Not Quite Conversation, It Was Somewhere In Between

When approached with the idea of speaking openly to the opposite sex about what really vex’s us the most about them, I don’t think one person in our class was indifferent. Anticipating the session and thrilled to spew our innermost frustrations, we all rushed to English class that day. What we ended up finding when we walked through the doors turned out to be confusion, misunderstandings and even more vexing behavior. Crazy enough, it seemed like we had absolutely no inkling as to how to speak to the opposite gender, weird. Though, it is becoming more prevalent that it is not only the opposite gender, but all genders all over the place having lack of verbal abilities with any one, and it’s nothing short of utter chaos if you ask me.

Things unfortunately always have, and seem to be destined always continue on in this manner. Men and women are just far too different a mammal to properly coexist. That being said, there is a definite distinction between mentally being unable to comprehend the other sex, and just plain old not wishing to discuss problematic matters.The husband and wife in Katherine Anne Porter‘s short story “Rope” skirt around the subject of the man’s possible adultery, but no solution develops. Instead, the wife nags and complains about his lack of housework, coffee, and the allusive rope in which the man had purchased on a whim. With absolutely no actual dialogue between the characters of the story, the reader ends the tale feeling the same emotions as the characters, frustrated, unresolved and confused.

In a similar-but-not-similar-at-all way, Ernest Hemingway uses the idea of miscommunication in his story “Hills Like White Elephants” to tell the tale of a man and his girl discussing, but not really discussing, the idea of an abortion. The man confesses that it is “really an awfully simple operation” (Hemingway, 41) and that he just “knows [she] wouldn’t mind it… It’s really not anything” (Hemingway, 43) without any true knowledge of the proceedings, having obviously never experienced an abortion himself. To this, the girl does not respond at all, instead looks at the ground in silence, body language that to some would obviously mean a sense of unease, but to others nothing at all. Rather than speaking about the dark cloud that is circling about their conversation they speak in vague fragments and never truly come to a final conclusion, similar to “Rope” in the lack of resolution.

Communication errors are not only true in marriages and partnerships, but in each variation of relationships. It seems as though more and more daily distractions of the technological age have caused hefty language barriers between those speaking the same language. Even now, as I try to express my ideas into this internet realm, I’ve browsed Facebook, Tumblr, and taken lengthy texting breaks before even completing my first paragraph. It seems as though our lack of attention is taking a toll on many things, verbal expression being a dominating addition. How are we meant to have an insightful and inspiring conversation with a friend over tea while someone else could be on Facebook at that exact moment changing their relationship status to “Single”? It’s impossible, it just cannot be done.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Perrine’s Story and Structure. Eleventh Edition. USA: Micheal Rosenberg, 2006.

Guilty Cocker Spaniels Eating Table Scraps

Feeling entirely removed from third world atrocities is a troubling normality in European and North American societies, and always has been. If you’re sitting in front of a computer screen right now reading this blog I’m sure you can confirm, no matter how shameful it may be, that you’re guilty of just “not caring” at some point. Joseph Conrad’s purpose in writing Heart of Darkness (Conrad, 1998) was to use it as a tool to give the European’s a new perspective and a sense of relation to those suffering in the Congo, as well as effectively shedding light onto these events. Joseph uses his main character, Marlow, as a sort of reflection of self and Marlow’s views often reflect his own, which gives the reader looking glass into the mind of Joseph Conrad. It’s fair to assume that the slaves working in the Congo would be unable to attain a book, let alone read the words on the page, so it becomes obvious that Conrad was targeting the true ignorant humans, the wealthy, when writing his novella. Using the Accountant, Lawyer and Director of Companies who are all experienced and wealthy Europeans, Joseph creates characters that his target audience can relate to. Through Marlow we can sense Conrad’s prominent hostility towards these naïve and self-centered men who attend only to the “mere incidents of surface” (Conrad 183) and ignore the stillness as it “watches [the] fellows performing on [their] respective tight-ropes for – what is it? half-a-crown a tumble-“ (Conrad 184) Through Marlow’s voice, Conrad expresses his distaste for the corporate disciples that know of the immense heinousness of their actions, yet keep their blindfolds of hundred dollar bills wrapped tightly around their eyes.

By exposing the truths of consumerism, readers are presented a different perspective from their own, “buy, buy, buy” commercialist mindset. Conrad takes advantage of strong imagery to convey his own ideals on paper. To those who receive large amounts of ivory their greed may seem commonplace and admissible, but Heart of Darkness (Conrad, 1998) tells the reader otherwise. The reader is presented with three “station managers” all in some sort of ivory collecting competition, who’s main interests all lie with ivory consumption. The most extreme case of ivory obsession would have to be the second station manager and his uncle, who wish to have their competitors “hanged for example.” (Conrad 181) These mean, bloodthirsty with power, seem all the more heinous when juxtaposed with a group of native cannibals who aid Marlow and his crew on their journey to the second station. Even though these “savages” would naturally be considered hazardous and menacing, they never once made an attempt to manhandle their shipmates, even once they had ran out of food for several days. This led Marlow to “[perceive]- in a new light, as it were- how unwholesome the pilgrims looked…” (Conrad 194) When contrasted to the station managers, and even the pilgrims on the ship, the cannibal men clearly show a set of higher moral standards. Even as they were possibly starving to death, they never considered using men, whom they had no true emotional attachment to, as a tool for their own survival. The same can not be said of the wealthy European men, who were willing to have their competitors hanged for merely possessing more ivory than themselves.

Conrad’s intentions when writing his novella are apparent when one decides to remove the proverbial blindfolds of ignorance and shallow ideals. His portrayals of selfish prosperity and selfless barbarity are meant to cause deep self reflection and reflection on the state of humankind, not only as it stood in the 1800’s, but as it still stands today. It leaves one with the question, why have we been shown the error of our ways, yet our planet remains in the same miserable state?

Works Cited:

Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” Heart of Darkness and Other Tales. Ed. Cedric Watts. 2^nd ed. Reading, Berkshire: Oxford University Press, 1998. 135-252.

 

Filling Jars Full of Silence, You’ll Get Nowhere

I felt as though, having read the feed of blogs from last year’s grade 12 class, I would have an advantage in blogging, but sadly sitting in front of this computer I can’t help but have a “Doh!” feeling. It is just so hard for me to verbalize everything I’ve learned not only from the first book in the novella Heart of Darkness, but from our English class as a whole. I’ve always had an interest in current events and the state of our world, but monotone words on a glossy computer screen never really did it for me, so I felt constantly in a state of ignorance. This class has made me realize there are alternative ways to learn without the necessity of a draining screen, something that never seemed conductive to my learning anyways. The strongest form of knowledge for me would probably be discussion. I’ve realized through this class that there is no shame in having an opinion and even though others may have ideals different than my own, there’s no shame in participating in a classroom discussion. That being said, even when contributing to the discussion I feel as though I’m fumbling over every single word, a reoccurring issue in my day to day life, yay.

So, initially when asked the broad question “What did you learn from Book One?”, speaking of course of the defeating novella Heart of Darkness, my lack of verbal abilities was the first thing on my mind and I sank a little bit lower in my chair, feeling as though I hadn’t really absorbed anything at all. This pathetic feeling continued until I actually began to persevere into Part II of the book. I found myself reading the pages with a certain ease that I had not felt while reading the novel previously. I also began to discern myself reading deeper into the text and even catching the certain nuances that I would have never noticed had I not expanded my mind to the text. And funnily enough, I actually felt proud of myself, something I haven’t been extremely accustomed to while reading. Though, I do feel like a great deal of my new and broader Darkness perspective comes as well from our discussions and viewings in class. To this day I still find myself dwelling on the events surrounding the blood diamonds, which were previously underway in Sierra Leone but have ended and now unfortunately moved to other parts of Africa. There were hundreds upon thousands but what seems like MILLIONS of atrocious happenings to ponder and consider, but I found myself the most disturbed by the child soldiering. Rory Anderson, a senior Africa policy adviser in Washington for World Vision, found himself face to face with a child soldier, and his gun, “‘Suddenly, I was both frightened and broken-hearted,’ Anderson recalled in an interview. ‘He was a kid. He could have been my baby brother. I could have turned him across my knee and spanked him. Except that he had that gun. And the power.'” (Page) Hearing of the defacing of human beings is disgusting and heart-wrenching enough, but it just seems to particularly yank on a chord within me to read about, and see, small and helpless children being raped, mutilated and drugged. The videos and discussions in class, mostly from a certain few students, must have evoked a passion in me that has also reflected upon my reading. Though Conrad has still not made this book easy for the modern day reader (me), I have lost my feeling of helplessness while reading this novel, proving to me that no matter how lazy I want to be, unfortunately it actually IS possible to understand this befuddling tale.

Works Cited:

Page, Clarence. “Blood Diamonds Sparkle with Evil.” Newsday. 18 December 2006. Web. 13 November 2011. <http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1218-29.htm&gt;

Heart of Hatred

I don’t actually hate this novella, it’s too early for that, but I can say with confidence that given the choice, I would toss this book back where ever it initially came from, or maybe into a wood chipper. If i was not being forced to read Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ for my English 12 class, after picking it up and browsing the first two pages, I would have surely given up. Conrad’s narrator seems to dwell on the small details surrounding him or his ship mates, and Marlow seems to tell terribly unexciting stories. These facts alone would be alright for me as I have read monotonous stories in the past, but Conrad’s language in this novella just skips right over my head, and frustratingly so. The truth is, that when today we had a class discussion on what had happened thus far in the book I had NO IDEA what others in the class were talking about already, this troubles me. I generally don’t have a heard time reading classic novels but thus far ‘Heart of Darkness’ has not won over my heart. I’ve been told that this novella sometimes takes up to 3 reads for the reader to entirely comprehend the text, but I have much too little patience for that.