Heart Of Darkness Response

I really liked this book, the reading was kind of difficult and it wasn't the easiest book to pick out all of the symbols, but talking about it in class really brought a lot of questions to mind about almost every aspect of the novel. I continue to ask myself if Kurtz was ever really meant to be a real character, or was he an emotion, was he only the evil that emerged from the jungle. For some reason I am very drawn to books that take place in a mysterious jungle setting. Lord of the Flies was the same way, I'm not sure if I really loved the book and the writing itself but I loved what Golding was going for. This suspicion of primitive evil and violence. It is all very intriguing.

Conrad had the same idea, but to me this is far more sinister, It is displaying natives as animals but it goes beyond that. It goes back to the beginning of time and shows man's connection to something we really are so detached from. This may be may favorite book we read this year, the character Kurtz is incredible. I don't understand how Conrad did such an amazing job displaying him as both a human and something very different.

I also think that this was the most serious book we read so far. Of course Invisible Man was very serious, but it was not as powerful to me as Heart Of Darkness. This book was extremely interesting and I found it to have incredible insight into how connected we are to primitive human behavior.

Heart Of Darkness Quote

“It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise,

This quote shows the connection Marlow feels to the animals around him. This uses the words howled, leap, horrid, uproar, wild, and passionate. All of these words are words that could be used to describe some of the most savage animals. But Marlow feels kinship to them, and that excites him. That fact that these humans are being so incredibly inhuman excites the animal within him. He knows that he shares flesh and blood with these natives. That deep down they are the same, they are just the clay that their lives have molded them into. These natives only have a different sculptor than Marlow but all in all they come from the same material. It is this native scream that Marlow feels deep inside of himself that amazes him. The fact that he feels very close to this savagery. You must ask yourself though what would you feel in his shoes. We have no idea, and we can only make false assumptions based on what we feel right now.

Personally I love the end of this quote, "a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend. And why not?" This to me shows the connection of todays human race to the very first human beings. That despite all of the incredible differences that have happened over these thousands and thousands of years, there is still that connection to between human beings from every time period.

Heart Of Darkness Analysis

Heart of Darkness is essentially about what the name is. It can be taken in two different ways, that the heart of darkness is the heart of Africa, deep into the depths of the congo on a steamboat. But it can also be looked at in a more figurative way, about the journey to the heart of darkness that I believe is in every human being.

A major question that Heart Of Darkness brings up is the idea that civilization keeps us together, and if it is removed our civilized mind goes with it. Marlow is used to represent this mind, and how fragile it is. How we can fall into our own primitive instincts since essentially we are all animals and without the rules of government and society what would we know?

Kurtz represents the evil inside of everyone, and the potential for it to come out and really take over. Marlow slowly leaves civilization which represents reason and goodness, and he slowly reaches Kurtz which signifies his descent to evil, how he becomes closer and closer to it.

Kurtz is clearly not a normal human being because in almost every instance he is not characterized as a physical thing. He is always a shadow, moving in and out of light. Never fully seen. A phantom. This is used to show that Kurtz can really be deciphered in either way, he can be taken literally, as an ivory hunter gone mad with a lust for blood. Or you truly could read the book with a different perspective. Not even looking at Kurtz as he really exists. You could say that he really only lives inside Marlow and that this journey is into the heart of Marlow, maybe even that Marlow is Kurtz. The possibilities are endless and when Marlow is almost completely transformed into the savage beast of Kurtz, he refuses to cross the line. Kurtz dies on the trip back home, for they are returning to civilization where savagery is not nurtured like it was in the depths of the congo.

Player Piano Response

I have one major complaint in the novel Player Piano, and that is that Vonnegut seems to have complicated his issue too much. Of course I probably did not look deep enough into what he was doing, but still, the trading of Paul on sides, where he is a traitor, then a spy, it is all a blur to me now, but during the reading this seemed to detract from the power of the issue at hand.

I loved the idea of the novel, I believe the idea of it will be timeless and that is what will make it a classic. The issue of technology overtaking our lives will never die. People will always be searching for new ways to make our lives easier. I do not believe the situation will become as drastic as in the novel anytime soon. But the novel is probably more prevalent in our society today then it was when the novel was written.

I am a big fan of novels that stay focused, and Player Piano is not one of these. This does not mean I didn't enjoy the novel at all, because I did. But I think if the idea was more focused then the novel would become more powerful and get its message across with more force.

Player Piano Quote

"Finnerty shook his head. ''He'd pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close on the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.'' He nodded, ''Big, undreamed-of things -- the people on the edge see them first.''

This quote is a major part of the novel, it is Finnerty's response to Paul's suggestion of getting a psychiatrist. I feel that it was during this conversation that Paul really began to question his existence in Ilium and really everyone's purpose there, since there are so many people who are completely purposeless, for example the reeks and recks.

Paul had lived in his contained life, with his fake marriage and his job, which neither gave him pleasure or contentment. Finnerty brought Paul closer to the edge, and as Paul viewed over the edge, he saw the truth of Ilium. He saw really how he, and his father had ruined to lives of generations to come. The book does not display much guilt it this but I think that is because this realization was so sudden. I don't even believe that Paul was certain of himself at any point in the novel. He was as confused as always, but by rebelling he had taken a step to the other side, he was taking his chances and living on the edge, something that no one in his position besides Finnerty had ever done. This in itself was a rebellion, he was taking charge of a gut feeling, of his humanly instincts.

The idea for an engineer to join the ghostshirts, who mainly consisted of reeks and recks was unheard of. It was an "undreamed of thing." Pauls last name seems to serve a connection in being the first of his kind to go against the grain and take charge of a feeling. Proteus is close to prototype. This is a brief and hasty observation but maybe with some meaning behind it. All in all, this quote seems to show one of the major ideas of the novel. Revelation, the change Paul had gone through from engineer to rebel.

Player Piano Analysis

It has been awhile since we read Player Piano, but I can try to conjure up the memories I do have of the work as a whole since I have forgotten most minor details.

Paul Proteus is one of the most successful people in his society, he is an engineer and designs machines to basically take care of the worlds problems, consequently putting many citizens out of work and forcing them to either become a soldier for an incredibly long enlistment, or a reek and reck, where they are the lowest of lows and are made to fix the problems that not even the machines will stoop down to.

Paul sees how the world has become extremely unbalanced. The novel is about how the world is quickly turning into a machines world, where people are becoming useless. This novel creates a powerful image of a hero confused, with his career and marriage on the line, but willing to throw all of that away for a cause that he knows is the right one.

To me this novel also has that undying mystery of exploration of ones self, it is about the curiosity to push oneself to the edge, that is what Finnerty had done in the novel, and Paul truly was envious of him. He wanted to know what it was like to see beyond what his everyday life was. He wanted to know more than the repetition that had become his life since he was born.

Anita is an interesting character to talk about as well, she represents a large portion of the society not only in the novel but in general. Think about how many people we may know, or know about that we can draw comparisons with Anita. I think many, there are many money hungry people in society, who crave only wealth and the improvement of their own social status. Reputation is number one and all other things like morales and common sense can be set aside. Love is not a real thing, it is only a made up word to fill a void in a conversation.

So while I do believe Player Piano is an overall interesting look at the rise of machines it is also a very practical look at today's society where we are forced to self reflect and find that character within the novel that best represents ourselves.

Invisible Man Quote

"'To Whom It May Concern: . . . Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.'" Chapter 1, pg. 33

Though this quote it short and very too the point, it encompasses a strong message that is ultimately the backbone to the novel. The idea where an individual, or in this case a black individual, can work and work to move into the light of respect but never really get anywhere.

This quote is in a dream that the narrator has, where he opens envelope after envelope, eventually arriving at one which contains a letter saying the quote. This idea really stands true throughout the novel as it does seem that no one, no matter what they say, really wants the narrator to get anywhere. He is used, and controlled, he is manipulated, and abused, but not once is there one person who can truly help him. Mr. Norton tries to help him, I believe he really wants to in his head but doesn't know how. This doesn't make Mr. Norton a bad person but he is, even if he doesn't know it, contributing to the never ending path that the narrator is set on.

Brother Jack is another prime example of this, he seems like he may be a solution to the problem, but really he only fuels the narrator's race towards finding justification in a world that is, for the most part, against him. Brother Jack does hand in hand with Reverend Barbee, another stop on the narrator's path that keeps him running. He is a powerful black man, who has opened a college to educate, or so it seems. But his views are skewed and the narrator identifies the corruption that he holds. So, he continues running. At the end of the novel, we have to ask if he really found his destination at all, honestly I don't believe he did, but the lights in the basement signify almost an enlightenment that was not felt before.

Invisible Man- Oppinion

To me the invisible man was a great book to read in this class. The discussion of symbols was very interesting, and it was incredible to think about the amount of time put into making a book where almost everything has figurative and literal meaning. The writing style was ok, I didnt think it was anything unique or amazing. So if I had read this out of class I dont think I would have even finished it, I dont think I would have picked out half of the things that we did in class and that is really what made this book worthwhile to me at all. Even some of the obvious symbols I didnt realize until this was in class so reading this on my own I may have taken it all too literally. I felt also that because there were so so many symbols and everyone in the novel was representitive of something that some characters and scenes seemed akward. The Golden Day scene was needed and important but for some reason it was just strange to me and didnt seem very realistic.

Invisible Man Theme/Symbol

The Invisible Man is about how black people are and were treated. I say this because I believe Invisible Man addresses a timeless problem, the problem of racism that will probably be prevelant for the rest of time. Ellison addresses this problem in physical happenings as well as an overabundance of symbols and allusions. The use of the colors black and white in the novel appears almost on every page, I think that the scene where the narrator is working at Liberty paints shows the overall message of the novel very well. The narrator is set to work making optic white paint. This in itself is extremely symbolic in the fact that to make this optic WHITE paint which represesnts the superiority of the white race and the fact that if it wasnt for black workers and slaves in the past they would be no where, the narrator is the cornerstone for something he is not accepted into. A theme of clearness, and eyesight is a motif throughout the novel, and the word optic is usually associated with these themes. Optic white, the fact that whites can see or the fact that they cant see what is going on that their vision is truly blurred. Mr. Norton could not see the situation for the trees, he only saw a part of it. The optic symbol is really a very important aspect to the novel because it shows that Ellison understood all views on the black race and that their was white people who wanted to help but couldnt because they did not see everything that was needed. This in my opinion gives Ellison alot of credibility he wiould not have recieved if he only wrote about how the white race continually only puts down his without trying to help at all. Back to the paints though, the narrator is told to put a dark chemical called "dope" in the paint then stir until the paint becomes white. This is symbolic because it shows what is really at the center of the white race, that even though it may appear nice, and clean from the outside, in the heart of it is corruption and greed and evil and that is what the dope represents. After the narrator messes the paint up and his white employer "fixes" it, the paint comes out with a grey tinge coming through the white. The narrator notices this but the white man doesnt see it. This again goes back to white people seeing only what they want to see and not really seeing the corruption of their own race.

The narrator is never named throughout the novel and there are probably many oppinions on why Ellision chose to do this, I think this was done because the narrator was made to represent the race as a whole and not only one mans story. He is supposed to show the struggle of his race and the constant fight to advance in society but never really getting anywhere, that they keep trying and fighting but that life is really only fixed for them. The narrator never really gets anywhere throughout the novel he finds the brotherhood which seems promising but is really only using him for their own advancement. He is only an actor who cannot really speak his mind or be the leader they try and make him out to be.

The novel is ultimatley one big symbol where this one man is an allusion to a race and the reality of the time. Where he opens endless envelopes with another inside of it. And he continues to run in hopelessness.