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Ideological viewpoint
Task C - Example from a novel
Below is an extract from a famous novel about a 19th century expedition
from Europe to Central Africa. Marlow, the 1st-person narrator is appointed
by a European trading company to succeed one of their river steamer captains,
who has been killed in Central Africa by local people. Marlow's boat has
to travel 30 miles inland to reach the company's trading station, and
the passage below describes part of that journey.
1. What ideological attitude on the part of late
19th century Europeans towards Africa and Africans does Marlow express?
2. How does the linguistic form of what says convey
that ideological viewpoint?
We were wanderers on prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the
aspect of an unknown planet (1). We could have fancied ourselves the
first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued
at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil (2). But suddenly,
as we struggled round a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls,
of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass
of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling,
under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage (3). The steamer toiled
along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy (4).
The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us - who
could tell? (5)
(Joseph Conrad  ,
Heart of Darkness)
After you have thought through your answers carefully, compare what you
have found with what we say.
Our answer
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