Literature of the Picaresque – Writing

Jing Lin

JPeer

November 15, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Jing Lin

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Eng 2850

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Professor Jeff Peer

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 November 14 2016

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Cover letter

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 Dear Readers,

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 For this essay, I want to prove that the women status is comparatively lower than men at that specific period in the society. I try to use different parts from the book to show that my thesis is correct. I chose the scene that Marlow met with his aunt, the scene that Marlow saw the native woman and the scene that Marlow met Kurtz’s fiancée. I think all these scenes are the most important scenes that contain women from the book. I try to connect all the evidences to my claim. The body paragraph are well developed this time because I follow the CEA method. However, the only thing I worried about is the relationship between the analysis and the evidences with the claim. I am afraid the claim can’t support my thesis. I hope I will have improvement next time.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 1 Heart of darkness is a short novel written by Joseph Conrad, which is written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow’s experience as an ivory transporter down to Congo River in Central Africa. As Marlow travels from the Outer Station to the Central Station and finally up the river to the inner Station, he encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery. The status of women is shown by different scenes in the book. For instance, when Marlow introduces his aunt at chapter one and the last part of the book which is Marlow meets with the fiancée of Kurtz can show that the status of women in the society at that time. The women status is comparatively lower than men at that specific period in the society.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 3 Marlow’s introduction of his aunt reflects the patriarchal ideology excluding women from men’s sphere. To some extent, the author shows the inequality and the status’s differences between men and women in the book. The scene of Marlow introducing his aunt can support this idea. Although Marlow says that “on my own legs” (9), obviously he needs the help from his aunt. Marlow can’t hide the gender discrimination by asking her aunt for help. “Would you believe it? I tried the women. I, Charlie Marlow, set the women to work- to get a job. Heavens!” (9) The words “tried” and “set” are transition verbs which show the gender inequality perfectly. This exhibits that men are active and powerful and women are in a subject position which can be moved or used by men whatever they wanted. The author shows his writing style in this paragraph. Not only by just using some figurative languages, but also uses that kind of minor words like “tried” or “set” in order to let the readers to think about the hidden meaning behind the words. Both words are so simple, which means the author expresses that the fact that men own the world and women just listen to men.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 The appearance of the African women can have the comparison of the status between the European women and the native women. The native women live with more freedom than the European women.

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 “She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, and innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men that hung about her glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, 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.”(61)

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 2 There are different decorations on different parts of bodies on this native woman like the “knee”, “elbow” and “cheek”. Comparing the clothes from the native and the European women, there are huge differences. The clothing style of European women is so simple, not like men. However, the clothing style of the native women is so extravagant which is totally different with the European. The author wants to use the clothing style of two different countries’ women to show the life style. The one in Africa can feel much more freedom than the one in European. In this passage, Marlow just describes the outlook and the action of her. The opposite adjective pairs like “savage and superb, and wild-eyed and magnificent” show the oxymoronic sense from the author. “Savage” is the word to describe someone or something not civilized or not educated but “superb” means something or someone excellent. Both words are consonance and they just showed the huge comparison between the status of European women and the African women. This way of writing style indicates a vivid effect to readers. The readers can easily understand Marlow’s torte experience in the wild Africa of realizing the unfair reality in comparing with the European. The word “magnificent” enhances the strangeness of the sense. In Marlow’s point of view, Kurtz’s mistress is “superb and magnificent”. Marlow sees “the wilderness” in the background, which forms a big contrast to show this woman has a high status by contrasting the background and herself.

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 1 Kurtz ‘s fiancée is one of the best examples to show the unfairness of the status of women in that society. The women in that society have a relatively lower status with men. All women rely on their husband. Women won’t go out to work to take care of themselves. They must live with their husband because men can support women financially and mentally. If not, they will feel very sad and hard to live later. Kurtz’s fiancée is one of the examples. “But I do not. I cannot-I cannot believe-not yet. I cannot believe that I shall never see him again, that nobody will see him again, never, never, never.” (76) The author represents the sadness of Kurtz’s fiancée because of losing his husband. Kurtz is the one who goes out to work and takes care the family. However, Kurtz’s fiancée is supposed to stay at home and take care the housework. And now Kurtz is dead, which makes a sense that Kurtz’s fiancée loses everything. In the society nowadays, men and women are more like equally important. Men and women will also work together. The traditional concept that women should stay-in is no longer exist right now. The author also expresses the sympathy to women in that society. Kurtz’s fiancée is just one of the women in that big society. Conrad is trying to use Marlow’s words to show his own pity to European women.

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 “The last word he pronounced was- your name. I heard a light sigh and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. ‘I knew it—I was sure!’… She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle. Would they have fallen, I wonder, if I had rendered Kurtz that justice which was his due? Hadn’t he said he wanted only justice? But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark—too dark altogether….” (77)

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 1 Actually, Marlow knows that Kurtz’s last word is “horror! Horror!” instead of saying her name. Marlow tells the lie because he doesn’t want the woman feel sad again. She already lost his husband. She will collapse immediately if she know his husband didn’t even think about her before his death. That’s why the author said “ It would have been too dark—too dark altogether….” because the inequality of the status also make the author feel bad, he uses the word “dark” to indicate the darkness of human and also the darkness of the unfairness in the status between men and women.

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 1 Heart of darkness is probably the greatest novella in English and is one of the greatest in any language. Joseph Conrad expresses different themes like the darkness side of imperialism and colonists. The gender inequality is another hidden theme from this book. The status of women is much lower than men in that society and there are different passages and scenes can prove this is true.