Corruption+and+Contamination

(cited text) || * "'It's savagery,' Dr. Saunders declared. 'Like everything else in this country, plain savagery and barbarism. [...] Most gruesome and horrible mutilations--and all, mind you, in the name of religion." (Jhabvala 52) (cited text) || * "A grain merchant had died and his widow had been forced by her relatives to burn herself with him on his funeral pyre." (Jhabvala 48)
 * || **//Heat and Dust//** || **//Wide Sargasso Sea//** || **//Heart of Darkness//** || **//Things Fall Apart//** ||
 * Synopsis || * On Baba Firdau's shrine is a place where Muslims would go on Husband's Wedding Day in order to pray for their wives' pregnancy
 * The shrine has been taken over by those of Hindu religion, sparking riots during each holiday that results in deaths and casualties
 * Generally, India is plagued with 'religious corruption' in terms of sacrifices and punishments believers face || * As a child, Antoinette is shunned by the corrupt civilization that surrounds her and expresses prejudice towards her due to her race and her poverty.
 * The slaves corruptly rebel against the Cosways by stoning and burning down their home.
 * In her childhood, Antoinette is taunted for her familial and racial background (i.e. her mother's madness) || * Marlow considers his journey and uses a Roman's travels to the Thames to give a general overview of what he experienced during his voyage in the Congo
 * Marlow is transported to the Company's station in a steamship and he witnesses the enslavement and abuse of the native people as Europeans strive towards obtaining material wealth (ivory)
 * As he nears the end of his journey to find Kurtz, Marlow comes to a house which is surrounded by heads on stakes. || * Abandonment of clan members into the Evil Forest (e.g. twins, Okonkwo's father Unoka)
 * Murder of Ikemefuna and others by Okonkwo to show that he was not weak
 * Method of imposing Christian religion on the local culture ||
 * Real time || * Olivia's time (1923) during the rule of the British Raj
 * Present Day (1970s) || * Antoinette's childhood
 * Antoinette's marriage to Rochester and their life together in Jamaica
 * Antoinette's entrapment England || * Past (Marlow's journey to the Congo and his return)
 * Present Day (the Narrator and Marlow aboard the Nellie with the Director of Companies, the Accountant, and the Lawyer) ||  ||
 * Narrative placement || * During Husband's Wedding Day (1923) || * Antoinette's childhood || * Marlow on the Thames reflecting on a Roman's arrival at the Thames for the first time
 * Marlow's first witness of the Company's station
 * Marlow approaching his meeting with Kurtz ||  ||
 * Characters involved || * Olivia
 * The Nawab
 * Anne
 * Inder Lal || * Antoinette
 * Rochester
 * Christophine
 * Slaves || * Marlow
 * Kurtz
 * Cannibals
 * Europeans (general group)
 * African natives (general group) || * Okonkwo
 * Unoka
 * Ikemefuna
 * Mr. Brown
 * Mr. Smith ||
 * Significant lines of dialogue
 * European community views Indian religious beliefs and customs as sometimes corrupt in terms of sacrificial offerings and punishments
 * "'It's criminal,' said Mrs. Crawford with deep feeling. 'When [the Nawab] could so easily control [the riots]--if he wanted to--'" (Jhabvala 60)
 * Nawab appears nonchalant towards riots, only cares about himself and his time spent with Olivia and at dinner parties
 * "'Husband's Wedding Day has come and gone. We got off relatively cheaply this time: only 6 killed and 43 wounded.'" (Jhabvala 79)
 * Suggests that many more casualties usually occur || * "'[Christophine] was your father's wedding present to me--one of his presents.'" (Rhys 12)
 * Slavery and buying and selling of slaves
 * "'[Your mother has] eyes like zombie and you have eyes like zombie too." (Rhys 29-30)
 * Contamination of Anette and Antoinette's mind, suggests they are possessed
 * "'[Myra] left [Pierre], she ran away and left him alone to die.'" (Rhys 24)
 * Corrupt servants, betrayal of the family and burning the house || * N/A ||  ||
 * Significant descriptions
 * "He was easy and familiar with [the desperadoes....] The Nawab dismissed them quite soon, then called her into the shrine." (Jhabvala 115) || * "I laughed when I saw the lovely color spreading so fast." (Rhys 111)
 * Refers to the flames that appear when Antoinette knocks over the candles in the mansion because she "hates them."
 * Contrast from her childhood traumatic encounter with flames after slaves burn down her home, shows changed mindset from pure and innocent to contaminated with evil || * "It was robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going blind--as is proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves...."
 * Emphasizes the magnitude of racism
 * Newcomers contaminate the African Congo and instigate corruption with their corrupt views
 * "Six black men advanced in a file toiling up the path. [...] I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope, each had an iron collar on his neck and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking." (Conrad 19)
 * Illustrates the corruption of Europeans and the Company; corruption of human rights for natives, enslave local people and abuse them for material gain
 * "Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the--what shall I say--less material aspirations." (Conrad 57)
 * "They would have been even more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house." (Conrad 57)
 * Shows Kurtz's power and corruption, as well as Marlow's more corrupted mind as he is now somewhat unsurprised by such gruesome images ||  ||
 * Symbols || * Baba Firdau's Shrine and Husband's Wedding Day
 * An ironic symbol, since a shrine is thought of as a pure place, yet is the setting where both Anne and Olivia participate in love affairs and become pregnant
 * Husband's Wedding Day is meant for a married couple to have a child, but in both Anne and Olivia's cases, they are committing a sinful act and contaminating the purity of the shrine and the purity of marriages || * Coulibri Estate (Garden)
 * Garden is compared to the Garden of Eden
 * No longer perfect, but is said to have "gone wild," showing the garden's (and Antoinette's environment) corruption and contamination by sin.
 * Poison/Love potion
 * Rochester believes that Antoinette is trying to poison him, corrupt way of dealing with problem within relationship || * Heads on the Stakes
 * Symbolic of Kurtz's corruption and power || * Evil Forest ||
 * Motifs || * Pregnancy
 * Mrs. Saunders claims that her womb had never been right after her baby's death, and states that this event has contaminated her, instigating the "bad after-effects" on her health (Jhavbala 23)
 * Olivia's pregnancy is a symbol of the contamination of her relationship with Douglas
 * Anne's pregnancy is a symbol of the contamination of Inder Lal's relationship with Ritu
 * Material Wealth
 * The Nawab's prime concern is for his wealth and his power, not for the problems in his country (corrupt ruling)
 * Secrecy || * Fire/Flames
 * Slaves stoning and burning down the Cosway's home as a corrupt form of rebellion
 * Antoinette burns down Rochester's mansion as a corrupt form of rebellion
 * Violence
 * Bullying of Antoinette for her alleged 'zombification' and race
 * Racism
 * Locals (allegedly) stare at Rochester with laughing faces
 * Locals discriminate against Antoinette's family
 * Insanity
 * Contamination of the mind
 * Zombis
 * Definition from //WSS//: //A person whose soul has been stolen or put to sleep by a bokor, or sorcerer, who takes full command of the body for his own purposes.... The alienation of the zombi provided a powerful metaphor for the experience of plantation slaves// || * Material Wealth
 * Motivation for material wealth (ivory) drives Europeans to resort to extreme measures such as enslaving natives and robbing them of their land
 * Racism and Slavery
 * Authority || * Religion
 * Strength vs. Weakness ||
 * Narrative /style aspects || * Narration alternates between Anne's diary entries and Olivia's letters
 * Anne's diary entries are in first person narration
 * Olivia's letters are omnisciently narrated (third person) || * Antoinette narrates her childhood in first person
 * Antoinette and Rochester alternately narrate Part Two of the novel (their relationship in Jamaica)
 * Antoinette narrates her entrapment in England || * Novel written in three parts (1-Going to the Congo and hearing about Kurtz for the first time; 2-Journey to meet Kurtz; 3-Meeting Kurtz and Marlow's return to England)
 * Layered narrative
 * While Marlow provides an account of his time in the Congo, the narrator includes descriptions of Marlow's actions as he divulges his experience (seems to act as a break from Marlow's dense dialogue) ||  ||
 * Literary features || * Characterization (of the Nawab)
 * Irony
 * Language (word choice)
 * Parallelism || * Imagery (of the fires that burn down Antoinette's childhood home and Rochester's residence in England)
 * Contrast (younger Antoinette vs. Older Antoinette)
 * Parallelism (of Antoinette with Garden, both lose their innocence) || * Parallelism
 * Foreshadowing
 * Imagery (e.g. of the scenes involving sever slavery, the heads on the stakes) ||  ||