The Role Of Communication

Communication plays an important role in each and every person’s life, used to express ones thoughts, feelings or ideas. It is the essence of our being, therefore the key to ones success. However, a lack of communication may lead to misunderstandings and severe consequences. Just as in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway and Click by Frank Coraci, both characters lack the art of communication and soon lose sight of the effects it has on others.

The role of communicating between one another has a large impact on certain situations. Just as in Hills Like White Elephants, the man and the girl have a very shy approach in understanding what one another is trying to say. The man pressures her into coming through with the “awfully simple operation”(Hemingway, 1927), which is known as an abortion. He is too caught up in what is best for himself that he misses the simple signs of her feeling uncomfortable in the situation. For example, once he has approached the subject “the girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on”(Hemingway, 1927) which showed her break in eye contact with him, or answering his question if she is feeling better with “I’m fine”.  As in Click, Michael Newman feels he must give his family a richer life to exceed their happiness, but loses sight in what the family really wants, a loving father. In each situations, both characters do what they feel is best for themselves that they miss simple signs of dissapointment from those around them. As in modern day society, the lack of communication may result in hasty decisions leading to an unhappiness between one another.

In conclusion, communication is key to any working relationship. Whether it is a couple faced with the decision of abortion as in Hills like White Elephants, or a father, feeling the best way to make his family happy is by giving them a wealthier life, losing sight of the most important thing, his love, in the movie Click. Both characters, just as many others in modern society often miss the importance of expressing ones feelings to one another, resulting in a confused and consequential situation.

What We Choose to Ignore

Today, in the comfort of peoples living rooms, people of the developed countries watch the injustices taking place in the developing countries as if it were another program to entertain us. Few appreciate the horrible reality of poverty and slavery because most feel safer in remaining ignorant. It is very upsetting that we, as a developed society, can sit here wilfully to the consequences of our actions and who it may be affecting. As in today’s bloody diamond trade, we do not take into account the consequences of consuming these products. Many people in Africa suffer each and every day in order to get their hands on diamond resources. So, those 10 carat diamond necklaces, or pricy engagement rings that a great percentage of the developed world are wearing, may have cost more than a couple grand, but a mass amount of lives. The many issues present in modern society are very similar to those in Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness.(Conrad,1998) as history if full of stories about the unfair treatment to those less fortunate.  To this day, society is too caught up in their own “precious” lives to stop and notice the atrocities happening around the world.

Western Civilization faces difficulties each and every day, but we gain a better perspective on our lives once we realise the hardships of those living a life in a third world county. This theme is enhanced throughout the novella by the use of symbolism. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad has a very powerful fog scene in the Congo. This represents the blurred knowledge of what is really going on in the world and how the life of others may be in the “shadows”. In the novella, the main character, Marlow, steers the steamboat into a patch of “white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night.” (Conrad 191). This results in a confusion of what lies ahead, which is also symbolic to western society’s ignorance to acknowledge the tragedies around the world. The media and other authorities conceal the hardships by manipulating them with false information. An example of this is the plan to install the Keystone Pipeline, which is a direct connection of oil from Northern Alberta to Texas. This will promise many more jobs, but the oil toxins and risk of leaks will slowly damage our environment(Fitzgerald 2011). This demonstrates how government allows Corporations to reveal only selective information to the public. We are not often exposed to the negative impacts of our actions, and instead we go on about our days without acknowledging those slaving to serve us with those certain resources.

Within the Heart Of Darkness(Conrad 1998), Marlow meets the fiancé of a very wealthy man named Kurtz. Conrad uses strong imagery of heaven and light to describe Kurtz fiancé, also known as “the Intended”. This naive and idealistic woman is blind to all the issues happening around her, from Kurtz’s greed in the industry to the continuing problems in the Congo. This relates to a great percent of the world that is not aware of these ongoing atrocities, we live to believe each and every human being is living the “glamorous” life that we do, when in fact many people are fighting for their survival each day. Consequently, how can we sit here ignorant and blind to the challenges others face every day, and not even lift a finger to help?

Conrad’s purpose in writing the Heart of Darkness (Conrad 1998)was to expose the hidden truths in which we often choose to ignore. Moreover, if we face the truths that are happening within our society, civilization would not be able to handle the reality of how diverse the world is. Our ignorance in societies occurrences allows us to move on with our everyday life without feeling the moral impact of how terrible many people’s situations in the world are.

 

Conrad, J. (1998). Heart of Darkness. In C. Watts (Ed) Heart of Darkness and Other Tales. (pp. 131-252). New York: Oxford World Classics.

Fitzgerald, F. (2011) The keystone pipeline-an x.l. problem. Retrieved November 8, 2011, from http://www.theurbn.com/2011/11/the-keystone-pipeline-an-x-l-problem/

Book One: What’s the Truth?

Here we are, a few weeks later and now completed book 1 of Joseph Conrad’s, Heart Of Darkness. This novella has not been an easy read, nor an easy topic to understand. The complex dialogue and high level of vocabulary has made it a struggle to figure out what Conrad is trying to say. However, throughout the last couple weeks I have learned not so much in understanding the words, but to look deeper into the ideas behind this book. Over and over we have been told misleading and phony information by those in higher authority, and believed every word of it. Reading this book, it has really opened up my eyes to the real issues often hidden from our lives and how we are going to understand those issues and do something about it.

Throughout this book, there are many events that compare between life in the Congo, and life in modern day society. Life in the Congo is separated between the whites and the blacks, the rich and the poor. Just as in our lives we are separated by our personal differences, whether it is our race, or financial positions. In the Heart of Darkness, the main character, Marlow witnesses these moral differences when he visits the Congo. One scene, Marlow is stopped by the horrid image of a crowd of black people lying under trees, half alive, but dead to everyone around them. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees…half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.”(Joseph Conrad, 1998, pp.156)He notices a white string around there neck, which resembles the power the whites have over each and every one of black people. Just outside the shadowed trees, there are men of high authority up on the hillside “in a higher position”. Just as in the book where the blacks are hidden beneath the trees, not noticed nor cared about. It is like us and the world issues we do not know about, we are in the shadows of what is really going on outside our lives. Whether it is the media or the governmental figures covering it up. Our society is blind to the atrocities happening around the world, and it is our duty to come intact with these issues and do something about them. I am looking forward to reading further into the novella as it has had an effect on the way I see the problems and issues around me to this day.

Conrad, J. (1998). Heart of darkness and other tales: Heart of darkness. (pp. 135-252) US: Oxford University Press Inc.

“The Heart of Darkness”

Beginning this novella, “The Heart of Darkness” I found it a challenge in understanding what was going on. The scenes jumped back and forth in where and what things were happening. This is not like any other book I’ve read, the skill level is  much higher compared to what we are used to. I feel I will become more interested in what is going on once I read deeper into the book and draw out the important symbols involved. I am looking forward to what is going to happen further in this novella.