Human Beings and Writings

Joseph Conrad and His Influence on British Literary History Joseph Conrad was born in the Polish-dominated side of Ukraine in the year 1857, and was originally known as Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski. He was at sea for twenty years, after which he became an author. He wrote in English, which was the language he learnt third. What he went through while in Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, along with all the reading and the knowledge he had about Europe were the bases for his writing.

He was listed as the top British author of the 20th Century (Larabee). He was well-known as a sophisticated and subtle observer of the physical world and the behavior of humans. Conrad was also a renowned literary artist. He had many writings including memoirs, novels and short stories, which are still widely read and studied today. For example, his 1899 story, Heart of Darkness, is used for study in secondary schools and even beyond. It has also been used in radio, theater, television and film.

The story has also inspired many authors, who have taken up the language and motifs he used. Conrad is known for much more than Heart of Darkness. His other famous novels include The Secret Agent (1907), Lord Jim (1900) and Nostromo (1904). Other than the novels, he also had drama, essays and many letters which indicated the stories of his life, literary associations as well as writing styles. His writings were well analyzed while he was alive, though he was eluded by fame and riches, till 1913, when Chance was published (Larabee).

Joseph Conrad and British Literary History Encyclopedia Britannica says that Joseph Conrad's work was loved since it had intense prose as well as descriptions of how dangerous it was to live at sea and to be in foreign places. However, the fact that he was earlier known as great in narration of the adventures he had at sea hid how surprised he was about how man had no concern for nature, the malice in humans as well as the inner struggles he had between bad and good.

Conrad opined that the sea represented loneliness. Joseph Conrad's writings showed his sophisticated skill as well as fascinating knowledge. This is why Conrad was among the best authors of English novels. In his expedition, Conrad visited Congo; which was a great inspiration for him while he wrote Heart of Darkness. The story indicates the things he went through in Congo. This story is his greatest, most mysterious and best known. He chose the title to represent the center of Africa, which he described as a dark continent.

The title also represents the center of wickedness; all that is malicious, corrupt and nihilistic; probably even the center of human beings. Heart of Darkness centers on Conrad's vision and work, and clearly shows that he had quite a traumatic experience in Congo. He went through metaphysical, spiritual and mental suffering while on his visit. Conrad also got an illness which ate him up throughout his lifetime. He suffered from gout, and an on and off fever (Encyclopedia Britannica).

In 1894, during spring, Conrad sent a literary piece known as Almayer's Folly, which was received by Fischer Unwin, a publisher based in London. It was published the next year in April. The author of Almayer's Folly influenced Conrad to change his name, since Conrad realized that the British had a hard time pronouncing his original name, Korzeniowski. After, Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands was written in 1896.

The story is repetitive of the theme about a blindly and unwise shallow character, who pays dearly for his shortcomings while at a tropical zone away from the rest of his European companions (Encyclopedia Britannica). The two stories led to Conrad's goal and talents being misjudged, something he had to live with throughout his lifetime.

In the archipelago of Malay, they labeled him as an author of foreign stories, which was seen in a number of his writings about life at sea, such as Typhoon (1902), The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897), Youth (1902) and Lord Jim (1900). However, he had his own words on the "Narcissus," which explain why he chose to use: "the problem..

is not a problem of the sea; it is merely a problem that has risen on board a ship where the conditions of complete isolation from all land entanglements make it stand out with a particular force and coloring." He did the same for the rest of his writings; the last part of the story Lord Jim is set in a forest village.

This is not inspired by Conrad's interest in the moral and emotional problems humans face and a jungle setting, but by the times when Jim feels insecure, responsible and guilty, something that is common among human beings, and are solved through an inevitability and logic that comes up through his isolation. This is the purpose (not his interest in jungle life) that makes Conrad different from the other writers in the 1800s and 1900s (Encyclopedia Britannica).

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Conrad's ability to describe sea life and life at the tropical zone was greatly admired. He was also admired for his great stories of romance, which was a word that was basically used in describing his ability to use a prose style that is understandable, in creating a film with fiction created from events that were quite disgusting.

Conrad's reputation faded when he died, but his works regained popularity later on, where the various books he wrote as well as their qualities were more focused on then the message in his writings. There should be an explanation of the themes in Conrad's writings that show the areas on which contemporary critics are emphasized. The story Nostromo (1904), describes the financial exploitation, politics and revolution of a country in South America. It indicates the close-packed tragedies, based on the notion brought by the way the characters are corrupt by ambition.

They are focused on silver, the symbol of wealth in the country, and also the main theme of the story. The people's ambition goes beyond simple greed, they are also interested in bringing justice and change. The ambitions are a recipe for disaster. In addition, the more noble an ambition is, the more the self-loathe by its possessor, when he realizes what he is wishing for (Encyclopedia Britannica). The story, Heart of Darkness is a description of the experiences of Conrad wile in Congo.

It shows how the narrator was amazed by a strange white man known as Kurtz, a man who is hypnotic and eloquent, who uses his personality to dominate his fellow cruel tribesmen. The narrator passionately dislikes the traders, who are full of greed and exploit the local people. The narrator also describes the symbol of wickedness as powerful, who expects that.