paid in the name of that meager progress is counted, the results seem to pale in comparison. The graves of the dead serve as a monument to this grim reality; humanity’s efforts to combat the advance of human evil, nature, and death are in vain. Both Natasha Trethewey and Joseph Conrad examine the futility of the human struggle in
but to deny a visible truth, such as art, reveals a nature of evil. In both Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Natasha Trethewey’s Thrall, the authors explore the relationship between races, trying to draw attention to and understand the systematic glorification of white people and their actions while non-whites suffer, as the world considers them less than human. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses the symbol of the painting of the veiled woman to epitomize his thoughts on colonialism. Kurtz’s
In Trethewey’s “Native Guard,” graves symbolize of the futility of mankind’s efforts to conceal its evils, and of failure to combat the racist system put in place by white America. For years, Trethewey’s mother fought to protect her daughter from the hatred and prejudice in America. Her protest against the hatred of America was snuffed out by abusive partners and the nascent racism of America. In the poem “Graveyard Blues,”she describes the atmosphere of the graveyard as blues-y and dreary. She
In Trethewey’s “Native Guard,” graves symbolize the futility of mankind’s efforts to conceal its evils and of failure to combat the racist system put in place by white America. For years, Trethewey’s mother fought to protect her daughter from the hatred and prejudice in America. Her protest against the hatred of America was snuffed out by abusive partners and by the nascent racism of America. In the poem “Graveyard Blues,”she describes the atmosphere of the graveyard as blues-y and dreary. She “wander[s]