Homesteading By Joseph Conrad

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time. The book that the former president is referring to is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a 1850s book about the moral wrongs of slavery. It has been said to be the most influential anti-slavery book that has ever been written. Harriet Beecher Stowe is an effective author. She uses numerous literary devices such as facile characters, character foils, and symbolism to highlight her abolitionist views and constructs a persuasive argument against slavery.

King Leopold was abusing his position of power to exploit the Congo for it’s raw materials, it can be said that the vivid cruel and gruesome images Conrad conveys in the book are merely mirroring the harsh reality of the brutalisation in Africa. One could therefore conclude that due to Conrad’s own experiences in the Congo he has to tell his story through a framed narrative, as it may be too difficult for him to share his story in the first person. Whether this was the case or not, it is clear than in ‘Heart of Darkness’ Conrad reveals the abuse of power to be ever present in the colonial age that Conrad lived in, and he demonstrates the abuse of power as something to be wary of and to fear, as it can result in madness.

The emotional agony that Conrad experienced following the death of his brother almost led to his end. The conflict inside of Conrad is only the beginning of his suffering. The emotions that engulf one's mind can swallow them up and eat them from the inside out. They demand to be felt, but the management of the emotional conflict has been just as important. For example, when the Jannett family is together to take family photos, including the grandparents, the disconnect between Conrad and his mother are clearly visible to the naked eye. After being asked to take a picture with her son, Beth hesitates, violently insisting a different photo to be taken in order to avoid accepting and showing the increasing disconnect between her and her son. Siting and watching, Conrad struggles internally to decode the intentions of the scene depicted in front of him before he burst into an outrage. Initially, Conrad practiced silence in the form of withdrawal. Thus, he situated himself in the isolated window chair. The actions of his mother spoke to him in the sense that she hated him, wishing to have nothing to do with him. The silence remained silent until he burst with rage, projecting the instructions of his father for the camera to be given to his emotionally silent mother. Conrad rested on the assumptions he formed based not only on his mother’s current action, but passed actions as well, to reveal what he

He have been in Polish in exile, and having experience of working with revolutionists and espionage agents in Switzerland and Marseilles, Conrad is well-educated, sophisticated, intelligent, and talented to be familiar with the tactics and rationalizations used by political agitators and terrorists. Furthermore, he had become tantalized with the twilight world of international political activity in London.

“We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in”- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (251)

Speer achieved great success for the German war effort as the Minister for Armaments and Munitions once promoted in 1942. The productivity in the manufacturing and distribution of weaponry was increased drastically, serving the needs of soldiers despite constant allied bombardment. Speer took on a job in an area in which he had no prior experience but managed to improve the military sector for the benefit of his country. It was his exceptional organisational skills that was his greatest strength and led to his success as he was accredited with prolonging the war for up to 2 years. Allan Bullock suggests that he was an ‘apolitical technocrat’ and that is was his concern for the job, rather than the benefits and power associated with it, which allowed him to achieve such great heights. In this sense, Speer kept politics ‘pure’ as he aspired to improve his country in a time of disaster. However, this improvement was only beneficial to some as traditional morals and ethics were compromised when minorities such as the Jews and foreigners were exploited at Speer’s hands.

With this new way of communicating his thoughts and feelings, Conrad becomes noticeably more outgoing in what he says and does in his social life, which is where the problem comes into play. He goes around with these new feelings and thoughts saying and doing what he is thinking and he sometimes says or does things that hurt, surprised, and confused some people. An example of this would be when Conrad, his mother, and his father have their argument by the Christmas tree. So, in a way, Conrad’s self-concept was both helped and hindered at the same

Berger, "She loved my brother, too.  It's just me"(120).  He concluded that Beth could not love him because there was something wrong with him.  After the big fight that Conrad had with his parents, he revealed to his father his opinion of Beth's feelings for him. Conrad tells him, "All right, then.  She hates me"(114).  Because Conrad felt that there was something wrong with him, he did not know how to react to situations nor did he know when to express his feelings.  For his Christmas present, Conrad's parents and grandparents bought him a car.  His response to this extravagant present was, "Yeah, okay… Thank you both, it's beautiful really.  It's terrific"(126).  He was not overly excited, as one should be, on receiving such an extraordinary gift.  He was not quite sure how to act, so he repressed all of his feelings.  In an early conversation with Berger, Conrad said, "What I'm doing here is that I had to come"(41).  This proves that Conrad was in denial of his psychological state and foreshadows Conrad's severe state of depression.  Conrad repressed all of his feelings and emotions.  He told Berger, "I don't feel anything"(98). Later on in the conversation, Berger told Conrad that the "Only way you're ever gonna get to know him [the guy in the closet] is to let him out now and then."(100)  This alludes to the fact that Conrad repressed his feelings and was extremely depressed.  All of these factors led to

He goes through many situations throughout the movie. He is the main protagonist of the movie. He had been in a boating accident with his brother, Buck, who had died. In the beginning of the movie, he is trying to get his life back on track, but he feels little purpose in life and has no motivation. He then begins to see a doctor, Dr. Berger, to help him recover from the traumatic experiences he went through. He has many violence/silence scenes in the movie. For example, he says “ I can’t talk to you dad, everything’s jello and pudding to you.” This displays that Conrad can’t trust his dad with his problems, and he believes his dad does not always listen to everything he says. He needed emotional safety throughout the whole movie, but could not find someone to trust. This shows that he is silent sometimes because he does not have anyone to talk out his problems

In 2007, an incredible book was published. William P. Young wrote The Shack with the intention of just giving it to friends, and close family, but then hose people wanted to share it with their friends. He took the book to over twenty publishing companies, and the all turned it down, and so Young eventually decided to self publish his book. He ended up selling over a million copies of his book from his garage. The book has won many awards, and is now being made into a movie. In The Shack, William P. Young uses incredible imagery to turn a shack from something dreadful and tragic to something beautiful and heavenly. The many different settings within the book impact the main character to help him overcome obstacles and strengthen his

Chalk-faced, hair-hacked Conrad seems hell bent on continuing the family myth that all is well in the world. Their initial sessions together frustrate Dr. Berger because of Conrad's inability to express his feelings.

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the author fiercely challenges imperialism. Through this challenge, he demonstrates the internal battles of good and evil. In his work, he also displays issues of personal morals and alienation. At the time the novella was written, Europe had established territories across the map. It holds true that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, especially when said power reigns over the fate of humans in society. Conrad illustrates the corruption of power through the books’ motif of darkness and the renegade of Kurtz.

The Civil Rights Movement that began in the late 1950's was a struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to primarily African American citizens of the United States. In the end, African-Americans won basic rights long denied to them, as well as inspired other discriminated groups to fight for their own rights, which had a deep effect on American society. Many blacks took part in this movement, whether it was through protesting or holding demonstrations. However, some blacks used writing as a means of contributing. James Baldwin published Stranger in the Village as a means of expressing his views of African-American racism. As a result, their efforts helped set the foundation for equal rights among blacks for generations

The novel was an adventure tale set in the Borneo jungles and was widely successful for him. With his first being a huge success, Joseph Conrad begin writing two more novels that would end up being his most famous and enduring. Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, became two of Conrad most important novels that only cemented his name as one of the most famous author. Lord Jim, written in 1900 was a story about an outcast young sailor who came to terms with his pasts act of cowardice, and turned out to become the leader of a small South Seas country. On the other hand, Heart of Darkness, written in 1902, was a novel that described a British man’s journey deep into the Congo of Africa. Along his journey, the man would encounters the cruel and mysterious Kurtz. In these two literary pieces, many of signature elements of Conrad’s writing can be seen. Faraway settings, dramatic conflicts between human characters and nature, and the themes of individualism are just some of the many different writing style that could have been seen in both literary pieces. Throughout Conrad’s story and novel, he was very contempted to show situations that drew parallels between the inner lives of single characters and the broader sweep of human history. The success of Lord Jim, and Heart of Darkness, didn’t slow down Conrad from creating more novel, but only fueled the fire that gave him

In Heart of Darkness, the reader is given the a first person account of the horrors of imperialism bolstered by Conrad’s own experience travelling up the Congo River. Patrick Brantlinger, a professor from Indiana University, defends Conrad noting that, “much of the ‘horror’ either depicted or suggested in Heart of Darkness… exposed Leopold 's bloody system between the time of his return to England and the composition of the novella in 1898-99.” Even Achebe at concedes in his essay, “An Image of