Tiger Writers: October 2009

Felice's Heart of Darkness presentation reflection -Although I was absent for most of the time that my group was preparing our presentation, I learned a great deal about the symbols of the book. For one, the river is a metaphor for the novella itself. Not only do many important scenes take place on the river, but the river symbolizes how smoothly the story is going. The story itself, I have learned is quite a dark one and therefore, things rarely went smoothly. Throughout the book, Marlow is discovering the harsh reality of how savage people really were at the time. What I do happen to find ironic is that Marlow got along so well with the cannibals. When you think of someone being a cannibal in this day and age, you automatically think of a savage. What civilized person eats other people? However, Marlow found it easiest to get along with them. Is it because the cannibals mostly kept to themselves? That part still confuses me a bit.It also upsets me that women are treated like children. I know it used to be a common perception, but I still am not certain as to why. Woman certainly strive in modern times. Why didn't men give women a chance to prove themselves? Women were never pure and innocent to begin with, whether men wanted to believe that or not.Another part that interested me was when the group that discussed the characters mentioned that Marlow and Kurtz foil each other. I had never looked at it that way before. I knew the main characteristics of both characters and that Marlow was more of a civilized man trying to fight the "urge" to become a savage, while Kurtz was a man who had given in to the savage demands. However, for some reason it never dawned on me to compare the two. They are honestly complete opposites, and through these presentations, I became further aware of it.

After having read Heart of Darkness and listening to two different presentations, as well as presenting my own, many aspects of the book have become more understandable to me. Starting with the setting, I can now better understand the significance of the many different settings where the story takes place. The Congo River, the many villages, as well as the ship itself are three of the most important places where action takes place in the book. In my opinion, the river is not only the most important aspect of the setting; it is a huge part of the symbolism of the story as well. The river represents a lot of things, including life, and its flowing action represents the fluidity of Marlow’s journey, whether it be smooth or bumpy, the river is the one to decide.
The two other presentations, theme and tone, are also very important as well. Themes and tone are obviously two aspects of literature that are necessary to write a successful story. Themes such as death, absurdity of evil, and the destruction of dreams are three of the many themes in this book, and each of them is important in their own way. The tone is important as well, as it plays into the mood of the book and helps further a readers understanding of just what they are reading. -Joshua

The first thing that hit me as I was reading the Heart of Darkness was that Marlow represented the typical Englishmen. He came across as a product of his environment, meaning he was narcissistic and prejudiced. In the first page, after he describes the scene of the Thames, he infers that Great Britain is the greatest nation in the world. (Very narcissistic indeed.) The majority of the G.B. thought this at the time; I suppose it was a result of the hysteria created by colonialism. Perhaps being exposed to different environments and people (or in this case savagery) created a sense of nationalism which led to the importance of remaining civil. This novel reminds me of various novels written by Oscar Wilde. (The importance of being Earnest and Lady Windermeres fan.) These two novels also seem to be a satire poking fun at how at the end of the Victorian era, people began to become more aware of how "uncivilized" they were becoming. This theme is also emphasized as Marlow is taken out of his initial environment and thrown into an environment that is "savage".The novel made me think a lot about how to define or determine a racist. If you only look at the surface of the novel sure you can argue that Marlow is a racist. However, much of his beliefs are products of his environment. It is rare to find some one who accepts and welcomes another race in away that is not biased in that time. This doesnt mean that that I dont think that Marlow is not a racist; I could easily debate both sides of the argument if necessary. Like Anthony, I have found bits of "humorous racism"- I dont have much to say about that either. Besides all of the above, the novel has made me think a lot about colonialism, (In the perspective of a South African and in understanding the motives of my country's "colonial masters".) Civilizing natives is just an excuse or a distraction from raping the natives of their natural resources and using the natives as "working mules". No examples of attempting to civilize the natives have been mentioned in the novel at all. Anyway, I have very strong political options of imperialism and colonialism. (I wont drag that into my response.) -Donnee

I wish I could say the presentations had a large impact on me- however, that would be a blatant lie. But they did, to a small degree, help point out certain aspects of the short story that I had failed to pay any attention to. For example, when my group saw that we had to find symbols for “the women” and the “river”, we all stared at each other blankly and said, “They described women in this novel?” We leafed through the book only to realize that there was a small, yet important description of how women are perceived.
Through these presentations I also learned that everyone has a different take on the novel and what certain things in the novel mean. Which (in all honesty) makes me dislike the book even more for its cryptic symbols. I felt that the group that discussed tone should have mentioned the famous quote, “Oh the horror! The horror!” The tone of that is dark, mysterious, and it irks me. It makes you wonder what Kurtz was horrified of. Was it the fact that he was dying? That he was caught? Or that he finally realized how much of a nutcase he was?

While reading Heart of Darkness I didn’t really notice the different aspects that had come up in the presentations. For instance, my group presented tone which I had never noticed had played a large role in how the book was formed and how the reader would interpret what Marlow was saying. I think the presentations helped me better understand what the frame story of Heart of Darkness really was. I think that the group who presented about setting really helped me understand why Marlow explained the savages and people around him the way he did.
All the presentations explained different points through the story I had trouble understanding. I think the settings presentation was most helpful because it expanded beyond what different things such as the river Marlow as traveling down was ironic because of the savages dying around the river and how water is supposed to signify purity. This presentation as well as my groups presentation about tone along with the presentation about settings were most important because they were both really about the structure of the story and helped explain more about what happened throughout the story in a more literal sense then in figurative as Marlow had explained. - Angela

Ebenezer's reflection on Heart of Darkness

After listening to the entire class speak on the text, I have understood Heart of Darkness in a new light. When each group explained a certain aspect of the novel, it heightened the meaning of the story even more. For example, I concluded after the reading that the tone was in a somber and downhearted manner. However, when my classmates presented their thoughts, they explained various forms of tone included my favorite being satirical. They even went back with good quotations to prove their point and their example convinced me that there was actually many aspects that I had missed. There were also other themes that were pointed out by other groups. One group in particular explained a situation where Marlow talks about the plight of women. Surprisingly enough, some questions that I had about the social circumstance were cleared up completely.
The most astonishing thing about the group presentations pertained to the actions of my own group. Despite our differences on how setting was used in Heart of Darkness, we managed to say most of our points in a strong and organized fashion. When we discussed setting, one individual talked about its application to the characters, another showed that a changing setting can illustrate the plight of colonization. In addition, there were other references to the Thames and Congo rivers. I learned so much from this experience and I hope it continues.
Samuel
While reading Heart of Darkness, the only part I originally found comical at best was the part involving the ignorant doctor. He was measuring Marlow’s head to see if it would shrink due to merely being in Africa. I found it both interesting and somewhat confusing that the use of racist and derogatory terms were comical in the 19th Century, according to the presentation on tone. When satire and irony was brought up for tone, I instantly thought of the cannibals that made up Marlow’s crew. I’m not sure the cannibals were really cannibals though. Is it possible that it was only the way that the whites had viewed them? Think about it, the whites threw the “cannibal’s” hippo meat off the boat, which was cruel, so it’s not like they were planning on eating each other.
It was also ironic that almost every single woman in the book was portrayed as naive. Marlow’s Aunt, really the only reason why he even got him the job, really believes that imperialism is a benefit for the native Africans. Kutz’s Intended believes that Kurtz was performing good deeds, while cheating on her. “Child-like” was a good word to describe the women in this book. They were blind to the evils of imperialism and treated like followers of the males. However, just because they are blind to the evil, it doesn’t exactly mean they are pure, just more evidence for their naiveté, in the book.
The group presentations greatly impacted my understanding of the text. "Heart of Darkness" is a very racist and cold book with a lot of detail and hidden ideas. Symbolism is one of the greatest literary devices Conrad uses and the group work made this more clear to me. My group worked on characterization. We discussed Kurtz, The women, Marlow, The Pilgrims, The Savages and The Manager. Something I found interesting is that my groups characterization of the Women and Black men (savages) is inter-connected to symbolism, which was discussed by Rema's group. At this point, women weren't even looked the same as men were. They were treated as objects only used to create happiness for men. Also, they were thought of as being nieve and stupid. The Black men, like the women, weren't treated as people as well. They were pushed around by the people who were trying to "civilize them." Racism and sexism are shown greatly here.Next, the presentations of tone and setting helped my understanding of the text. The setting changes as the ship moves from the inner station to the central station. The black skulls and drawings in Kurtz's inner station show the imperialism and how Kurtz was aiming for destrcution rather than helping like how he made it seem. Also, the fact that the ship left from London to Africa shows how London may have been superior. Sam's group helped me to understand the real impact of setting. Tone and setting are related because the setting helps to create that cold and earie tone. The tones include dramatic, painfull, and emotional. All together, the presentations helped me to get a hold of the story in a deeper way.-Justine

The biggest thing that the presentations helped to show me was Conrad's use of comedy in the story and more specifically, satire. His use of rascist elements in very blunt and ignorant tones drives home his points about Great Britains imperialism. He wasn't afraid to risk sounding like a rascist if it meant he'd get his point across that Africa isn't a place that makes people into savages, rather Africa is a place where anyone can be a savage and not think twice about it i.e. Kurtz. His tone is very condescending towards how the whites have established themselves in the region where Marlow visits in Africa, and you can tell Conrad has very ill feelings towards imperialism. For example, on the boat after the native attack, Marlow is very critical of the manager on board with him who during the attack nearly fainted upon seeing the dead man, but after the fight was boasting about how they had routed the enemy. This can be intepreted as being symbollic of how British imperialism worked. Anywhere the British went to, including Africa, they were feaful of the natives and their practices. However, once the British had established themselves there, they told the history of such events in a much different light by painting themselves as the victors and seemingly forgetting that they were the one's who were scared at first.

The other big thing these presentations helped me with was the symbolism of the book. To be honest, Ididn't even look for single symbol in the story nor read it in anysort of analytical manner. So when several groups began saying the river was a symbol for a variety of things it deepend my understanding of the book. I took the river as being just that, a river. It was Malows way in, and Kurtz's way out. However, that river could also be symbolic of imperialism, the process of going from being civil to being savage, the conquest of Africa, the subjugation of peoples and more. The list goes on for everything it could represent as well as other symbols in the book such as the boat itself. The boat could be a symbol for the introdcution of new technologies to "undisocovered" regions as well as a place of refuge that represeneted part of Britain herself and her "civility". Afterall, as i recall while on the boat, none of the cannibals ate one another as MArlow pointed out in a cheeky manner. Overall these presentations helped me gain a better understanding of Conrad's use of symbolism in HoD and his use of satire to make fun of imperialism. -Anthony M
Heart of Darkness Reflection:

For the two days of the heart of darkness presentations with our group mates, I honestly learned about other specific features of the book when we were conducting our own presentation and listening to others. I think it was helpful to me and I hope others, I enjoyed this task, it got everyone more involved and everyone came out of it or at least myself came out of it with a better knowledge and understanding of the book, and some of the details I may have overlooked or skipped when I was reading. I truly never knew there was so much to any book, from this class alone I have been able to understand and go a step deeper as to what the author is truly trying to convey to the reader, through classroom discussions I’ve learned so much. This project alone helped me build a better understanding for heart of darkness, I liked the group work and having everyone contribute a bit, I also learned a significant amount more rather than doing an individual paper on reflecting on only my opinions and feelings. I liked doing this; I think we as a class should do this more often, its highly enjoyable and very rewarding.-Briana

After finishing Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, I felt a little confused and had a variety of questions. In some parts of the novel, I was puzzled and unaware of what was happening in the following scenes. The group presentations helped a lot with my understanding of the story. I understand now some of the basic themes, tones, and symbols used throughout the story. However, as helpful as the group presentations were, I believe that more can be done in the future to help us understand a novel better. I think we could benefit from in-class discussions. Yes, we did one or two discussions on Heart Of Darkness, but it didn’t feel like enough. I’m hoping that with our next book, we could have a few more discussions. -Justin

Tiger Writers

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Reflections on group presentations for Heart of Darknes

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Upcoming assignments: Week of October 19

Friday, October 9, 2009

Vocabulary for week of October 12, 2009

Updates and looking ahead!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Assignments Week of October 5, 2009

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Theme for English B--by Langston Hughes

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