An Outpost of Progress

In my senior year of high school i took AP literature and in doing so we read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I remember thinking that the reading was so boring, over detailed on everything he was saying. It took him ten pages to describe the river that they where on in the Conga. It took my class months to analyze what he was saying which was aggravating to me that her could not come out with what he wanted to say. When reading An Outpost of Progress i felt the exact same way when it first began. I kept thinking to myself that he was writing the Heart of Darkness but had placed a different title on it. Because this was a short story versus a novel it was a smoother read for me and I appreciated his linguistic style a lot more it was still just a so/so ready for me. It is interesting Conrad’s cynical view of man, believing that all men are evil but he was not the only person to see man’s evil nature dominating. It is ironic that their evil is contributed to their deaths. He was obviously trying to make a point on that. But Conrad also pinned the European men as the root of evil since their naive nature turned them evil. I feel like writers back then always portrayed whites as the dominate and supreme human being that everyone should strive to me but Conrad had a different portrail.

Fitzgerald

Whenever I read writings from F. Scott Fitzgerald I am always reminded about how much the surrounding culture affects writing. All of the Fitzgerald works that I have read are very similar. They have a very heavy emphasis on wealth, social standing, and partying. This is very similar to what I understand about his life; his wife Zelda was also of this same mind set and culture. The fact that Zelda refused to marry him until she was assured that he would be able to maintain her elegant lifestyle is very telling. Having experienced this type of class warfare first hand he was able to transform those feelings seamlessly into his writings.

In this particular story Bernice Bobs Her Hair we find our self in the midst of one of Fitzgerald’s famous literary parties. Where we have members of high society and members of not so high society. We have this character Bernice who from all accounts is from a wealthy family and yet still unpopular. The other rich characters namely Bernice’s cousin Marjorie are quite perplexed as to how she can be so drab and boring. It is quite apparent in the writing that the other characters believe that being from a proper family necessitates that the family members are skilled in the art of socializing.

These aspects of Fitzgerald’s works actually ring true in what I have learned about that time period. I think that these works are extremely useful in providing color and volume to the historical accounts of that time period. Sometimes it is more useful to analyze historical truths through the context of fiction.

An Outpost of Progress

My senior year of high school I read Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and remember being so intrigued by it and now that I read his ‘Outpost of Progress’ short story I am not disappointed whatsoever. I found the similarities between the stories to be many, they basically both consist of the same plot which involves Europeans working on foreign land and basically them being the bag guys and corrupting the natives. I really enjoy Conrad’s style of writing and how much attention he pays to symbolism which he portrays with the weather and in colors, he is a very talented writer that makes sure people talk about his work for days on end. In ‘An Outpost of Progress’ I liked how he created a title which is completely ironic because although these men are stationed at a trading site and their job is to build an empire they are completely incapable and under qualified and therefore there really is no progress being made on their part and I find the way Conrad played around with the title very amusing and admirable. Conrad’s stories could be discussed all day because they are works of genius that represent so many different things that were going on in the time such as how colonization was more of a poison rather than a medicine for the natives.

“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

I think everyone has heard of Earnest Hemingway but I am embarrassed to say I have never read any of his stories till now. The first thing I noticed was the massive amount of dialogue he used but it did not bother me when reading it. Many of the quotes were followed by italized passage which told stories which was another fun change from other authors. The whole tone of this story was very depressing to me. Harry one of the main characters sees the world more as things he should have done or didn’t do rather than the things he has and did do. We hear regret in each of his stories instead of excitement for the fun things he did. This man was dying of something curable and his lack of strength and desire to get better is also depressing and somewhat frustrating. He seems to have a low opinion of himself with no real reason to. It doesn’t seem like he has done anything truly wrong. Something that I wanted to bring up in class was the hyena. I know it has a big significance in death but I don’t know why it is a hyena. Is this hyena a good thing? Does Harry want to see the Hyena again? I was also curious about the mountain. Mount Kilimanjaro is obviously important but why? It is in the title and I want a clarification of why The Snows of Kilimanjaro?

(Week 6)?

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is about a man named Harry who is dying and is demeaning his wife in the process. The dialogue through out the story is full of a push and pull between the nameless wife and Harry. While all she does is try to help him and keep him positive he yells at her and calls her names, apologizes, and then does it again. I don’t quite think that this is him trying to push her away because he is dying but more of him trying to tell her how he truly feels about her but feels bad whenever he does. If you’re going to die regardless, why die lying? Harry didn’t love his wife. He loved a women before her but with all of the quarreling in their relationship it eventually ended. He spent his life after that trying to fill the void she left with various women.

“Outpost of Progress”

I missed class on Monday so I am not quite sure how our class thought of “Outpost of Progress” by Joseph Conrad but I really enjoyed it. There are so many different things I wanted to discuss of it. First were the characters Kayerts and Makola they are the main characters and I love how they were portrayed as being lazy and almost ignorant. They had their minds set that the way they knew how to live life was the right way and that they were coming to Africa to show these people how to live. The people have lived and survive the same way for hundreds of years and these two cannot even last a few months in their way of life. These men changed throughout the story. They make it obvious they are not as smart as the Africans and need simple rules and laws that you find in a more developed society to survive, even though these things constrict you. The liked each other at the beginning of the story and ended up because the cause of each other’s death in the end. In the story they call Africa “dark” and say the European world where they are from is “light” or going to bring the light. As I understood this story was written to show colonialism as bad and unnecessary in society. When the men die this idea of colonialism dies too. I wish I could have made it to class to discuss this idea and get a better understanding of it. I am sure there is much more about it I missed.

(Week 6)?

 

“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

Hemingway is one of the greatest writers in American history. In his works, he tends to write a lot about his life by including his qualities in a character. In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, a couple is stranded in Africa during their safari that had gone wrong. Harry is the main character on which the story focuses.To waste the time while they wait, he sits back and thinks about all the memories he has in life. He remembers not only the good times, but the bad times wishing he could have done things differently. His wife is the other character, but she is never named. I find that kind of ironic because Hemingway was married four times. It would make sense for him to portray the wife with little importance. In the story, she is always nagging Harry to try to better himself. This could have been one of Hemingway’s wife and the reason why they divorced. Who knows?

In the end, Harry gets bit by a hyena. His wound becomes infected and he dies a slow death as a result. The view of the whole story is very pessimistic. It is filled with doubt and regret. Things go wrong from the beginning and never get better. A lot of Hemingway’s works have a death that the reader does not see coming and this work is no stranger to that.

 

An Outpost of Progress

An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad is about Europeans and their colonization of Africa during the nineteenth century. The way Conrad goes about explaining this colonization reveals his outlook on the whole idea itself. He believes that because men and women are naturally evil, colonization will not fix this but its an illusion created to seem like it fixes this natural evil. He goes on to explain that the European men Kayerts and Carlier were dirty and incompetent> one would think that most people would want to make the Africans seem dumb and savage-like but Conrad does not, he instead makes the Europeans seem to be stupid and the Africans understood more than the Europeans about what was going on.

Another aspect of Conrad’s story that was not really touched on in class much was the aspect of modernism about death and the fact that it began during the time of the wars. Because Conrad adds in the death of Carlier and Kayerts, one was killed by a gun and the other hung himself. While living during the wars death was constant and alwas around so incorporating it into his story was not just to add dramatic effect.

I also thought Conrad’s spirituality throughout the story was interesting. It was seen in his tone especially while talking about the character Gobila, his language and use of capitalization of “Evil Spirits” makes it apparent that Conrad has left a special part of his story to think about spirituality.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Grand Inquisitor”

“The Grand Inquisitor” has been one of the few stories that have not bore or confuse me. Stories about Christ seem to catch my attention even though I am not extremely religious. “The Grand Inquisitor” is a story about Christ coming back to earth as he said he would. Christ was walking around healing and helping people in the town. The town church heard about this and sent the Grand Inquisitor to arrest Christ and put him in prison so he did as he was told. While in prison the Grand Inquisitor went to speak to Christ in his cell. He explained to Christ that the reason they imprisoned him was because when Christ was tempted by the devil he refused all three temptations and by refusing them he gave freedom to the people to believe what they choose to believe. The church had been trying for so long to get everyone to believe in Christ and since some people had the freedom to choose otherwise they had to arrest Christ so they can keep trying to force people to believe in Christ. The Grand Inquisitor tells Christ that it is his fault that people have the freedom to believe in whatever they like since he did not accept the three temptations the devil had offered him before. This whole time Christ listens to the Grand Inquisitor with patience and respect. When he was done talking Christ kissed him on the lips and he let Christ go.

Snows of Kilimanjaro

First of all I have problems reading stories with a lot of dialogue, but I liked this particular story right off bat. I found the relationship between Harry and his wife to be quite comical. He is pessimistic and pretty blatant about not believing he will survive, he just wants to enjoy his last moments in peace. However, his wife will not let him give up and obsesses about what she can do to help. She is assuring help is on the way when Harry on the other hand has given up hope. No longer did he have pain to feel once the gangrene set in he only felt tired and defeated. All he wanted was for the end to come sooner. Man feels need to hurt in order to survive, Harry portrays this clearly and I believe it is a very true message. When we are in pain somewhere in our sick human nature we feel joy on bringing others down with us when we fall. He had lost all motivation to do work and eventually lost his talent in writing. Once he lost this love all other love in his life disappeared, however he was better at faking than actually ultimately loving. It was not this woman’s fault. He had accepted defeat long before his sickness. Harry character is a great example of the primitive ways of man. He sought after pleasure and when he lost all of it he chased after anything to fill the emptiness within him.