Essay on journeyhod Journey Motif in Heart of Darkness and Jasmine

While Kurtz exploits the Africans to construct the station , to collect ivory and to protect him as he doesn't have many white bodyguards when the European pilgrims was trying to take Kurtz with them .The blacks are fully enslaved to him and this enslavement is the most important weapon against all revolutions. Also he commodifies his African mistress to discover how Africans live , think and interact and to be acknowledged of how to hegemonize them, moreover Kurtz exploits that specific African mistress to fulfill his desires because she is lively , wild , gorgeous and hot blooded as Marlow described her when firstly met her albeit savage and superb. As Marlow wanted to draw similarities between the mistress and the forest that both are mysterious and powerful whose power is amazingly described as " she opened her bared arms and threw them up rigid above her head, as though in an uncontrollable desire to touch the sky, and at the same time the swift shadows darted out on the earth, swept around on the river, gathering the steamer into a shadowy embrace." (p.102) Kurtz is immediately presented as a capitalist, he is introduced as a first-class agent , a trader of ivory and a commander of a trading post who then monopolizes his position as a god to be worshipped by native Africans. Furthermore Kurtz's

At the beginning of the journey, Kurtz was a good man who believed in bringing civilization to Africa. You see some of Kurtz’s good intentions in a lot of his writings. When Marlow was reading them, he said, "’…He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, ‘must necessarily appear to them (savages) in the

From his first mention in the novel--“[Mr. Kurtz] is a very remarkable person”--it is made clear to readers that Kurtz is no ordinary member of the Company. Before narrator Marlow actually encounters this man, he is described as “exceptional”, “of the greatest importance to the Company”, and a “universal genius”. Readers learn that Kurtz came to Africa “equipped with moral ideas” and has brought in an unprecedented amount of ivory, which is the primary goal of the Company. Overall, Kurtz is a prodigy, expected to move up the Company hierarchy quickly, and becomes a sort of obsession for Marlow. Despite this, higher-ups in the Company seem to fear, and

A physical journey brings inner growth and development from the experiences a person encounters from a physical transition from one place to another. All physical journeys include obstacles and hardships however they also involve emotional and spiritual journeys along the way. Peter Skrzynecki’s poems “Postcard” and “Crossing The Red Sea” are both examples of an emotional journey within a physical journey. A feature article ‘A Desert Odyssey’ reported by Sue Williams and Robert Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ also involve emotional journeys within a physical journey.

Marlow’s journey takes place on the Congo River. The Congo fascinated Marlow just as Mr. Kurtz fascinated him. As Marlow’s journey continues he starts to see the bad in both the river and Mr. Kurtz. Thomas C. Foster, the author of How To Read Literature Like a Professor, discusses how rivers are a very common symbol but river in one book symbolizes something completely different in another book. As Marlow journey continues, he also continues to discover the horror of people. The climax of darkness in this novel was when Marlow views the heads on top of the sticks. Marlow saw the heads on sticks when he stops to find Mr. Kurtz and bring him back. The heads on sticks were a warning not only to Marlow, but to the reader as well. The heads on the

At the novels completion, Marlow has altered every belief he had formerly held. From a caterpillar at the commencement, cocooning while in the depths and darkness’ of Africa, and flying away from his previous convictions and assertions, Marlow evolves throughout the novel.

Marlow has been an explorer and a dreamer his entire life; he says that he would “look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration” (Conrad 8). These vocations are fostered in modern 1890 Europe. This European mindset leaves the reader with little surprise that Marlow soon idolises Mr. Kurtz to be something of a legendary figure who exemplifies the proper conduct and attitude of an European adventurer in the ivory trade. Marlow becomes entranced by the many descriptions of Mr.

Kurtz was Marlow’s hero before he got a job in Africa and he had looked up to him as a role model for many years. Marlow overlooks many bad omens to take this job. For example, he was offered the job because the previous captain had been killed, not much was known about his destination, and he hears a story about a man who hung himself on the same trip that he is about to take. But he goes anyway

In Jasmine, Jasmine has multiple identities throughout the novel. Jasmine left her own country and went to America for a new life. She has encountered many obstacles in America mainly about the struggle of her identities and the differences between cultures. It is possible that Jasmine’s experience in America is derived from Mukherjee’s own experience, especially of their similar belief and character. Jasmine shuttled among identities. She has been called by different names: Jyoti, Jasmine, Kali, Jazzy, Jase and Jane. But four major identities in the novel represent her different transitions of life: Jyoti, Jasmine, Jase and Jane. Jyoti is her biological identity in India. Then, her Indian husband, Praskash, created a new name Jasmine for her to desert her past and she carried this name to America. A turning point that Jasmine finally involved in the American culture is when she worked under the family of Taylor and Wylie in New York, Taylor, who Jasmine in love with, called her Jase. Lastly, her lover Bud in Iowa called her Jane.

When Marlow first hears about Kurtz he sort of pushes it to the side. He wasn’t very interested in who Kurtz was. He didn’t want to have the same opinion about Kurtz as everyone else. He wanted to form his own. Once Marlow learns more about Kurtz, and how he gave up the rich life of Europe to stay in the jungles of Africa, he begins to admire Kurtz. As the story progresses Marlow begins to become obsessed with Kurtz and getting to meet him. For example, when the crew was on the boat and Marlow heard that Kurtz had died he became devastated that he would not get the chance to meet Kurtz. “I couldn’t have felt more lonely of desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life.” (Conrad, 67-68) “Talking with … I flung one shoe overboard, and became aware that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to – a talk with Kurtz… The man presented himself as a voice” (Conrad, 67). Marlow’s obsession with Kurtz was an obsession with his voice. I think Marlow is obsessed with Kurtz because he believes that Kurtz is different than the other men. He believes that he has some sort of restraint and can control his destiny.

Mr. Kurtz was the "chief of the inner station" (Conrad, pg. 28). He was "in charge of a trading post, a very important one, in the true ivory country." Kurtz sent in "as much ivory as all the others put together" (Conrad, pg. 22). The company described him as the "best agent, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the company" (Conrad, pg. 25). Kurtz went to the jungle for many reasons, but mostly to make money to return to Europe and marry his intended. Marlow "heard that her engagement with Kurtz had been disapproved by her people. He wasn't rich enough or something." He had given Marlow "some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there" (Conrad, pg. 74). He had been driven into the jungle to procure money for the company and for himself and for his life with his intended. Greed is what kept him out there so long and clouded his mind regarding thoughts of nobility.

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow and Kurtz have many similarities. Perhaps the most apparent and literal similarity is the likeness of their journeys. Both men journey farther and farther into the African jungle. Kurtz, however, is driven to

Kurtz, being a high end ivory trader, is very powerful and which readers don’t learn until the end is mad. After being informed the truth about Kurtz, he starts to open his eyes about reality. Marlow describes the natives as “ an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect” (102). In this quote, Marlow is talking about the natives while passing them in the ship. He mentions their look of a sense seeming as they were used as objects instead of people.Lastly,readers see the novella come to an end when he finishes up his narration along with the story. He finishes with “the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky- seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness” (117). Marlow finally realized the effect the river has and anything that goes into it, will indeed have a different look on life and will never look back. In other words, Conrad uses the river to represent the movement of Marlow and the further he travels from civilization.

Kurtz's whole orientation in the Congo was based on the quest for ever-increasing quantities of ivory. In this lay the weakness of Kurtz, for he wanted something, unlike his Russian companion. Kurtz's intelligence, his ideas, and his plans, were captive to his status as ivory gatherer. Kurtz's rejection of the validity of the 'unsound method' was not the problem. The problem with Kurtz, which Marlow does not realize, is not that Kurtz went native, but that he did not go native enough. In other words, Kurtz did not abandon the ivory-fetish. Kurtz's link with colonialism is therefore his undoing, even in the individual decay he undergoes.

His individuality and strong presence was what attracted her to him. When recounting how Praksash wanted her to call him by his first name, Jyoti said, “In Hasnapur wives used only pronouns to address their husbands. The first months, eager and obedient as I was, I still had a hard time calling him Prakash” (77). The conflict she has trying to call him by his name shows the difference between how she lived in Hasnapur before Prakash and how she is after she marrieshim. Prakash also insists on calling Jyoti, Jasmine. Prakash plays an important role in Jasmine's life because he is the first person who helped Jasmine become more conscious of the modern world and the opportunities it holds. Prakash is a modern man as it is revealed, “My husband, Prakash Vijh, was a modern man, a city man” (76). He is determined to live in a modern way that is the reason why he does “trash some traditions” (76). He expects Jyoti to change her ways, “He wanted to break down the Jyoti I’d been in Hasnapur and make me a new kind of city woman. To break off the past, he gave me a new name: Jasmine…Jyoti, Jasmine: I shuttled between identities” (77). The narrator’s gradual change in how she referrers to herself from Jyoti to Jasmine shows how she is viewed by others and how she accepts this new identity. Later on, Jyoti reveals,