lighthod A Dark Heart in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness essays

The Heart of Darkness The Heart of Darkness has two storytellers: Joseph Conrad, the author, and the other being Marlow the story's narrator. The narration that takes place is conceived mostly from Conrad's opinions. Conrad is using Marlow as the embodiment of all the goodness that he represents. "But Marlow was not typical...His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence" (p. 68). "Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and with his arms dropped, the palms of his outwards, resembled an idol" (p. 66). By doing this not only is Conrad implicates (or accuses) society of its terrible actions but he is also excluding himself. Throughout Marlow's narrative there is no place where he ponders whether or not he has the right idea or even if his opinion is biased to his own liking. There is no way that any that we can verify the validity of his story but yet Marlow assumes his listeners and readers will believe his account. Strangely enough, after such a tale on the shameful acts of society, Marlow (or Conrad) expects us to believe his tale and maybe even attempt to change our actions. Ironically, we can assume Marlow's listeners and readers have been touched by this account. The story and it's teller seem sincere but yet there is more than that. Marlow in this way has become like Kurtz, a voice that craves to be heard by its listeners. It is in this way that Kurtz and Marlow are both mouth pieces for Conrad's voice. Conrad is questioning society for its flaws but while doing so he must also question himself. After all the crimes he's accusing society for he must prove himself a worthy judge. Society nurtures the recognition of these crimes but it does not encourage the correction of these problems. Both in Africa and in London, Marlow sees corruption and the paths to chaos but yet it is so much easier for him to condem the events that take place in both places than to hold someone accountable for the injustices. There is no way to finish reading The Heart of Darkness and not wonder why Marlow did not tell his tale to the owner's of the company.

Language acquisition Essay

Discuss synchronic and diachronic approaches to language. In opposition to the totally historical view of language of the previous hundred years, Ferdinand de Saussure emphasized the importance of seeing from two distinct and largely exclusive points of view, which he called â€Å"synchronic† and â€Å"diachronic†. The word â€Å"chronic† has been derived from Greek word â€Å"chronos† which means time. Synchronic linguistics sees language as a living whole, existing as a state at a particular point in time (an ital de langue, as Saussure put it, Greek â€Å"syn†-with, chronos – time). Diachronic linguistics concerns language in its historical development (Greek dia through, chronos – time). Thus descriptive linguistics is known as â€Å"synchronic linguistics† and studies a language at one particular period of time. Historical linguistics is known as diachronic or temporal linguistics and deals with the development of language through time. For example, the way in which French or Italian have evolved from Latin, and Hindi from Sanskrit. It also investigates language change. A study of the change from Old to Middle English is a diachronic study. Old English Middle English chint knight  stan ston a o In the same way, the study of a writer’s development from youth to maturity is an example of diachronic study. The way in which Shakespeare’s style changes from youth to maturity is also an instance of diachronic study. Saussure says: â€Å"Synchronic linguistics will concern the logical and psychological relations that bind together co-existing terms and from a system in the collective mind of speakers. Diachronic linguistics, on the contrary, will study relations that bind together successive terms, not perceived by the collective mind but substituted for each other without forming a system. † Thus synchronic linguistics deals with systems whereas diachronic with units. The relationship between the both aspects of language study was diagrammatically represented by Saussure in the following way: C X–X1–X2–X3 B A D Here AB is the synchronic axis of simultaneities, CD is the diachronic axis of succession. AB is a language state at an arbitrarily chosen point in time on the line CD (at X); CD is the historical path the language has traveled, and the root which it is going to continue traveling. The point of intersection X indicates that neither excludes the other completely. If CD represents evolution over a period (say 100 years from 1850 to 1950), X1, X2, X3†¦ represent the successive state of language 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 and so on. The difference between descriptive or synchronic and historical or diachronic linguistics can be illustrated by the diagram of Saussure itself, who was the first person to point out the necessity of distinguishing between the two approaches. We may think this is fairly obvious distinction if it had not been the case that some quite eminent 19th century scholars had failed to draw it. And it needs to be drawn. Neither excludes the other completely, of course, there must be a point of intersection in terms of the above mentioned diagram. But being aware of, the distinction allows us to focus attention more answeringly on language from a given consistent angle. Moreover, due emphasis on the synchronic (which had been neglected dimension before Saussure) helps to clarify the important point that a diachronic investigation always pre-supposes, to some extent a synchronic study. It is impossible to consider the way a language has changed from one state to another without first knowing something about the two states to be compared. This need not to be a pair of complete synchronic descriptions, of course, to complain that it would be a distortion of what linguists actually do in practice but some nonhistorical analysis is essential as a preliminary. Saussure rounds off his discussion with various analogies, of which his analogy with a game of chess is perhaps the most famous. If we walk into a room while a chess game is being played, it is possible to assess the state of the game by simply studying the position of the pieces on the board (as long as we know the rules): we do not normally need to know the previous moves from the beginning of the game. And likewise the state of board at every move is implicit in any pattern of play we may wish to study. The synchronic/diachronic distinction, Saussure claims, is very much like this. And, without wanting to push the analogy too far, we can agree with him. Throughout the 19th century linguistic research was very strongly historical in character. One of the principal aims of the subject was to group language families on the basis of independent development from a common source, or to study language change. The description of a particular language was made subsidiary to this general aim, and there was little interest in the study of a language of a given community without reference to historical consideration. Saussure’s distinction between diachronic and synchronic investigation of the language is a distinction between two opposing view points. Nevertheless, valid diachronic work has to be based on good synchronic work because no valid statement about linguistic change can be made unless good description of a language does exist. Similarly a synchronic statement may well reflect certain historical developments. For example, two vowels of `reel’ and `real’ are described as being basically different because the historical facts show different sources for the `ee’ and the `ea’. On the other hand, we find statements like `ought’ is the past tense of `owe’ and `dice’ is the plural of `die’. One can point out that these statements are diachronically, but not synchronically, true. A synchronic approach is enough to gain mastery over a contemporary language, but it is necessary to have a diachronic description to understand the evolution of that language.

The Animals, By And The Dove Flew Out Of The Dark - 754 Words

At first, â€Å"The Animals† may seem as a dark poem, that has no connections to reality. Jacobsen’s use of animals as humans detaches the two worlds from each other, giving the reader a sense of indifference. However through Jacobsen’s word choice and tone we can see that â€Å"The Animals† has a strong tie to the bible. This is conveyed through Jacobsen’s use of biblical phrases and words, such as â€Å"Sanctus† and â€Å"the dove flew out of the dark.† The Bible is a collection of texts sacred in Christianity and Judaism. The life of Jesus is shown in the New Testament, showing Jesus’s birth and death. Jesus was portrayed as the central figure of Christianity, symbolizing peace and reformation. Jesus went through 5 major transitions during his presence: Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. However, †The Animals† shows more focus towards Jesus’s Baptism, Transfiguration, and Crucifixion. The Crucifixion of Jesus comes with mourn, along with hope for a better society and world. Aside from the story of Jesus, the Bible is also comprised of the Noah’s Ark story. In Noah’s Ark, god is described to have given a task to Noah, in order to build an ark. Therefore saving Noah, Noah’s family, and a variety of animals. However on Noah’s journey there was a great flood and sent a dove, which returned back with an olive leaf. Throughout the first stanza of the poem, Jesus’s actions are shown through the actions of the animals. The stanza is written to build up suspense forShow MoreRelatedThe Myth Of The Cherokee Indians940 Words   |  4 Pagesworld as they know it began, it was just water. All the animals lived in a land called Galun’lati that was above the water (in the sky), but it was overcrowded. A water beetle, named Dayuni’si, volunteered to explore the water beneath them. 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