Page 31 - DIVA3 2021_final_CORR_reduced
P. 31
of his short stories and novels were inspired
by his personal experiences of those years. For
instance, The Heart of Darkness, the story on
which Francis Ford Coppola based his film
Apocalypse Now, builds on the experience
Conrad gained when employed by the Belgian
company managing travel on the Congo
River, while the short story Youth: A narrative
was inspired by his trip as a second mate on a
merchant ship to “the Orient”.
A feature distinguishing Conrad among
such authors in his time as Rudyard Kipling,
who idealized Western intervention as a
civilizational effort, was Conrad’s staunch
criticism of colonialism. This reflects Conrad’s
hereditary aversion to oppression and his
personal observations of what was happening
in colonized lands. No one who reads The
Heart of Darkness, published in 1899, can
take the civilizational claim of colonialism
for granted any more. “To tear treasure out of
the bowels of the land was their desire, with imagination of it! To me she was not an old Joseph Conrad
no more moral purpose at the back of it than rattle-trap carting about the world a lot of coal on the cover
there is in burglars breaking into a safe”, says for a freight – to me she was the endeavour, of the Tome
1
Marlow - Conrad’s character and alter ego. the test, the trial of life”, Conrad wrote. Magazine,
2
Yet the most impressive aspect of Conrad’s Enthusiasm helps a young person overcome 7 April 1923,
works is their deep insight into the psychology the vagaries of life, expecting the natural by TIME
of the human being. As if his stories combine course of things to lift him up. In the story, Magazine
the concrete personal experience of the writer the youth’s mindset contrasts the scepticism,
with an essay on a fundamental feature of bordering cynicism, of the old captain and
the human psyche. In the Heart of Darkness his first mate, for whom everything about
Conrad explores an old approach in literature: the trip to the Orient, which exults the young
sailing along a river is associated with a travel boy, is part of an uninspiring routine at the
through one’s consciousness. Youth is also end of their lifetime journey. In my life, I
an example of Conrad’s psychologism. It often recollected this story. I apprehended,
describes the first trip of a young enthusiastic for example, as the story of Youth the devoted
sailor as a second mate, longing for his first efforts of some friends, medical students,
encounter with the Orient. He is ready to
accept the numerous failings of the old ship
on which he is affected (“all rust, dust, grime 2 Conrad, Joseph. “Youth: A narrative”, Selected
– soot aloft, dirt on deck”) – a barque carrying Short Stories, Ware, Wordsworth Classics 997,
coal from England to Bangkok, which finally p.75.
catches fire, burns down and sinks. In the
background, the youth’s mind apprehends all “For instance, The Heart of Darkness, the
these troubles as temporary circumstances
on the way to greater accomplishments. “O story on which Francis Ford Coppola based
youth! The strength of it, the faith of it, the his film Apocalypse Now, builds on the ex-
perience Conrad gained when employed by
Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness, Gut- the Belgian company managing travel on
tenberg Project 2006, online https://www.guten-
berg.org/cache/epub/526/pg526.html the Congo River...”
w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h