Kelly - Blog 4

Jordan Kelly

British Literature/Composition

Period 6

29 November 2013

Characters help portray the author’s feelings through a literary manner.  In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, he equips and bases each character with his thoughts and beliefs, filling in holes through the use of the narrator.  However, Kurtz, in particular, is perceived as a mystery for the majority of the play, along with the narrator hinting details every now and then about him.  Based on the details given from the narrator, one could infer that Kurtz is an evil genius.  Upon further reading, my inference has proven to be correct for a variety of reasons.

My inference on Kurtz being an evil genius is correct in a few ways.  For example, each character that described Kurtz had a different opinion and idea about him-including the ones that knew him.  This leads my inference of him being an evil genius because of the mystery that surrounds him until Marlow actually meets Kurtz.  Kurtz had cut all ties with the rest of the world and is self-sufficient.  Marlow believed that this is a  result from Kurtz’s time in Africa.  This is somewhat true in that fact that Kurtz had become ill and later dies from his sickness that he gained in Africa.

Kelly - Blog 3

Jordan Kelly

British Literature/Composition

Period 6

29 November 2013

Characters help portray the author’s feelings through a literary manner.  In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, he equips and bases each character with his thoughts and beliefs, filling in holes through the use of the narrator.  However, Kurtz, in particular, is perceived as a mystery for the majority of the play, along with the narrator hinting details every now and then about him.  Based on the details given from the narrator, one could infer that Kurtz is an evil genius.

One could infer that Kurtz can be considered an evil genius because of the details given by the narrator and supporting characters during the conversations with Marlow.  For example, Marlow overheard the manager and his uncle talking about Kurtz and how they think he has a darker secret hidden within his current thoughts of turning Africa into a beacon of civilization-especially after he fell ill after traveling a great distance down the river and turned back.  Kurtz is shown as an intelligent, yet strange, Inner Station chief that seems to be hiding something.  Moreover, the Russian Trader introduced to Marlow about Kurtz’s fiancee and her views on Kurt, further exemplifying Kurtz’s evil genius nature based on the fact that she thinks he’s a genius in itself.  As Marlow floats on closer to Kurtz, so does  the mystery behind the legend begin to unravel.

Kelly - Blog 2

Jordan Kelly

British Literature/Composition

Period 6

29 November 2013

For millennia, humans have compared things, ranging from personal possessions to civilizations.  In Joseph Conrad’s “ Heart of Darkness”, Marlow compares Europe to Africa during his story-long flashback.  This comparison has received various perceptions and interpretations, as seen in Achebe and Conrad’s, himself, essays.  In the story and essays, these two continents are compared based on the behavior and attitude of the inhabitants, as well as the rivers surrounding their environments.

Conrad compares Europe to Africa through his use of their respective rivers, Thames and Congo.  Conrad states that the River Thames is tranquil and peaceful, but that it was once dark and savage.  This same darkness is juxtaposed with the current Congo River, referring to how Europe is more advanced than Africa and that it needed to be helped like London, the reason for Marlow’s journey.  "Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world," illustrates Conrad’s opinion on the inferiority of Africa and its Congo River.

Conrad also compares Europe to Africa based on his illustrations of the peoples from each continent.  In Europe, Conrad shows and refers to them as light-literally and figuratively-and establishes them as being literate and civilized.  In contrast, Conrad’s attitude toward Africa is shown as being filled with barbaric, inferior humans, shown through their attacks and living environments during Marlow’s trip, that have to be cleansed with the help of the light.

Kelly - Blog 1

Jordan Kelly

British Literature/Composition

Period 6

29 November 2013

It is the only the human condition of curiosity to explore the depths of the unknown. Done through questioning and reasoning, journalism, and other methods of recording, help one unearth these mysteries, while also using their observations to separate fact from fiction.  Furthermore, they establish truth and export it to an audience of global proportions.

Journalism helps one establish truth based on questioning and reasoning, allowing one to obtain a big picture, or full analysis.  Frankel uses this as a “sanctity of question marks”, relating to how questions are needed to gain information that evolves into a fact.  However, these facts can only be ascertained after an analysis between fiction and non-fiction of the given information.  For example, Frank McCourt refused to put quotation marks around the dialogue in his childhood memoir, Angela’s Ashes, because his dialogue was “reconstructed” and not within the parameters in the veracity of quotation marks.  Moreover, it shows the honesty that one must have as a journalist and the importance of it in gathering information.

Finding the truth from a gathered set of information can prove to be difficult.  The human conditions of curiosity and deception, are both helpful-yet harmful throughout this process.  However, with the appropriate set of sources and trustworthy journalists; a truth may be a bit easier to discover in this sea of mysteries.