the truth and should instead be left in their beautiful, untouched world.

Although, as a society, we discourage the process of not judging a book by its cover, we have all been guilty of doing it at some point. The first item we look at when we pick up a new book is the title and the cover as a whole. These are two key components when it comes to using our heuristics to decide if a book is worthwhile reading or not. With only two items to judge by, each has to hold significant importance in order to draw a reader into reading the novel. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad represents a mysterious title to draw readers into reading the novel, but hold a much more significant underlying meaning which represents many elements in the novel, while also symbolizing external concepts in the overall plot. The title represents many important elements such as the character of Mr. Kurtz and others, to the setting of Africa in the novel, and to the concept of the evil nature of imperialism outside of the novel. Through the title, Conrad has created significance for elements of the novel creating a very large impact on readers of the book.

Given that the structure of gender qualities has been a large part of our views, in regards to a variety of issues, a number of people take exception to variances from within these rules. Keeping this in mind, we will discuss the reasons why many individuals are discouraged from crossing traditional gender traits, and closely examine parts of the article assigned for this paper.