Blog 36 Murfin

The most interesting idea for me in Murfin’s article is the idea that the Heart of Darkness is “not a disguised expression of Conrad’s personal, repressed wishes; it is rather a manifestation of the desires of the whole human race once had but were repressed after becoming civilized” (117). The ID is extremely important to Freud essential argument and I agree with Murfin that it is not Conrad’s subconscious that is writing Heart of Darkness but rather something that is engrained in all humans that eventually we as a society grow out of and Conrad was simply able to tap into one of those primal feelings. However, the question I pose is did the author know that it was his subconscious ID that he was tapping into, and do the writers of stories like Hamlet know what they are including when they write ideas like the Oedipal Complex.

Journal Entry 26 Blog 35

Today was a long day, after waiting for the chief to finish his daily hunting, which took two days, I was suddenly intercepted by a courier who told me he had a message for just my eyes. After taking the letter from him I proceeded into my cabin where I read in the dark, to make sure no one could spy, a letter that told me to enter the jungle and follow a secret path to where I could finally find the golden man I have been looking for. The next morning packed up some equipment and set out through the jungle, when I finally found the secret path that had obviously been walked on my many people, I was quickly enveloped in a bright mist that blinded me for quite some time until I tripped over some sort of root. At closer inspection however, the root was a bone. As I scurried away from the hard, white, club, I was heard a voice that I could not locate. “Do not be freighted child” suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my head and I was instantly knocked unconscious. It has been, what I assume to be, at least 6 hours that I have been locked in a room. While it is a splendid room, with paintings and furnishings, it can only be noticed that it has accumulated a large amount of dust from not having its warm doors opened to anyone for years.

Journal Entry 25 Blog 34

After waiting two weeks for new supplies that would allow us to continue our journey down the river they finally arrived on “the worlds fastest train” as it is known in England, we finally began our journey to the next checkpoint. Our destination, the biggest city established thus far, an encampment with walls and about 10 barracks that house both supplies and colonists. As we arrived on shore, two cannibals instantly greeted me; however, they were dressed in finer clothing then I had on my own back. After unloading the countless supplies we had received upstream with the blinding light in our faces, I set out to meet the manager. Upon arriving at his mansion, it quickly became apparent that the people of his city called him the chief.  After some idle chatting with the butler, I was finally told to come back tomorrow to meet with the chief because he was “out hunting for today”.

Question 6; Blog 33

Kurtz was depicting the irony of trying to bring light into a dark place because the woman carrying the torch was blindfolded. Furthermore Marlow sees a scariness in the way the light bounces on the woman’s face which signifies that trying to light a country may not always be the best thing. At this point in time Marlow would agree that trying to light the darkness is not a good thing to do but sometimes darkness should be left alone. Like his example of England, all places have been miserable at some point in time.

Heart of Darkness Blog 32

In heart of darkness, the dark and shadowy unknowing of Africa is displayed as ignorant when Marlow describes how England was once a place where prisoners were sent by the Romans but is now a place of great prosperity. His description of England is the same as how the other sailors were describing Africa and his use of ancient Rome shows that all places change, and all places must be brought out from the ruble.

Looking Back Blog 31

Looking back on the first semester, I have to say that reading hamlet was my favorite part of English. While I despised the book and I still loath Shakespeare, seeing 5 hamlet movies, close to 20 times really drilled some funny lines in my head. I don’t think I will ever forget Branagh teleportation when he says “a little more the kin and less than kind” which have to be my new favorite lines of all time. Also, acting the scenes ourselves was pretty hilarious and nothing beats Benny’s performance. “I know not seems madam, all I know is that I’m a little more then kin and less than kind. Still laughing.

Prufrock blog 30

Prufrock uses language as a gateway into Eliot’s mind. It is clear how the lines of the poem symbolize a deeper meaning that T.S. Eliot has for the words in his poem: “To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” (27). While this clearly means that peoples internal feelings do not match those of the external, Eliot makes a point to emphasize how there will be time one day for all the strange quarks to be worn out and for there to be an almost perfect society. Eliot also makes many allusions to mythology and biblical stories like Lazarus. By using such high profile allusions, Eliot bolsters his image and forces the reader to read more deeply into the poem rather than simply skim the surface for some the superficial meaning of the poem.