The structure of a novel enables it to embody, integrate and communicate its content by revealing its role in the creation and perception of it. A complex structure such as that of Robert Drewe’s work The Drowner, published in 1996, refers to the interrelation or arrangement of parts in a complex entity1. Drewe’s novel is a multi-faceted epic love story presenting a fable of European ambitions in an alien landscape, and a magnificently sustained metaphor of water as the life and death force2. The main concerns of the novel include concerns about love, life, death and human frailty. These concerns are explored through the complex structure of the novel. That is, through its symbolic title, prologues, and division into sections. The complexity of the novel is here, in its inter-twining of the different aspects of structure and they way in which they all ‘communicate’ to further the underlying concerns. These concerns are in turn explored by the attainment of an in-depth analysis and understanding of them.…
Machine” contains a learned and astute description of work and suffering at sea. What sticks out…
The journey of a ship's crew taken hostage by an eccentric submarine captain, in a time when the cast-iron monster baffled the educated mind. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" is a classic that combines the inventive mind of the author, Jules Verne, and modern technology to create a psuedo realistic world that paved the way for the steam punk genre. It entrances the human's unquenching desire for discovery at every turn. Although having a superb storyline, I find that at a few times the amount of scientific nomenclature bogs down the storyline with long monotonous passages. This has a few of its own advantages but often has its own drawbacks.…
"I left in a French steamer: The French Steam Ship and she called in every blamed port they have out there, for, as far as I could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house officers. I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. Analogy comparing the coast slipping by the ship to a mystery. There it is before you -- smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, Personification: Giving humanlike features to the coast. 'Come and find out.' This one was almost featureless, as if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. Suggesting that the coast invites us to uncover its secrets. The edge of…
Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness has foreshadowing that adds a lot of suspense throughout the book. Conrad used foreshadowing through minor details that are not clearly stated and are to be interpreted as the book continues.…
Descent into Darkness by Edward C. Raymer is an exceptional piece of work that accounts the history and aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Raymer’s purpose when writing Descent into Darkness was to mainly depict the story of what naval divers did during the recovery process after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the hazards endured and the sometimes nearly impossible hardships they overcame, and the innovative diving techniques implemented used to salvage as many damaged battleships and naval capabilities back to fleet. The primary content also includes tense descriptions of diving after horrific circumstances, the human factors that are seldom known, and the grim tasks of recovering bodies in the worst of situations. His supplementary or secondary purpose was to tell the story of his diving operations at Guadalcanal and the humorous stories of the life and liberties of an enlisted sailor during a time of war. The book serves primarily as a narrative of memoirs by Raymond, who was a junior enlisted diver during World War II and rose to the ranks of Commander throughout his Navy career.…
Stories of survival at sea have captured people’s curiosity and imagination throughout history. The struggles that some seafarers have faced while drifting on the open sea are remarkable. “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is the story of four crew members trying to survive on the open sea while in a dinghy after their ship sank. Throughout the story, Crane describes how man and nature react with one another. By his description of their reactions, Crane makes it clear that nature does not care about man’s well being.…
The page following the book’s title depicts a scene at sea. The whole image is washed with a dark blue from the sky to the ocean, and the crashing waves convey a menacing journey has taken place. At the bottom of the page, if one looks closely, it is evident that the bottom of the wooden raft has been drawn but blends into the rest of the image. This inclusion of the raft changes the perspective of the image as the responder is now been positioned as if they were looking out from the raft, the place of the Man. An immediate bond has now been formed between the responder and the man, and for the rest of the text we continue to sympathise with him.…
The wave was murky coming towards like a rigid and supreme barrier. It began to coil over, he looked up the wave loomed over him. His father’s words came back to him giving him an urge of determination “a true mariner never deserts a sinking ship.” It heaved itself onto his boat. The boat shredded apart, jagged pieces of timber where floating and he was left sinking. His boat had plunged into the depths of the enigmatic ocean. The salted sea pricked at his delicate eyes and his spectral face white washed. He was crawling for breath kicking his feet neurotically. He managed to clench onto a residue of his boat his naked fingers scratching the plank and splinters dashing up his finger nails. For him time felt suspended. His clothes saturated with water clinging on and sticking onto his skin. He was wrinkling like a prune. He had a vacant expression, solitude was conquering him. He had to overcome this despair as the turbulence of the storm…
In Joseph Conrad's "The Heart Of Darkness", the main idea is that even the most civilized person has an evil side. When a man that appears to be civilized enters a jungle, he does things that he normally would not do. Every human beings has a dark side, and are able to do the most bizarre acts. this essay will examine How once a civilized man is taken out of the constraints of his society and allowed to follow his dreams, some of those desires can be pretty evil.…
“You never knew what kind of thing could be down there under that water” (46).…
Psychoanalysis is known as the theory in which our unconscious plays a big role in the actions that we take and the way our minds work in a way that goes beyond our awareness. Sigmund Freud is credited with this discovery and also with establishing an understanding of a big part of human psychology. Through Freud’s theory of repression, one can conclude that suppressed desires present themselves in unusual and unexpected ways. In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart Of Darkness”, Conrad portrays Freud’s theory of repression in the characters of Kurtz and Marlow by showing how their inner desires begin to take control of their minds and demonstrating that there…
The oiler, guiding with one of the two oars in the boat, sometimes raised himself suddenly to keep away from the water that poured in. It was a thin little oar, and it often seemed ready to break.The correspondent, pulling at the other oar, watched the waves and wondered why he was there.The hurt captain, lying in the front, was feeling defeat and despair. It was despair that comes, for a time at least, to even the bravest and most enduring when the business fails, the army loses, the ship goes down. The mind of the master of a vessel is rooted deep in her wood, whether he commands for a day or many. And this captain had in his thoughts the firm impression of a scene in the grays of dawn, with seven faces turned down in the sea. And later the remains of the ship, washed by waves, going low and lower and down. Thereafter there was something strange in his voice. Although steady, it was deep with grief, and of a quality beyond speech or tears.“Keep her a little more south, Billie,” said he.“A little more south, sir,” said the oiler in the back.A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a jumpy horse, and a horse is not much smaller. The boat was much like an animal. As each wave…
In this excerpt from the novel, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the author effectively portrays the Congo River as an inhospitable location unfit for human existence. Through Conrad’s diction, syntax and detail of the environment, the author reveals a great deal of psychological stress, due to the hostile environment, which leads to physical anguish.…
Heart of Darkness is a novel of indescribable horrors and actions that lie outside the human mind. It describes a mans (Marlow) voyage on a west African river to find an a man named Kurtz. The actual journey truly is towards the "heart of darkness", where it takes Marlow by evidence of European indignity towards the natives. He wants to see this land for himself, he does not quite believe in himself of what is really there. This story hints at horrors that Marlow is incapable of describing, which leaves the reader to imagine actions that are outside of normal everyday life. The voyage that Marlow has taken has been long and exhausting. It's an adventure for him. He has experienced a great deal of confrontation with the natives, jungle dangers and savagery. There is no interest of the humans who live here and they are extremely mistreated. To them this is normal human behavior. Nothing has been done differently. Nowhere did we stop long enough to get a particular impression, but there was general sense of wonder. "It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares". This describes Marlow's voyage to the "heart of darkness", the literal heart of darkness: Africa. He was fully warned and well-aware of the evil he would encounter, however he chose to ignore that in effort to satisfy his curiosity. The author is also saying something about human nature. Human curiosity about an unknown place can make him cross the line of civilized human behavior and enter a world of nightmares. Marlow wanted to see it for himself, but what made it most fascinating was this land was something he had never experienced before. He knew he would be a "weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares" but he wanted to prove something to himself that could remain doubtable if not seen. There is a persistence of the human instinct that pushes people to try to find the unknown and calm their deepest desires and questions. To actually see and experience the unknown are the only true ways…