РефератыИностранный языкHeHeart Of Darkness Essay Research Paper Part

Heart Of Darkness Essay Research Paper Part

Heart Of Darkness Essay, Research Paper


Part I


In the novel, Second Class Citizen, the main character, Adah, is a strong, Nigerian


women who faces sexism from within her own culture since she was born. She explains,


?She was a girl who had arrived when everyone was expecting and predicting a boy…


She was so insignificant? (Emecheta 7). In the Ibo culture that Adah grew up in, being a


girl was looked down upon. Giving birth to a boy was a major accomplishment, whereas


giving birth to a girl was an equally major disappointment. Girls were taught to be useful,


not intelligent: ?A year or two would do, as long as she can write her name and count.


Then she will learn to sew? (Emecheta 9). In Ibo culture, girls were valued for their


domestic abilities. Adah refused to be measured by this, instead she was determined to go


to school and get an education. She worked had to overcome the sexist attitude that her


culture held.


This sexist attitude continued after she got married to Francis. Francis is a typical


Ibo male. He held the view that the males should go and get educated and the female


should stay home, or in Francis? case, work to support his education. Adah knew his


attitude, ?The sharpness seemed to say to her: ?It is allowed for African males to come


and get civilsed in England. But that privileged has not been extended to females yet??


(Emecheta 36). Francis is a pure reflection of the values held by the Ibos. All Francis


wanted from Adah was money, to pay for his education, and sex: ?As far as he was


concerned marriage was sex and lots of it, nothing more? (Emecheta 41). To Francis,


Adah was a sexual object. As far as he was concerned, her feelings didn?t matter, she was


not a real person. Adah knew she was up against the enemy when she challenged Francis,


but she was able to rise about he sexism and leave Francis. Not only does she go against


her own culture, but she wants her children to reject the sexist attitude as well: ?My sons


will learn to treat their wives as people? (Emecheta 121). Adah is a strong women who


will not let herself be objectified and will not let the sexism of her culture keep her


down. Adah would dislike the way that women are portrayed in Joseph Conrad?s Heart of


Darkness because women are treated as though they do not belong in the real world.


Women are treated as objects instead of people with thoughts and feelings. It is this


treatment that Adah worked hard to overcome.


Part II


In Joseph Conrad?s Heart of Darkness, Marlow, the narrator of most of the story,


tell the story of his journey into the Congo searching for the lost ivory trader, Mr. Kurtz.


Throughout Marlow?s journey, he encounters different types of women. In his encounters


with his Aunt, the African women, and Mr. Kurtz?s intended fiancee, Marlow shows his


demeaning and sexist view of women. Marlow objectifies women depending on their


race. The white European females are looked upon as domestic beings who should tend


only to their home worlds, while the only African women is portrayed as a sexual object.


It is this objectivity that causes Marlow to never reveal the truth about Mr. Kurtz?s life


and death.


The first woman that we meet is Marlow?s aunt. She is the one paying for his trip


to the Congo, yet Marlow does not respect her views. Marlow says, ?She talked about


?weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,? till, upon my word, she made


me quite uncomfortable… It?s queer how out of touch with women are? (Conrad 11). In


essence, Marlow is saying that women are out of touch with reality, even though it is


clear that his Aunt?s views about Africans reflect the popular view of the time. That view


being to Christianize Africa and get rid of their traditional culture. This view was held by


the likes of Rudyard Kipling, Leoplod II and other prominent men of the time. Marlow


does not recognizes his Aunt?s views simply because she is a women and he doesn?t


think women belong in the real world. He says, ?They [women] live in a world of their


own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be? (C

onrad 11). Marlow


expresses the fact that women live in sort of a alternate universe, that is that they are out


of touch with reality. Because of this, women have no place in the workings of society,


that being in politics or social issues. Therefore, his Aunt is good enough to fund


Marlow?s trip, but her usefulness stops with the money. She is treated as a money tree


instead of an individual with thoughts and views of her own.


The only African women introduced in the novel is Kurtz?s house maid. She is


looked upon as a different sort of object, she is the object of sexual desire. She is


described with animalistic qualities by Marlow: ?She walked with measured steps,


draped in striped and fringed clothes, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and


flash of barbarous ornaments? (Conrad 55). This description gives the image of a vicious


cat walking across the ground with ?…measured steps.. treading the earth?. She is not


physically described with human qualities, but as more of an exotic beast-like creature.


She also stirs up desire in Marlow?s heart, as he describes her presence: ?…The colossal


body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had


been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul? (Conrad 56). Her


presence gives rise to the passion in Marlow?s soul as well. It is her mysterious quality


that is so attractive. She is not viewed as a human, but as an object of sexual desire


because she is exotic and mysterious. Marlow recalls the man of patches saying, ?If she


had offered to come aboard I really think I would have tried to shoot her? (Conrad 56 ).


The fact that these men would be so quick to kill her shows that they don?t view her as a


human because they would never be so quick to kill a white women. Her sexuality is


threatening to the men, and it allows them to look at her as an object instead of a human


being.


The last women that Marlow encounters is Kurtz?s intended fiancee, who is


simply referred to as the ?Intended?. She is first mentioned in Kurtz?s jabbering. He says,


?Oh she is out of it- completely. They- the women I mean- are out of it- should be out of


it? (Conrad 44). Kurtz is saying that women are out of touch with the real world. They


are not aware of what goes on outside their own world, and that is the way it should be.


Women should not think about what goes on in the world. Kurtz tells Marlow, ?We must


help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worst? (Conrad 44).


In essence, Kurtz is instructing Marlow to keep his Intended in the dark about what is


really going on in the Congo. The ?women?s world? is one that is ignorant to the harsh


realities of life , such as the mad man that Kurtz has become. Kurtz does not want his


Intended to know what he has become because he might lose her and that would be like


losing a possession to him. Kurtz exclaims, ??My Intended, my ivory, my station, my


river, my-?, everything belonged to him? (Conrad 44). Kurtz?s Intended is grouped with


his other possessions like ivory and his station. He sees her as a belonging instead of a


real person.


It is the objectification of Kurtz?s Intended that in the end stops Marlow from


telling the truth about Kurtz?s death. With Kutrz?s Intended in mourning, Marlow tells


her, ??The last word he pronounced was- your name?? (Conrad 71). Marlow knows


Kurtz?s true last words, which were ??The horror! The horror!?? (Conrad 64), but he


could not bring himself to tell her the truth. By telling her Kurtz?s true last words,


Marlow would have place her into the real world and she would have had to face those


realities. By keeping her in the dark, Marlow leaves her in her fantasy world where she


will never realize she is more that someone?s possession, she is an individual.


Through the objectification of women in the Heart of Darkness, the true nature of


imperialism as displayed in Kurtz is never revealed to the world. Just as Marlow will not


recognize the views of women as individuals, the world will never recognize the true


nature of imperialism.

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