Images of Africa in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart Essay

Images of Africa in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman.   Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as "so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness" (Conrad 94), as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life, but he also manages to depict Africans as though they are not worthy of the respect commonly due to the white man.   At one point the main character, Marlow, describes one of the paths he follows: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement" (48).   Conrad's description of Africa and Africans served to misinform the Western world, and went uncontested for many years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In 1958 Chinua Achebe published his first and most widely acclaimed novel, Things Fall Apart.   This work-commonly acknowledged as the single most well known African novel in the world-depicts an image of Africa that humanizes both the continent and the people.   Achebe once said, "Reading Heart of Darkness . . . I realized that I was one of those savages jumping up and down on the beach.   Once that kind of enlightenment comes to you, you realize that someone has to write a different story" (Gikandi 8-9); Achebe openly admits that he wrote Things Fall Apart because of the horrible characterization of Africans in many European works, especially Heart of Darkness.   In many ways, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart can be seen as an Afrocentric rebuttal to the Eurocentric depi... ...t of Darkness.    Works Cited Achebe, Chinua.   "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism.   3rd  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ed.   Ed. Robert Kimbrough.   New York: W.W. Norton, 1988.   251-262. ---.   Things Fall Apart.   Greenwich: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1959. Boahen, A. Adu.   African Perspectives on Colonialism.   Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. Conrad, Joseph.   Heart of Darkness.   London: Penguin Books, 1989. "Doctrines on Colonialism."   The Government of Tibet in Exile.   3 May 2000. http://www.tibet.com/Humanrights/Unpo/chap2.html>. Gikandi, Simon.   "Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Literature."   Classics in Context: Things Fall Apart.   Chinua Achebe.   Portsmouth: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1996      

Macbeth’s Strengths and Weaknesses Essay

Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays the major characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They are both ambitious and are yearning for power. In the beginning of Act One, Shakespeare portrayed Macbeth as a brave and honorable general who received admiration from everyone around him including the king of Scotland, Duncan when he triumphantly defeated the rebel MacDonwald. Macbeth is a good friend and loyal confidant to Duncan. Macbeth is at tragic hero because unlike Shakespeare’s other works Macbeth is not all evil. He is consumed by his evil ambition and guilt for the throne of Scotland that he will go to any measures necessary to achieve it. Macbeth’s character is very cunning and witty. He is smart enough to understand that Duncan is very kind and naà ¯ve and he takes advantage of the fact that he could easily overthrow him. The pressures from his wife Lady Macbeth and the witches make him eager to kill Duncan, but most importantly it is his overwhelming ambition fo r power that makes him a weak character. Throughout the first act the character of Macbeth is developed, in which Macbeth’s strengths were ambition, courage, and honor. His use of these strengths and loyalty to King Duncan earned him the title of â€Å"Thane of Cawdor.† After the murder of Banquo, however, his large amount of pride and ambition disrupted his morals and faltered his heroic image, leading to the backfiring of the strengths that he once had, which later became his weaknesses. When Macbeth was visited by the three witches, his superstitious nature was brought out, causing him to trust them and their prediction that he will rise to the throne if he kills Duncan. He wasn’t satisfied with his position as the Thane of Cawdor. This is one of Macbeth’s weaknesses because he has no sense of self and is controlled and easily convinced to do things that he knows are wrong. We can see that Macbeth is not all evil and that the person who is behind all this chaos is Lady Macbeth. When it was time to kill Duncan and the plan was set he felt guilty because he understood how good Duncan was to him, however in the back of his mind he had an evil ambition and desire to obtain the throne. When he mentions this to his wife she doesn’t pity him and tells him  that he must go on with the plan. â€Å"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambitions, which o’er leap itself and falls on the other.†(Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 25-27) In this quote Macbeth admitted that it was only ambition that motivated him to become disloyal to Duncan. This is one of Macbeth’s biggest weaknesses in which he gives in to his evil temptations, even though he knows that his actions are immoral. He realizes that what he did was wrong and that he did it through illegal actions. It seems as though Lady Macbeth conspired this plan and had n o feeling about what bad action she committed. In general, Lady Macbeth, and well as the witches, were responsible for turning Macbeth’s strong ambitions into his most major flaw. Lady Macbeth contributed to the deterioration of his character by challenging his courage and testing his manhood if he didn’t take the shortest way of obtaining the throne, which was by killing Duncan. When Macbeth tells his wife that he does not want to kill Duncan, she convinces him that he is weaker than a women, manipulating his kind and sensitive nature. The witches brought out another one of Macbeth’s major weaknesses, his superstitious nature. They suggest to the reader that his superstitious nature will lead to something fatal. After meeting the witches, Macbeth begins to worry, leading to hallucinations that he thinks tell him to murder Duncan, like his vision of the dagger. When Macbeth â€Å"sees† the dagger, he states, â€Å"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal  vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?† (Act 2, Scene 1, lines 33-39). Macbeth’s strengths fail, turning out to be his weaknesses, which makes him a tragic hero because he was once honorable and highly respected; his downfall caused by his own mistakes. After he starts committing murders, his guilty conscience comes out and leads to the deterioration of his character,  leaving him unhappy and remorseful. In Macbeth’s case, his negative traits such as his gullibility, lack of control and willpower overcome the strengths and advantages that he once had; his pride, honor, and strong, ambitious nature.

The Career Of A Daycare - 1013 Words

Starting a Daycare Have you ever not wanted to get up to take your child to daycare? One would wanna open a daycare because they love children especially babies. One love’s taking care of them, loves seeing them laugh, fall over, playing, and explore. The career of opening a daycare is a enormous job ,due to the requirements, and the study of children at different stages. This research will describe the career of a daycare center, what is required to become a successful daycare teacher and the impact this career has on society To draw attention to the need of child care, a group of New Yorkers set up a model day nursery in the children s building at the 1893 World’s Columbian exhibition in Chicago and then went on to found the national†¦show more content†¦Some other duties are supervising staff, hiring cleaning crews, and maintaining a safe environment for the children and staff, hiring staff, also ensuring compliance with all local and federal laws governing child care. Hours of work for an in home daycare varies on how long the parents work. Qualifications of opening an in home daycare vary by state, no formal education is required for this career . You must be 18 or older with no felonies and arrest of child abuse, also they must submit a report of good health. Workers with postsecondary education or an early childhood education credential may be qualified for higher level positions. Before a childcare worker can operate his or her own day care, he or she is required to have prior experience in a childcare setting, such as another daycare or a preschool or kindergarten class. Multiple states require child care centers, including in private homes to be licensed. To qualify for licensure the staff needs to pass a background check, have a complete record of immunizations, and meet the minimum training requirement. You can be male or female, and be a graduate of high school. The most common method of entry is having a high school degree and having an early childhood education. Many states require in-home child care businesses to secure daycare licensing. An individual has to contact the department of child welfare or a similar agency and request a home daycare information packet. After you ve read the packet a student