Heart of Darkness, Blog #5

Some of the characteristics that describe a psychological novel are flashbacks, the psychological aspect of the characters within the story or a struggle within a character’s own psyche, the setting, and the story itself going into a great detail, even on the smallest aspect of the story.  Heart of Darkness is a psychological novel and within the reading the first two sections of this novel, Maslow has already began to use flashbacks to tell his story.  Maslow as a character seems like a very intelligent man; however, his past seems like is weighing him down.  Maslow has seen a lot of things in his life, some not as good as the others; for example, when Maslow witnesses a dying group of native workers on his journey down the African coast. “They were dying slowly- it was very clear.  They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, -nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” (279).  He basically gets to see first-hand how colonizers are taking over and either disregarding the natives or making them their slaves in order to prosper in this land.  This also makes the setting seem gloomy and depressing as natives' lifes are being taken over by colonizers.

The effects of colonialism on both the colonizers and those who are being colonized are quite different.  The colonizers are basically the people who are allowed to make the decisions on what is going to happen and if they have to, take the people who are being colonized as workers for themselves or slaves.  The people who are being colonized remind me of slaves in their own home.  They are being abused and the colonizers basically have complete control over what is going to happen to them, whether or not they will survive to see the next day or not.  To me, colonization portrayed so far in this novel seems to be very negative towards the people being colonized.  The colonizers are portrayed as selfish, greedy people while the natives are receiving the worse end of the deal by becoming prisoners. 

Villians

Evil, in my opinion, is doing something that goes against the values we have been taught and destroying something or someone in the process.  For example in some countries, people may cut off someone’s finger(s) if they are caught stealing.  To Americans, that is seen as evil and wrong because we do not practice that belief.  Evil can also be taking advantage of people to gain what one desires.  Iago is considered evil in Othello, and in The Little Mermaid, Ursula is the evil, antagonist.  Ursula is the sea witch who “helps” poor, unfortunate mermaids to ultimately achieve her goals.  Her ultimate goal is to take over Atlantica and become Queen; however, King Triton is in her way.  She comes up with a plan to become Queen through Triton’s youngest daughter, Ariel, who has fallen in love with a human, Prince Eric. She uses this information to bargain with Ariel.  Ursula tells Ariel she can turn her human for three days and within three days she must get Prince Eric to kiss her.  If she can, she will remain human permanently, but if she cannot she will become a mermaid again and be bound to Ursula forever.  All Ariel has to do in order to do this is give Ursula her voice.   Ursula then tricks Prince Eric into falling in love with her, using Ariel’s voice.  As Ursula obtains Ariel as her slave, she begins to bargain with Triton.  If he were to give her power to become Queen, she would let Ariel free.  Triton agrees and Ursula becomes Queen of Atlantis.

            Ultimately, Iago and Ursula are much alike.  They both use people to get what they desire and also seek revenge.  Iago wanted revenge when Othello did not promote him and Ursula wanted to seek revenge on Triton for banishing her from the kingdom.  These characters are “evil” because they messed with people’s emotions in order to get what they desired.  Ursula used Ariel’s love for Prince Eric and Triton’s love for his daughter to her advantage to gain what she wanted while Iago questioned Desdemona’s loyalty to Othello by planting seeds in Othello’s mind that she was cheating with his lieutenant, Cassio. 

            I believe blame should be put on both Iago and Othello, but most of it on Iago.  Iago was the one who deceived many people in order to get his revenge on Othello’s decision; however, Othello allowed Iago to make him believe Desdemona was having an affair.   However, Othello was an outsider and did not “fit in” easily due to his skin color and religious background so it is understandable that Othello would easily be influenced that someone was betraying him.  Most of the the blame should be put on Iago due to him planting seeds for everyone to fall into his trap.

 

Blog 3

Modern can be defined as pertaining to present and recent time; this definition describes our society. We are a society that has learned from mistakes in the past and are trying to make sure that history does not repeat itself. Our society is modern due to us having advanced, intellectual ways of handling ourselves instead of primitive ways like cavemen did. For example, us having advancements in technology to help improve our lives like computers, phones, and televisions. Most people nowadays depend on technology. However, even though we are more “modern” than past civilizations, does not exactly mean we are less violent.


Wars are still being fought to this day. They may not be happening here in America, but they are still happening overseas. In these wars, killing is happening regardless if it is on accident or not. Innocents may be killed in order to prove a point to the enemy. So we may not know exactly who we are killing, but lives are being taken. It is not like a video game where we have a certain amount of lives or we have continue points and so on. This could be a reason why when soldiers return from war time, they become more aggressive, more cold hearted because of what they have seen on the battle field; killing can change a person. It shows us that we are humans and that morality is a very valuable thing we have as humans.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is chosen to rule as king by the gods. In today’s society, a ruler would never be picked like that. Instead, we have a choice on who becomes our next “ruler” by making our opinion known by voting for who we want to help guide us. The death of Electra’s father would have been handled differently if society back then had a better justice system and technology. Instead of simply taking revenge on Clytemnestra and her new lover, Aegisthus, by murdering them, Electra and Orestes could have taken a less violent approach in avenging their father’s death by example taking them to court.

Future generations will probably criticize and admire us for our dependence on technology. Technology has allowed us to become more advanced. A few years ago, not everyone had a cell phone, but as you may notice now almost everyone has a cell phone even small children. However once we lose something, like the internet or air conditioning, we begin to become more agitated about not having what we depend on. We did not always have these things. How do you think people who grew up without any of this technology feel now? My father always tells me that our generation is spoiled because he never had any of this when he was growing up. Our generation might just be spoiled and it’s only getting worse as more technological things are being developed and upgraded. Our generation has it pretty easy with all these technological advances. Future generations will probably figure out ways to make sure technological things will never “go out” and their dependence will probably increase 110%. They may also say we were the beginning of the “modern” age, but probably will not really consider us modern like we consider ourselves since I am sure they will be much more advanced in 2000 years.

Future generations might also criticize how we handled topics such as segregation, wars we have fought in, and slavery. However, we did try to overcome these things. We overcame segregation and slavery in the long run so maybe future generations will also admire us for getting rid of these types of problems, but probably still criticize us on them for making these things problems in the first place.

Electra

While reading Electra by Sophocles, the conflict Justice versus Revenge arises. The differences between the two can be seen clearly within this play. Justice can be defined as being logical and reasonable while revenge can been seen as taking vengenance with an overwhelming passion. Electra gives us an inside look into how Greek society was. In Ancient Greek society, the society was known as being a patriarchy. Masculine values were seen as superior to feminine values because male’s values were seen as logical and reasonable while feminine values were viewed as being filled with emotion and passion which they could not control. This play also shows how much honor was to meant to Greek society. Electra refrains from taking revenge for her father’s death because it would dishonor her brother because in Greek society it was the son’s responsibility to avenge his father.


This play is has been read for over 2,000 years because it makes you question, “What is the real difference between justice and revenge? Are Electra’s motives more for justice or are her emotions getting the best of her and does it turn more into revenge?” Electra wants her mother, Clytemnestra, and her new lover dead for her mother’s actions against her late father, Agamemnon. Electra is shown as becoming overemotional about her father’s death and her desire for her mother and her new lover’s death can be interpreted as revenge more than justice. However, her brother, Orestes, is being logical about the situation and actually has a plan; therefore, he is trying to bring justice to his father’s murder. Another reason why this play is still being read because it shows us how their society functioned and to show how far society as progressed from history.

Literature can be written to criticize or celebrate the culture in which it was written in. Sophocles may have written this to celebrate his time period by critiquing the past. This play was written in a time period in which males were superior over females although this play is based on female characters. Why? It seems like Sophocles was trying to say that because of female’s emotions getting in the way, they cannot control themselves during an upsetting time like Electra after her father’s death.