英国小说论文2

Heart of Darkness is one of the most famous works written by Joseph Conrad. When I first touched upon the excerpt of this novella, a specific idea came into my mind, that is, this novella is may be the mother of the movie Apocalypse Now which talks about the brutal behaviors of the colonists in Vietnam. Both of the works reflect the same picture depicting the colonialism whether the story happed in Africa or in South Asia. Colonialism is the main topic or the major point which stand for Conrad’s intention to compose this novella.

Heart of Darkness enjoys a great reputation in British literature, attracting quite a number of critics or readers to give a pile of papers with comments. Some well-known scholars even present the comment like: This novella belongs to the most outstanding novellas in British literature. The reason why the novella appeals so many critics and readers lies in the fact that it provides critics and readers a lot of angles or space to make a comment or have a deep consideration. The novella may be related with the spiritual analysis theory, the historical events, humanity, and some other aspects. What I am interested in here is the colonialism itself. With the combination of the movie Apocalypse Now, I would like to express my own views or analysis on the novella.

From the novella, we know that Mr. Kurtz is a white colonist who settled down in Africa. Like all the colonists, he showed off his superiority to the local people and would like to have the power to dominate all the locals with his own intention. What the author depicted between the words is that Mr. Kurtz’s original intention is to save the civilization of the African people and create them a good life in the future. But all the facts on his duration in Africa are beyond his expectation. He did not save the local people, the black ones, and at the end of the novella, his life was ended with the degeneration. Mr. Kurtz has not finished his goal, but go to the deuce. The same situation also happens in the movie Apocalypse Now. An American soldier did not return to his own country after the Vietnam War. He decided to settle down on the land where he struggled, in order to change the local traditions or some backward manners and ideas. He also wanted to create a better life for Vietnam people. However, the happiness of the domination and the overflow of the power or control produced a monster at the end. The American soldier would like to be the emperor of the land and would like to have an entire

control of all the Vietnam people. Therefore, a bad final result is waiting for him. The God called the monster back to the heaven.

Both of the two characters in the novella and movie come into death in the end. In Heart of Darkness, a terrific and horrible atmosphere haunts around the whole story. Conrad seems to tell us a black Africa, a totally black continent. Mr. Kurtz wanted to change the situation. He though he could create African peoples a bright future, but at last he was involved into the black atmosphere, not only in the continent, but also in himself. What Conrad really wants to tell us about the colonist? A brutal man or a man with a good mind but behaves badly.

From my point of few, I believe that Joseph Conrad wants to create a positive character in the novella. I guess that it is relatively close to Conrad’s own journey in Africa. Conrad witnessed a black, disordered and even brutal society in Africa, which looks like the primitive society. He may be firmly convinced that only the colonists from the European countries would have the ability to make a subtle change of the African continent. However, the devils in human being’s minds overturned his original opinion. A white man, who is well-educated, would lost his own principle and sensibility to carry on the domination, even the hegemony on the persons who are weak and poor. The colonist realizes the willingness of domination, and brings more brutal means into force. The colonists finally lost the humanity. This is what Conrad depicted in his novella, Mr. Kurtz. Ironically, the man who witnessed all the cruel reality has no courage to admit it and he just wants to make it as a secret.

Colonialism can not be a positive or good word, whether in the middle of 18th society or in contemporary society. Human beings have the power and ambition to conquer the nature, but finally they are revenged by the nature on big disasters. If human beings have the wild ambition to conquer the continent and being the colonist of the land, he must be punished by the god because of the evil and unrealistic intention.

07英语3班 马卿 070141679