Conrad's Racism

      Reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has brought up many speculations over the true reality of racism and what it represents to me personally. Part 1 of the novel only comes close to introducing the true idea over such a matter and leaves a certain ambiguity over what Marlow, our main character, thinks of this issue.

    I've never really seen myself as a person confronted by hatred towards others based on their color, race or religion. It's not only unethical but it brings strong confrontations with my morals and values learned at home. Then again, the novel is set in a different context with a different set of ideals in a very different reality which end up making me question whether negative thoughts over racism are something connected to our post-modern world or where they always present in society. It's very interesting to see how Conrad extracts Marlow from this issue and really leaves it up to us to decipher whether or not there's irony in his words or whether he's just another believer of the empire. 

      The early 1900's were flooded with a steady stream of oppression and repression in the european colonies of Africa. A few decades earlier they'd cut out a map of Africa in the Berlin Conference changing the history of the continent forever, leaving the people under cruel regimes looking only for raw materials and an exploitable work force. This makes the concept of racism really obscure at the time the book was written. It was the reality known to the world. As I continue the novel maybe Conrad's standpoint will be clear on this issue but for now it'll remain in the darkness.

     

The Great Nations of Europe

This song poses a very interesting and almost childish perspective of european imperialism and colonization in the 1500's. We can find irony laying over its lyrics all over such as "Hide your wives and daughter; hide the groceries too. The great nations of Europe comin through".  Its ironic because if these are "the great nations of europe" why do the pose such a threat to your wives and daughters. Theres a tention between what is said v what is meant in the use of "the great nations of europe". Several other parts of the song are pretty straight forward and contain little to no irony. "Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone. You never seen anyone so gone." Here he simply makes reference to the disgraceful fate that met the indigenous tribes in south america excluding irony from its words.

Chief Bromden

          Past experiences shape a person's personality and mold his behavior as he progresses through life. As we've come to know, Chief Bromden struggled with his invisibility as a young child forcing him to be shun as an outcast from society and ultimately be locked up in an asylum. We come to meet him as a guy who acts deaf and dumb to hide from others because of his fears and insecurities. I, like him, have found myself in situations were this is my only defense mechanism.

"I was a lot bigger in those days." (36)


      One summer I went to camp for the first time. It'd be only a couple of weeks and I'd be back home but I didn't really know anyone and wasn't really up to making any new friends. Like Chief, I hid away from others secluding myself and avoiding contact with my fellow campers to avoid that fear of rejection and simply to feel comfortable with myself. As a few days went by I was finally approached by another spanish speaking camper who started chatting me up. I went from no words to a few monosyllables and then finally I broke out. That feeling of comfort, understanding, and confidence burst into me and I'd never talked so much in my entire life.

       The chief experiences a similar effect that molds him back and makes him grow out of his shell when McMurphy approaches him. He feels comfortable and lets down his fears. Without even realizing  it he's growing back to his original size and at the end he's not only talking but standing up for himself. 

The Combine's Machines

         In Kesey's OFOCN machines seem to take crucial place presenting both chief's perspective on the ward and the symbolic meaning of these bizarre movements happening across the hospital. His almost delusional descriptions give place to an intricate system of machines that control the patients and allow Nurse Ratchet's full control over their minds. Its these images that really open our minds to understand the degree of control thats ongoing all throughout the ward.



"...she wields a sure power that extends in all directions on hairlike wires too small for anybody’s eye but mine; I see her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants." (19)

            Machine stand as a total personification of control and helps Kesey send us that image of complete regulation and order inflicted in the patients minds. They hide behind the walls and work in cooperation with each other to keep everything in the ward under control. It represents how the nurse is able to exert her power giving it more momentum in a mechanical almost physical way ignoring the fact that her tactics are straight out psychological. Those machines we don't see, but they are moving everything around just as she wants it to be and exemplify the symbolic meaning of power through strong images we could consider being Chief's madness.

        In the end machines are almost automated objects that work under someone else's control just as these patients in the hospital ward.