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【Abstract】The essay presents a detailed discourse analysis on An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad in terms of narrative technique and rhetorical devices. The story employs an anonymous omniscient narrator and use irony to create a depressing and terrifying atmosphere which implys the alienation of “white” men in the “dark” world.
【Key words】point of view; distance; irony; mistrust of language; alienation
【中图分类号】G623.31【文献标识码】A【文章编号】1001-4128(2011)03-0062-02
Introduction
Joseph Conrad is a very subtle writer. He has his writing ideology, Conrad does not comment on the action, but instead shows readers what’s happening and lets readers figure out the motivation and relationships of the characters. In his early short story “An Outpost of Progress”, Conrad develops a theme that he will use again and again, most notably in Heart of Darkness: the effect isolation in a primitive culture has on “civilized” European[1]. Joseph Conrad is famous for his “Conard’s language”, T. E. Lawrence, one of many writers whom Conrad befriended, offered some perceptive observations about Conrad’s writing:
He’s absolutely the most haunting thing in prose that ever was: I wish I knew how every paragraph he writes (...they are all paragraphs: he seldom writes a single sentence...) goes on sounding in waves, like the note of a tenor bell, after it stops. It’s not built in the rhythm of ordinary prose, but on something existing only in his head, and as he can never say what it is he wants to say, all his things end in a kind of hunger, a suggestion of something he can’t say or do or think. So his books always look bigger than they are. He’s as much a giant of thesubjective as Kipling is of the objective. Do they hate one another[2].
An Outpost of Progress is a story about two white men, Kayerts and Calier, who are sent to work in an outpost in Africa, cheated by their assistant Makola and disabled by civilization, the two finally went to their doom. In this short novel, Conrad uses his single omniscient narrator and his subtle tone to create a depressing and terrifying atmosphere, implying the alienation of “white” men in the “dark” world. Here, the essay tries to analyse the use of a powerful third-person point of view and ironic way of writing which both enrich the story and through the analysis to explore the theme - the alienation and degradation of “civilized” European.
Body
In this short novel, Joseph Conrad uses a powerful third-person point of view. The narrator is omniscient, he can see everything and represent them. However, instead of representing objective reality which everyone agrees, the author reveal several subject view of reality to illustrate the world. For instance, when the author refers to Kayerts and Carlier, the two main characters in the story, he names them “the two pinoneers of trade and progress”. Does the author really regard them as “pinoneers”, the angels who bring the civilization and progression, or, is this belief just the illusion created by Kayerts and Carlier themselves? This cognition do comes from a certain perspective, but readers know that this description-“the two pinoneers of trade and progress”-is a lie. Kayerts and Carlier are clerks of their company who come to Africa just for ivory and rubber, they trade and look down upon the natives. As to themselves, they are idle, lazy and secretly teased by their director as “those two imbeciles”. They are definitely not pinoneer. In An Outpost of Progress, Conrad uses the detached narrator’s ability to provide ironic distance as well as commentary on the action of the story.
Conrad uses the powerful third-person point to touch the emotion of the readers. After Kayerts kill Carlier, the narrator describe his behaviour and inner feeling in detail. The language is rather emotional and sharp. “He had been all his life, till that moment, a believer in a lot of nonsense like the rest of mankind - who are fools; but now he thought! He knew! He was at peace; he was familiar with highest wisdom!”
The single omniscient narrative way in this story is rather attractive and thought-provoking. When Kayerts and Carlier discover the strangers has exchanged ivory for slaves under the cover of their intoxication, they are shocked and frightened. “Frightful - the suffering,” Calier grunted with conviction. While, the narrator immediately points out their weakness - about feeling people know nothing. “We talk about oppression, cruelty, crime, virtue and we know nothing real beyond the words. Nobody knows what suffering or sacrifice mean - except, perhaps the victims of the mysterious purpose of the illusion.” This “illusion” here echos with the illusion of words created by the mistrust of language. For people will not understand these unless they experience them. Through the detached narrator’s ability, Conrad successfully sets a mistrust of language and illustrates the mysterious as well as savage world.
An Outpost of Progress also features in its ironic use of language. It is partly due to the mistrust of words mentioned above. For example, when Kayerts and Carlier go to take their office, their director point out them “the promising aspect of their station” “It is an exceptional opportunity for them to distinguish themselves and to earn percentages on the trade”. It is rather ironic, for reader know “the nearest trading trading-post is about 300 miles away”, they two men are given he worst work not the “opportunity”. It is a cruel joke. It satires the so-called “an outpost of progress”, it is rather undeveloped, isolated than progressed, instead of bringing civilization to the savage place, the two “white creatures” here in the “outpost of progress” is alienated by the “dark world”.
The author uses irony to mock reality. When refer to civilization, Conrad judges it weak people. “Society, not from any tenderness, but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative and forbidding it under the pain of death.” “they were like those lifelong prisoners who, liberated after many years, do not know what use to make of their freedom.” What is ironic here is that the society which they rely on protect them not out of tenderness, but just out of “its strange needs”, initials are the products of the social machine, once they are “protected” by the system they are disabled by it at the same time. Kayerts and Carlier’s destine echo to this paradoxical cognition.
Conrad also adopts irony to build the images of the characters. He describes Makola, the assistant, bookkeeper of Kayerts and Carlier, as a special being. “He spoke English and French with a warbling accent, wrote a beautiful hand, understood book-keeping, and cherished in his innermost heart the worship of evil spirits.” The irony is how a civilized man should worship the evil spirits. The two inconsistent qualities combined in one person expose a strange and blurred personality of Makola which draw readers into thinking and wondering. Similarly, people can recognize the personality of the two men, when Kayerts and Carlier wonder about the feature, they says like this “In a hundred years there will be perhaps a town here. Quays , and warehouses, and barracks, and - and - billiard-rooms. Civilization, my boy, and virtue - and all.” Not libraries, not Cathedrals, but “billiard-rooms”, the limitation of the two men is uncovered.
Ending
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
-Joseph Conrad
Undoubtedly, the story is a critical work on the European colonialism, it can also be seen as an elegy for the degradation and alienation of “civilized” European. Conrad chooses to have his characters play out their destinies in isolated or confined circumstances, like Kayerts and Calier, the two “white creatures” go to their doom in the “dark” world. By using irony and adopting the powerful third-person point of view, especially through the mistrust of language, the author creates impressive images of the wildness, of characters and sets up a depressing, mysterious atmosphere. An Outpost of progress succeeds in its utilization of an anonymous omniscient narrator and the detached narrator’s ability to provide ironic distance as well as commentary on the action of the story.
References
[1] Ashmata Saha. The Central Irony of An Outpost of Progress..
[2] Wikipedia..
[3] 殷企平, 2006. 《进步前哨》与“进步”话语{期刊论文}，外国文学第2期
[4] López Get. 2010.12 “An Outpost of Progress”: the Inequality of the Empire and the Reversal of Power.
【Key words】point of view; distance; irony; mistrust of language; alienation
【中图分类号】G623.31【文献标识码】A【文章编号】1001-4128(2011)03-0062-02
Introduction
Joseph Conrad is a very subtle writer. He has his writing ideology, Conrad does not comment on the action, but instead shows readers what’s happening and lets readers figure out the motivation and relationships of the characters. In his early short story “An Outpost of Progress”, Conrad develops a theme that he will use again and again, most notably in Heart of Darkness: the effect isolation in a primitive culture has on “civilized” European[1]. Joseph Conrad is famous for his “Conard’s language”, T. E. Lawrence, one of many writers whom Conrad befriended, offered some perceptive observations about Conrad’s writing:
He’s absolutely the most haunting thing in prose that ever was: I wish I knew how every paragraph he writes (...they are all paragraphs: he seldom writes a single sentence...) goes on sounding in waves, like the note of a tenor bell, after it stops. It’s not built in the rhythm of ordinary prose, but on something existing only in his head, and as he can never say what it is he wants to say, all his things end in a kind of hunger, a suggestion of something he can’t say or do or think. So his books always look bigger than they are. He’s as much a giant of thesubjective as Kipling is of the objective. Do they hate one another[2].
An Outpost of Progress is a story about two white men, Kayerts and Calier, who are sent to work in an outpost in Africa, cheated by their assistant Makola and disabled by civilization, the two finally went to their doom. In this short novel, Conrad uses his single omniscient narrator and his subtle tone to create a depressing and terrifying atmosphere, implying the alienation of “white” men in the “dark” world. Here, the essay tries to analyse the use of a powerful third-person point of view and ironic way of writing which both enrich the story and through the analysis to explore the theme - the alienation and degradation of “civilized” European.
Body
In this short novel, Joseph Conrad uses a powerful third-person point of view. The narrator is omniscient, he can see everything and represent them. However, instead of representing objective reality which everyone agrees, the author reveal several subject view of reality to illustrate the world. For instance, when the author refers to Kayerts and Carlier, the two main characters in the story, he names them “the two pinoneers of trade and progress”. Does the author really regard them as “pinoneers”, the angels who bring the civilization and progression, or, is this belief just the illusion created by Kayerts and Carlier themselves? This cognition do comes from a certain perspective, but readers know that this description-“the two pinoneers of trade and progress”-is a lie. Kayerts and Carlier are clerks of their company who come to Africa just for ivory and rubber, they trade and look down upon the natives. As to themselves, they are idle, lazy and secretly teased by their director as “those two imbeciles”. They are definitely not pinoneer. In An Outpost of Progress, Conrad uses the detached narrator’s ability to provide ironic distance as well as commentary on the action of the story.
Conrad uses the powerful third-person point to touch the emotion of the readers. After Kayerts kill Carlier, the narrator describe his behaviour and inner feeling in detail. The language is rather emotional and sharp. “He had been all his life, till that moment, a believer in a lot of nonsense like the rest of mankind - who are fools; but now he thought! He knew! He was at peace; he was familiar with highest wisdom!”
The single omniscient narrative way in this story is rather attractive and thought-provoking. When Kayerts and Carlier discover the strangers has exchanged ivory for slaves under the cover of their intoxication, they are shocked and frightened. “Frightful - the suffering,” Calier grunted with conviction. While, the narrator immediately points out their weakness - about feeling people know nothing. “We talk about oppression, cruelty, crime, virtue and we know nothing real beyond the words. Nobody knows what suffering or sacrifice mean - except, perhaps the victims of the mysterious purpose of the illusion.” This “illusion” here echos with the illusion of words created by the mistrust of language. For people will not understand these unless they experience them. Through the detached narrator’s ability, Conrad successfully sets a mistrust of language and illustrates the mysterious as well as savage world.
An Outpost of Progress also features in its ironic use of language. It is partly due to the mistrust of words mentioned above. For example, when Kayerts and Carlier go to take their office, their director point out them “the promising aspect of their station” “It is an exceptional opportunity for them to distinguish themselves and to earn percentages on the trade”. It is rather ironic, for reader know “the nearest trading trading-post is about 300 miles away”, they two men are given he worst work not the “opportunity”. It is a cruel joke. It satires the so-called “an outpost of progress”, it is rather undeveloped, isolated than progressed, instead of bringing civilization to the savage place, the two “white creatures” here in the “outpost of progress” is alienated by the “dark world”.
The author uses irony to mock reality. When refer to civilization, Conrad judges it weak people. “Society, not from any tenderness, but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative and forbidding it under the pain of death.” “they were like those lifelong prisoners who, liberated after many years, do not know what use to make of their freedom.” What is ironic here is that the society which they rely on protect them not out of tenderness, but just out of “its strange needs”, initials are the products of the social machine, once they are “protected” by the system they are disabled by it at the same time. Kayerts and Carlier’s destine echo to this paradoxical cognition.
Conrad also adopts irony to build the images of the characters. He describes Makola, the assistant, bookkeeper of Kayerts and Carlier, as a special being. “He spoke English and French with a warbling accent, wrote a beautiful hand, understood book-keeping, and cherished in his innermost heart the worship of evil spirits.” The irony is how a civilized man should worship the evil spirits. The two inconsistent qualities combined in one person expose a strange and blurred personality of Makola which draw readers into thinking and wondering. Similarly, people can recognize the personality of the two men, when Kayerts and Carlier wonder about the feature, they says like this “In a hundred years there will be perhaps a town here. Quays , and warehouses, and barracks, and - and - billiard-rooms. Civilization, my boy, and virtue - and all.” Not libraries, not Cathedrals, but “billiard-rooms”, the limitation of the two men is uncovered.
Ending
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
-Joseph Conrad
Undoubtedly, the story is a critical work on the European colonialism, it can also be seen as an elegy for the degradation and alienation of “civilized” European. Conrad chooses to have his characters play out their destinies in isolated or confined circumstances, like Kayerts and Calier, the two “white creatures” go to their doom in the “dark” world. By using irony and adopting the powerful third-person point of view, especially through the mistrust of language, the author creates impressive images of the wildness, of characters and sets up a depressing, mysterious atmosphere. An Outpost of progress succeeds in its utilization of an anonymous omniscient narrator and the detached narrator’s ability to provide ironic distance as well as commentary on the action of the story.
References
[1] Ashmata Saha. The Central Irony of An Outpost of Progress.
[2] Wikipedia.
[3] 殷企平, 2006. 《进步前哨》与“进步”话语{期刊论文}，外国文学第2期
[4] López Get. 2010.12 “An Outpost of Progress”: the Inequality of the Empire and the Reversal of Power.