1984 #8

After a long awaited verbal encounter with O'Brian, Winston delves deeper into his state of rebellion. He arrives at O'Brian's apartment with Julia and confesses openly to their crimes against the Party: "We are enemies of the Party. We disbelieve in the principals of Ingsoc. We are thought-criminals. We are also adulterers" (170). Winston does not yet know that O'Brian is part of any conspiracy against the current government, but his hope for an overthrow overwhelms him and he blurts out everything that could convince O'Brian that he is disloyal to the Party. Winston is desperate to make a change in Oceania, even if it does not occur in his lifetime, so he seeks to aid any organization sharing his ideals. Fortunately for Winston, O'Brian is part of a conspiracy against the government. The Inner Party member welcomes Winston into his organization, and informs him of his responsibilities in the Brotherhood.  Winston agrees to heinous crimes against humanity in order to assure O'Brian of his commitment, and he leaves the Inner Party dwelling as a member of the infamous Brotherhood.

In the midst of Hate Week, the Party announces that the country is at war with Eastasia instead of Eurasia. Ironically, all Hate Week propaganda was made to target Eurasia and is displayed throughout the city, but the Party claims that the country was always at war with Eastasia. The blatant lies of the party are clearly showcased in the streets of Oceania, but Party members are quick to switch their targets for hate: "Without a word said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! [...] The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed" (181). The Party has such a strong grip on its citizens that it has the power to fabricate a war and make everyone believe in it. Rather than expressing his expected disgust, Winston throws himself into his work at the Ministry to delete the war with Eurasia from history. Winston is forced to work eighteen hours a day, knowing that he is assisting the corruption of the government. Surprisingly, he "was not troubled by the fact that every word he murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink pencil, was a deliberate lie. He was as anxious as anyone else in the Department that the forgery should be perfect" (183). Winston's whole-hearted effort to erase the past directly contradicts his desire to be an active member of the Brotherhood. Obviously, Winston has to do his job in order to remain undetected by the Party, but he does not have to be driven while doing it. For someone who wants to take down the government, Winston does not appear to be passionate about his cause when he is working in the Ministry.    

1984 #6

As Winston and Julia's forbidden love affair continues to play out, great differences between the two are uncovered. Although they both hate the government, Winston is interested in change to come whereas Julia wishes only to make the best of her life in the Party. After the lovers discuss when Katherine was almost pushed off of a cliff, it is revealed that Julia believed that "it was somehow possible to construct a secret world in which you could live as you chose. All you needed was luck and cunning and boldness" (135). Since Julia has been successful in her several love affairs, she believes that she has some sort of immunity against Part punishment. As long as she is careful, she can keep up her scandalous routine. He avoidance of vaporization has given her a sense of optimism because she is able to enjoy her life and, more or less, live how she wishes to. Unlike Winston, she thinks there is a way to be happy living in a world ruled by the oppressive and corrupt Party.

In contrast to Julia, Winston has no hope for his life under the current government. He believes that Julia is naive and that "the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse" (135). Winston's conclusion connects back to his theory that "if there is hope, it lies in the proles" (69). He does not think that Party members will ever rise up and revolt against the government because they have been so brainwashed by the Party. Because the Party does not heavily intervene in the lives of the proles, Winston believes that the have the power to make a difference. When a prole woman is signing outside of Mr. Charrington's window, Winston notes that "he had never heard a Party member singing alone and spontaneously [and that] perhaps it was only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they had anything to sing about" (142). Although the proles live under worse conditions than Party members, they are free, which Winston views as a luxurious gift. Without the restraints of the government, proles are free to revolt when they grow sick of their unfortunate living conditions. Winston does not think that a rebellion of this kind will occur in his lifetime, but he hopes that it will happen at some point in the future. As a result, he lives as a corpse, fearfully waiting to be caught and vaporized by the Party for his unorthodox beliefs.

1984 #5

As the novel continues, Winston's resentment towards the Party grows and he becomes more rebellious. After being terrified and alone in his muted version of defiance, Winston finds a companion to revolt with. The dark haired girl, previously hated due to her assumed loyalty to Big Brother, reveals her disgust with the government. She also declares her love for Winston in a secret, but risky exchange at work. Together, Winston and Julia (her name) actively challenge the government's traditions.

Julia confesses her love for Winston because she is convinced that he also hates the Party. Winston chooses to love her back because he is drawn to the fact that she is corrupt. For Winston, "anything that hinted at corruption filled him with wild hope" (125). Unlike Winston, Julia is open and honest about her complete hatred of the Party. She does not hold back once they are alone, and she does not appear to fear the consequences. She "seemed unable to mention the Party, and especially the Inner Party, without using the kind of words you saw chalked up in dripping alleyways" (122). Julia's hate-filled feelings towards the government are appealing to Winston because her honestly is refreshing. Every other Party member is either too scared to speak out against the Party, or too ignorant to realize that the government's actions are corrupt. Julia, in contrast, is not afraid of whatever punishment she could receive and holds back  nothing when talking to Winston.

Although Winston is attracted to Julia because she resents the Party, he also wants to feel and act on love. In Oceania, marriage is only used for practical purposes, to conceive loyal followers of Big Brother. Affection and emotion within a marriage is highly discouraged by the Party, so it does not exist in the country. Winston has already gone through a painful and loveless marriage, where separation was the conclusion. His relationship with Julia directly contrasts his relationship with his wife, Katherine. Previously, Winston had said that he could not touch his wife without feeling uncomfortable: "To embrace her was like embracing a jointed wooden image. And what was strange was that even when she was clasping him against her he had he feeling that she was simultaneously pushing him away with all her strength" (66). The ideals of the Party were engrained deeply into Katherine and she would not willingly show affection towards her husband. Having the experience of a loveless marriage, Winston is more attracted to Julia because she does not suppress her natural instinct to love. Unlike his wife, Julia shows emotional and physical affection without being forced to do so. After years of loneliness, Julia's willingness to make Winston feel loved draws him to her.

Heart of Darkness Outline

Heart of Darkness Outline

Thesis: Through Marlow’s story, Joseph Conrad makes the point that civilization is necessary for the moral purity within society.

1.     Before Marlow begins his journey to Africa, he receives several signs that forebode detrimental psychological changes.

a.     Marlow gets the job to captain the ship because his predecessor was killed in a scuffle with the natives: “The original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Yes, two black hens. Fresleven­– that was his name, a Dane– thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. Oh, it didn’t surprise me in the least to hear this, and at the same time to be told that Fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs. No doubt he was; but he had been a couple years already out there engaged in the noble cause” (44).

b.     The doctor asks Marlow for permission to measure his head and explains, “I always ask leave, in the interest of science, to measure the crania of those going out there. […] I never see them, […] the changes take place inside” (47).

2.     When Marlow reaches the outer station, he is informed of the tragic effects that Africa has had on other company employees.

a.     As Marlow talks to the Swede, the foreign captain shares a horrific story of suicide: “The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too. […] The sun [was] too much for him, or the country perhaps” (50).

3.     After hearing of the overwhelmingly negative events that have taken place in Africa, Marlow is impressed by a success story.

a.     The captain is thoroughly impressed when he notices the impeccable appearance of the company’s chief accountant: “I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser’s dummy; but in great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. That’s backbone. His starch collars and got-up shirtfronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years” (54).

4.     As Marlow continues to make his way towards the Inner Station, he begins to notice changes within himself.

a.     “I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. […] I flung one shoe overboard […] [and] the other shoe went flying unto the devil-god of that river” (123-124 SCHOOL BOOK)

b.     Marlow later admits that his actions were out of the ordinary when he says, “Absurd! My dear boys, what can you expect from a man who out of sheer nervousness had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes!” (124-125)

5.     After Marlow has finally met Kurtz, he reflects on how the lack of civilization has affected the great and powerful ivory man.

a.     “You should have heard him say ‘My ivory.’ Oh yes, I heard him. ‘My Intended, my ivory, my station, my––’ everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places” (126).

b.     “Of course you may be too much of a fool to go wrong– too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness. I take it, no fool ever made a bargain for his should with the devil; the fools is too much of a fool, or the devil too much of a devil– I don’t know which. Or you may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sights and sounds. The earth for you is only a standing place– and whether to be like this is your loss or you gain I wont pretend to say” (126-127).

c.     “The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too, by Jove!– breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated” (127).

New Essay:

"What saves us is efficiency– the devotion to efficiency" (41)

"You know I am not such used to such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was just as though I had been let into some conspiracy– I don't know– something not quite right; and I was glad to get out" (45)

"She talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit" (48)

"Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech– and nothing happened. Nothing could happen" (49)

"A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. No change appeared on the face of the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on" (51)

"A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints on their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking" (51)

"Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light in all the attitude of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die" (52-53)

"Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up. [...] All about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink" (53) 

"Still, one must look about sometimes; and then I saw this station, these men strolling aimlessly about in the sunshine of the yard. I asked myself sometimes what it all meant. They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence" (60)

"I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high, when the stout man with moustaches came tearing down to the river, a tin pail in his hand, assured me that everyone was 'behaving splendidly, splendidly,' dipped about a quart of water and tore back again. I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail" (60)

"A nigger was being beaten near by. They said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly. I saw him, later for several days, sitting in a bit of shade looking very sick and trying to recover himself: afterwards he arose and went out– and the wilderness without a second took him into its bosom again" (60)

"The beaten nigger groaned somewhere. 'What a row the brute makes!' said the indefatigable man with the moustaches, appearing near us. 'Serve him right. Transgression– punishment– bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way. This will prevent all conflagrations for the future'" (63)

"You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter thn the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies– which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world– what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do. Temperament, I suppose" (64)

"'We will not be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is hanged for an example,' he said. 'Certainly,' guaranteed the other; 'get him hanged! Why not? Anything– anything can be done in this country'" (72)

"'It is very serious,' said the manager's voice behind me; 'I would be desolated if anything should happen to Mr. Kurtz before we came up.' I looked at him, and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere. He was the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances" (83)

"There were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: 'Exterminate all the brutes!'" (92)

"'But he had no goods to trade with by that time,' I objected. 'There's a good lot of cartridges left even yet,' he answered, looking away. 'To speak plainly, he raided the country,' I said. He nodded. 'Not alone, surely!' He muttered something about the villages around the lake. 'Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he?' I suggested. He fidgeted a little. 'They adore him,' he said. (100)

"He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man. No, no, no! Now– just to give you an idea– I don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot ne, too, one day– but I don't judge him" (100)

"There was nothing on earth to prevent him from killing whom he jolly well please" (101)

"He had been absent for several months–getting himself adored, I suppose–and he had come down unexpectedly, with the intention to all appearance of making a raid either across the river or down stream. Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the–what shall I say?–less material aspiration" (101)

"You remember I told you I had been struck at the distance by certain attempts at ornamentation, rather remarkable in the ruinous aspect of the place. Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and it's first result was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow. Then I went carefully from post to post with my glass, and I saw my mistake. These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling stroking and disturbing–food for thought and also for the vultures if there had been any looking down from the sky; but all events for such ants as were industrious enough to ascend the pole. They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house" (102)

"In fact, the manager said afterwards that Mr. Kurtz's methods had ruined the district. I have no opinion on that point, but I want you to clearly understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him–some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence" (102)

"He was not afraid of the natives; they would not stir till Mr. Kurtz gave the word. His ascendancy was extraordinary. The camps of these people surrounded the place, and the chiefs came every day to see him. They would crawl... 'I don't want to know anything of the ceremonies used when approaching Mr. Kurtz,' I shouted. Curious, this feeling that came over e that such details would be more intolerable than those heads dying on the stakes under Mr. Kurtz's windows" (103)

"'He is very, very low,' he said [...] 'We have done all we could for him–haven't we? But there is no disguising the fact, Mr. Kurtz has done more harm than good to the Company. He did not see the time was not ripe for vigorous action. Cautiously, cautiously–that's my principle. We must be cautious yet. The district is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade will suffer. I don't deny there is a remarkable quantity of ivory–mostly fossil. We must save it, at all events–but look how precarious the position is–and why? Because the method is unsound'" (107)

"It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief–positively for relief. 'Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis. He started, dropped on me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'he was,' and turned his back on me. My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped along with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound! Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares" (107)

"'He suspected there was an active ill will towards him on the par of these white men that–' 'You are right,' I said, remembering a certain conversation I had overheard. 'The manager thinks you ought to be hanged.' He showed a concern at this intelligence which amused me at first. 'I had better get out of the way quietly,' he said, earnestly. 'I can do no more for Kurtz now, and they would soon find some excuse. What's to stop them?'" (108)

"'I had immense plans,' he muttered irresolutely. [...] 'I was on the threshold of great things,' he pleaded, in a voice of longing, with a wistfulness of tone that made my blood run cold. 'And now for this stupid scoundrel––' (111)

Heart of Darkness #5

After returning from his long journey to the inner station and back, Marlow goes to meet Kurtz's fiancé to give her Kurtz's personal papers. The devastated women talks to Marlow about her love and admiration of her fiancé as a way of coping with her pain and throughout their meeting, Marlow's pity for the poor widow grows. As they converse, she goes on to say that she "knew him best" (161) and that she "believed in him more than anyone" (163). To make the women feel better, Marlow reassures her that she was important to Kurtz: "You knew him best" (161). Kurtz's fiancé has been mourning for over a year and it is clear that she has not yet come to terms with Kurtz's death. She tells Marlow that she knew him best and that she believed in him more than anyone to reassure herself that these statements are true. She had not seen Kurtz for years and she could not know how he changed, so she wants to know that she was still a unique and important person to her fiancé. Although she likely expects that Kurtz was changed by his experiences, she wants to hold on to the idealized image of the man she loved. Marlow reassures the woman because he feels terribly for her; he knows that Kurtz was greatly affected by his experiences in Africa and, by the end of his life, Kurtz was not the same man he was before his trip. At the end of the novel, the widow requests to hear her fiancé's last words. Rather than telling her Kurtz's true final words, Marlow lies and says, "The last words he pronounced was- your name" (164). Marlow chooses not to share Kurtz's actual last statement of "The horror! The horror!" (164) to allow the woman to find peace in his death. Marlow does not want to crush her idealized image of Kurtz because she is already devastated. Revelation of the horrors of Africa and the cruel world Kurtz faced during his trip would horrify the widow and send her into a heightened fit of devastation. Marlow chooses to lie for the well-being and closure of the poor woman.

Sound & Sense Chapter 1

How does Randall use devices such as irony, diction, and selection of detail to illustrate the innocence of the slain child?

The "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall tells the story of the unexpected and tragic attack on a church in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights movement. A young African American girl asks her mother for permission to participate in the Freedom March of Birmingham. The mother responds, "No, baby, no you my not go, for I fear those guns will fire. But you may go to church instead and sing in the children's choir" (13-16). Here, Randall sets up the contrast between an expectedly dangerous demonstration and a supposedly safe church. The contrast between the two locations illustrates the tragic, yet ironic end of the poem. The child is killed during the bombing of a church, which is supposed to be a safe and sacred place. The mother sent her child to church and kept the young girl away from the Freedom March to guarantee her daughter's safety, but the child was killed in the attack. Throughout the poem, the mother calls her child, "Baby," rather than by name. The girl's moniker is meant to display her innocence. The use of "baby" functions to create a correlation between the image of the girl and a baby. Babies, are new and innocent; they have not yet had the chance to see the corruption of the world. The girl is also innocent. Although she has been exposed to the cruelty of racism and discrimination, she still believes in the natural goodness of the world. Her desire to march in Birmingham displays her naive hope that her actions alone will make a difference.

Heart of Darkness #4

In this passage of the novel, Marlow finally arrives at the inner station to meet the renown Kurtz. On the way in, he is greeted with arrows flying towards his ship from the African natives. During the attack, Marlow's helmsman is speared in the side, and falls at the captains feet: "It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing lustre" (122). Even though his helmsman was an African native, Marlow chooses to describe his injury in full detail. Rather than morphing the story into an animal being slaughtered, Marlow treats the black man's death like a human death, with personal details. As the helmsman lies at his feet, Marlow is anxious to take his bloody shoes and socks off. He asks another man to steer the ship so he can cleanse his body of the murderous mess. Although he is not quick to admit it, Marlow cared about his crewman and is bothered by his death. His pressing need to remove his blood stained clothing indirectly displays that the murder bothered him emotionally. He does not want to have the proof of his helmsman's death on his person.

Although Marlow appears to be heightening his opinions of the Africans, he soon turns back to his racist roots. When Marlow is discussing the difficulties his crew faced traveling to Kurtz, he says, "I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him" (128). Marlow's duty was always to pilot the ship to the inner station to get to Kurtz, a powerful white man. The fact that he is saying the loss of his African helmsman was not worth doing his job displays that he cared for his crewman and is bitter about his death. Marlow is not blaming Kurtz directly for the loss of life, but he is holding him somewhat accountable for the unnecessary death. It's refreshing to see Marlow showing affection towards a black man, but he discounts his kindness when he addresses the expected confusion of his listeners: "Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in the black Sahara" (128). Although Marlow was distressed by the African's death, he feels as though he has to justify his feelings because most will not understand affection towards a black person. He feels as though he must take away from his caring feelings towards his helmsman in order for his story to be accepted. Marlow is moving away from the blatant racism he displayed earlier in the novel, but he still adds subtler forms of racial ignorance as his story progresses.