The essay I chose was the essay that commented on the racism in the novel. This short story criticism was written by Robert Hampson in the spring of 1990. The author's purpose for writing this very long essay was to make it known that there were many parts of the writing that could be perceived as racist. He makes many points to prove this statement. In the opening section, the writer elaborates on his view in the story of the English and French being the superior power as oppose to the Russians and Africans who become the inferior power. He backs this theory up by using the example of when Marlow sees the writing in the book and calls it cipher, which means something of no value or importance. As it turns out, the writing was in Russian, further supporting Hampson's view of racism in the novel. I definitely think that there's a little bit of bias in everyone's writing but there doesn't seem to be that heavy of a bias in this essay. In my opinion, I think that this argument was presented very well. This essay was very well organized and planned out very well. It’s laid out in a very orderly fashion. Each part to it has it’s own examples and shows valid points. I think lots of time and effort went into this essay and it’s very well shown. While reading it, you can tell that the speaker not only understands the book, but looks for other meanings within the text. I agree with what the writer is promoting in this paper. He’s trying to prove a point that this novel does in fact have highlights of racism in it and he does this very well. Perhaps he just mastered the art of influence but I definitely agree with him.
I never knew what "cipher" meant, but now it makes sense of how it goes along with the racist theory. However, it seems that not only one race is being attacked. Most other races, besides European, has a bit of downfall in the novella.
ReplyDeleteBias does seem inevitable, because opinion seems to find its way into everyone's writing. I feel like, even articles in newspapers that should have no bias, have some sort of bias.