Heart Of Darkness Ignorance And Racism Essays - Congo Free State

Heart of Darkness: Ignorance and Racism Heart of Darkness: Ignorance and Racism Joseph Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual responsibility, and social justice in his book Heart of Darkness. His book has all the trappings of the conventional adventure tale - mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense, unexpected attack. Chinua Achebe concluded, "Conrad, on the other hand, is undoubtedly one of the great stylists of modern fiction and a good story-teller into the bargain" (Achebe 252). Yet, despite Conrad's great story telling, he has also been viewed as a racist by some of his critics. Achebe, Singh, and Sarvan, although their criticisim differ, are a few to name. Normal readers usually are good at detecting racism in a book. Achebe acknowledges Conrad camouflaged racism remarks, saying, "But Conrad chose his subject well - one which was guaranteed not to put him in conflict with psychological pre-disposition..." (Achebe, 253). Having gone back and rereading Heart of Darkness, but this time reading between the lines, I have discovered some racism Conrad felt toward the natives that I had not discovered the first time I read the book. Racism is portrayed in Conrad's book, but one must acknowledge that back in the eighteen hundreds society conformed to it. Conrad probably would have been criticized as being soft hearted rather than a racist back in his time. Conrad constantly referred to the natives, in his book, as black savages, niggers, brutes, and "them", displaying ignorance toward the African history and racism towards the African people. Conrad wrote, "Black figures strolled out listlessly... the beaten nigger groaned somewhere" (Conrad 28). "They passed me with six inches, without a glance, with the complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages" (Conrad 19). Achebe, also, detected Conrad's frequent use of unorthodox name calling, "Certainly Conrad had a problem with niggers. His in ordinate love of that word itself should be of interest to psychoanalysts" (Achebe 258). Conrad uses Marlow, the main character in the book, as a narrator so he himself can enter the story and tell it through his own philosophical mind. Conrad used "double speak" throughout his book. Upon arriving at the first station, Marlow commented what he observed. "They were dying slowly - it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" (Conrad 20). Marlow felt pity toward the natives, yet when he met the station's book keeper he changed his views of the natives. "Moreover I respected the fellow. Yes. I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance" (Conrad 21). Marlow praised the book keeper as if he felt it's the natives' fault for living in such waste. the bureaucracy only cared about how he looked and felt. The bookeeper did not care for the natives who were suffering less than fifty feet from him. He stated the natives weren't criminals but were being treated as if they were, but at the same time he respected the book keeper on his looks instead of despising him for his indifference. Conrad considered the Africans inferior and doomed people. Frances B. Singh, author of The Colonialistic Bias of Heart of Darkness said "The African natives, victims of Belgian exploitation, are described as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' and 'bundles of acute angles,' so as to show the dehumanizing effect of colonialist rule on the ruled" (269-270). Another similar incident of "double speak" appeared on the death of Marlow's helmsman. Marlow respected the helmsman, yet when the native's blood poured into Marlow's shoes, "To tell you the truth, I was morbidity anxious to change my shoes and socks" (Conrad 47). How can someone respect yet feel disgusted towards someone? Singh looks into this question by stating, "The reason of course, is because he (Marlow) never completely grants them (natives) human status: at the best they are a species of superior hyena" (Singh 273). As I have mentioned before, Conrad was not only racist but also ignorant. He would often mix ignorance with racism when he described the natives. "They howled and leaped and spun and made horrid faces, but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity - like yours - the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly" (Conrad 35). "The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us - who could tell?" (Conrad 37). The end result of Conrad's ignorance of not knowing the behavior of African people concluded his division of the social

Qualitative Data Definition and Examples

Qualitative Data Definition and Examples In statistics, qualitative data- sometimes referred to as categorical data- is data that can be arranged into categories based on physical traits, gender, colors or anything that does not have a number associated with it. The hair colors of players on a football team, the color of cars in a parking lot, the letter grades of students in a classroom, the types of coins in a jar, and the shape of candies in a variety pack are all examples of qualitative data so long as a particular number is not assigned to any of these descriptions. Qualitative data is contrasted with  quantitative data  wherein quantitative  data sets have numbers associated with them that evaluate the quantity of an object or objects with shared features. Oftentimes, quantitative data is used to analyze qualitative data sets. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data Its pretty easy to understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative data: the former doesnt include numbers in its definition of traits of an object or group of objects while the latter does. Still, it can get confusing when thinking in terms of statistical attributes, which include size and dimensions, which are quantitative and not qualitative data. In order to better understand these concepts, its best to observe examples of particular datasets and how they can be defined. Observe which are qualitative and which are quantitative data sets in the following examples: The cats have orange, brown, black, or white fur (qualitative).The boys have brown, black, blonde, and red hair (qualitative).There are four black cats and five orange cats (quantitative).The cake was 50 percent chocolate and 50 percent vanilla (quantitative). Even when a particular feature or attribute of an object is qualitative, such as chocolate for the cake or black for the cats, the inclusion of a number in the data set makes it a quantitative one, though this interplay is important for the study of statistics as it provides categories for which mathematicians  can then compare numerically. The Importance of Qualitative Data Whereas quantitative data is important in determining the particular frequency of traits or characteristics, the sizes, and dimensions of objects, and that sort of information about a given topic, qualitative data like the color of hair or skin of employees in a company or the healthiness of a pets coat can be important in statistical analysis, especially when paired with quantitative data about these qualitative features. Essentially, qualitative data is important because it allows statisticians to form parameters through which to observe larger sets of data. For instance, a company that wanted to determine the diversity of its workforce would want to look at a set of qualitative data like race and ethnicity of its employees as well as the quantitative data of the frequency of employees to belong to those races and ethnicities. Qualitative data provides the means for which observers can quantify the world around them- there are three blondes, two brunettes, and three black-haired women at the table or there are 16  freshmen and 15 sophomores attending the annual band trip.