Chinua Achebe Article Response

I want to start off by saying that I understand where my fellow Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, is coming from in his article. Personally I believe that Joseph Conrad misconstrued the strength of African people by writing them out to be weak. I agree that "Heart of Darkness" projects the image of Africa as the other world..." and as an outskirt. Conrad basically separates Africa from the rest of world simply because it was yet to discovered and explored. I get that it is a another continent, however I feel that writing it out as a place of "darkness" is discriminatory and inappropriate. The entire novella is primarily from the perspective of two white men that come from a life style that displays European imperialism; which I think makes them completely unreliable in giving any type of insight on the Congo as a colony and its inhabitants. Africa was only characterized as a place of "darkness" because it was new and came with unheard of trials and tribulations that a white man has never encountered before. Conrad used Marlow's compassion and optimism to draw the reader into believing that white people are somewhat innocent and kind at heart. "Yes we are taking over your home but it is for a purpose; we do not mean to oppress you". That is why Marlow is supposed to represent the heart and positivity in the novella and the darkness resembles Africans. When I think of darkness, I associate it with evil and negativity. And when a person goes to visit Africa for the first time, I can say based off of my trip that it is not a mysterious, evil or dangerous place that one should fear or beware of. Another point that I would like to touch upon is the mockery Joseph Conrad makes of the African dialect. Chinua Achebe writes in his article that the Africans in Heart of Darkness “made a quick violent babble of uncouth sounds” and “exchanged short grunting phrases”. I believe it is fair to say that Conrad wrote Africans out to be illiterate and clearly uneducated. Now I can understand where the lack of education may come from since it is a third world country and in the novella undiscovered land, however from my experience as an African myself, we take a lot of pride in the language we speak whether it be proper English or cultural slang. Making grunting noises and awkward sounds reminds me a of a monkey. So is Conrad saying that the African people he confronted spoke like animals? That to me is considered an insult and a form of arrogance on his part to even write about. Coming from a white European man who is writing about his first time going to Africa, he has more to offer than any African immigrant. White people have money, power, education and dominance whereas immigrants, in fact African immigrants are working from the ground up with no luxury or advantage. Marlow’s observation are not only an example of Conrad’s African experience, but the misinterpretation of Africa’s dignity.

Wuthering Heights

I am going to take this opportunity to write another proposal for my Wuthering Heights essay. I already know this is cliche but the grass seriously is not greener on the other side of the fence. That is the only theme other than love that I can actually relate to in this book. Based on the setting of Wuthering Heights (as a property) and Thrushcross Grange, Emily Brontë sees the world in two different ways: the simple polar opposites of day and night. It is simple because you wake up in the morning, see that the sun is shining through your window and your heart melts with peace. What a nice way to start your day right? Good weather clear blue sky and fresh roses blossoming from the your neighbors garden. That is the feeling of daytime. During the day you are awake, you are on your feet and you are happy. However, Emily Brontë has revealed through the existence of Wuthering Heights that she believes in opposites. It makes sense to have nighttime. It gets dark outside and things get quiet. In fact, a lot of bad things happen in the dark. Sorry to be gruesome, but people get kidnapped in the dark. Now I am not saying these things do not happen during the day. However, night has been given this image of danger and secrecy. The night represents the bad while the day represents the good; some people just do not know that. I guess Emily Brontë sees that there is some favoritism going on in the world. People prefer to look at the good instead of the bad, which is okay in order to live a positive life. But Wuthering Heights explains that you cannot have the good without the bad; it should not be ignored.

Thought Process

The first time I read this poem it went through one ear and out the other. I felt like I was reading the poem but my mind was somewhere else because I had no idea what I had just read. In order to answer the question in the prompt I used a portion of the TPCASTT Directions on how on how analyze poetry ( I figured it might help me understand the poem better considering the fact that I was completely clueless). Since the first T stands for title I asked myself what could "Base Details" mean and combined that with some paraphrasing. When I looked back in the poem it seemed like base was being described as a place, "I'd live with scarlet Major at the Base...(2). The poem mentions war so that led me to believe that Major was similar to a sergeant major or someone of high authority in the  military. So I started thinking of "base" as the main camp. I started skipping around with the TPCASTT because I eventually decided to just flow freely through my thought process. I looked at poem closer and read each line carefully over and over again. I realized that the speaker starts his first word with "if" and then continues on to give what seem like examples of what he would do if he were "fierce and bald and short of breath (1)" so I'm getting the feeling that this man is in combat running for his life away from gunfire. Everything after line one is merely an example of what would take place if he were fierce, bald and short of breath. So my first inference can be that he's not any of those things that he just described. These are all things that he would do. One specific poetic device that writer used to help convey the speakers sarcastic attitude is diction. In line 10 when the speaker says "I'd toddle safely home..." I felt like he might be aggravated with the war because he uses the word safely, implying that his place in the war right now is not safe and he'd rather  grow old and die on his death bed rather than get shot to death.

Blame Othello

I think the person that is to blame is Othello. In the beginning of the play, Othello seemed to be so confident in anything that involved Desdemona. When Brabantio said that Othello used witch craft to get Desdemona to fall in love with him, Othello told them to get Desdemona so that she can testify to what he says. He said that she fell in love with him after hearing his battle story and showing sympathy. Othello did not even need his wife to prove that they were in love and that their love was true because he trusted her and was confident in himself. Iago is absolutely not the one to blame because he only had one job and that was to drive Othello crazy with jealousy. In the first place, this whole revenge plot started because Othello did not give Iago the job he wanted or felt he deserved. Instead Othello gave the job to Cassio. Everything else that happened in Iago's favor is not his fault. I do not think that Iago should be blamed for getting what he wanted or for having his way. It is very simple. Iago knows how to plan his revenge. He stated that he will act as the loyal servant with his own interest at heart and Iago stayed true to that. Besides, it is not like Iago knew that the noble Othello would believe the seed he planted of Desdemona cheating with Cassio. That was just another success. Why would Othello suddenly believe somebody else about his own wife? Brabantio said that his daughter couldn't truly be in love with Othello, however did Othello believe him? No he did not. So why is that when Iago questions Desdemona's fidelity, Othello believed him? He would believe him because Brabantio told him that he would be deceive by Desdemona. Although Othello showed that he was not afraid of Brabantio or his words through his actions, the audience could see fear and a slight sense of belief through his eyes. Othello let Brabantio's words linger around in his head, so when Iago then talks about seeing Cassio with the handkerchief Othello gave to Desdemona, Othello becomes enraged. Iago had a motive and it was to caused by Othello. If Othello had given Iago the Lieutenant position then Iago would not come up with a revenge plan that consisted of exposing Othello and Desdemona's secret marriage. Othello is to blame because he got the ball rolling.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

I chose essential questions number two. An identity is shown when a person's feelings are reflected in their actions. The saying "it takes a village to raise a child" is heavily portrayed in Native Son through Mary Dalton. The element that helped create each person's identity was "the village", which are the people he or she grew up around or the community he or she grew up in. Mary was privileged from the moment she was born. I feel that she represents the curious child never took into consideration why she was being warned of something. I bet she was told all her life that black people were as equal to fire: dangerous. However, since she didn't understand why, her curiosity encouraged her to figure that out on her own. Mary's parents and the media have exemplified that the black community was not to be reckoned with because they are inferior. All of these people around Mary have told her who to stay away from, and with no reason to obey because she grew up having everything handed to her, she feels that she must object these warnings just to get what she wants; which is finding out for herself why the black community is dangerous. And because she has been sheltered her whole life by extravagant materials and MONEY, Mary has never acknowledged that maybe everybody was right. Maybe if she decides not to make careless and selfish choices she could find acceptance in people trying to protect her. On the contrary, look what happened, Mary chose to interact with Bigger and it got her killed. Richard Wright's plan to kill Mary played out perfectly because she basically walked into her own doom. I think that because Mary grew up RICH and WHITE she became imprudent and foolish.

Literary Merit

So I think the phrase " a work of literary merit" means a work of literature that is primarily used by students and teachers as a reference. I feel like any book that was on the list of books that have appeared on the AP Exam are works of literary merit because they are well developed and used in various high schools or universities. My independent reading book, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, is a work of literary merit because it is a book that could influence a well developed essay on right vs. wrong; which I believe could be used on the AP Exam.

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