Heart of Darkness - Are Humans One Race or Many?

Heart of Darkness
Nineteenth-Century Attitudes Toward Race

Alfred Russel Wallace - Are Humans One Race or Many? (1870)
     Alfred Russel Wallace says that there are two views on race - that mankind is unified or that mankind has always been diverse.  He says that those in favor of the unity of mankind say that there are no races without transitions to others and that every race exhibits variations of color, hair, feature, etc., such that there is no gap that separates one race from another.  (This idea is that races blend with a variety of skin colors, hair features, body shape, etc, so that there is no distinct difference.)  Wallace also says that advocates of the original diversity of man argue that proofs of change in man have never been brought forward and that evidence shows the permanence of man.  (This idea of diversity in mankind leads into Wallace's idea of natural selection relating to the permanence of man.)
     After Wallace introduces the ideas of mankind as unified or diversified, he discusses natural selection extensively and how it has shaped the human species.  His main ideas on natural selection relating to man:

• "Natural selection" is different in man; mental and moral qualities have increasing influence on the well-being of the whole race.  Those qualities are dominant factors in human "natural selection."  Because of these qualities, man has taken away nature's power of slowly changing the external form and structure of the body.

• "The color of skin is correlated with constitutional peculiarities both in vegetables and animals, so that liability to certain diseases or freedom from them is often accompanied by marked external characters." (Wallace credits Charles Darwin for this idea)

• Through the rapid advancement of mental organization, European races have developed wonderful intellect, while lower races of man and brutes die out.  "It is the same great law of 'the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life,' which leads to the inevitable extinction of all those low and mentally undeveloped populations with which Europeans come in contact."

• "The inhabitants of temperate have been superior to those of hotter countries."  Northern countries are superior than Southern countries and therefore Northern races thrive over the Southern races. (Europe better than Africa)

• Alfred Russel Wallace believes that man could have been a homogenous race in a long ago period of time.  It would have been so long ago, however, that man would still not have developed a wonderful brain, human speech, body form, nor sympathetic or moral feelings.  Man was a homogenous race before all those developed.  After development of different aspects of man, man became diverse.

Valor

I have selected the word "valor" to write about.  As I was searching through the list of words that could be used for this project, valor immediately popped out at me.  I think what sparked the word into my head was seeing the movie, Act of Valor, which depicts real life Navy SEALs.  I really enjoyed the movie, and ever since seeing it, I have always had this idea of valorous actions.  Being a future member of the U.S. Navy, the word has intrigued me, yet I do not know that much about it.  So that is why I have chosen "valor."  The word seems heroic, brave, courageous, humble, stoic...  To me, valor represents actions of the military, along with other bold actions made by others in the community.  It can apply to police, firemen, or a passerby rushing to save somebody...

Parts of a Suit of Armor

Parts of a Suit of Armor



The diagram above names most of the common parts of a suit of armor.  The comb is meant to strengthen the structure of the rest of the helm, and the visor pivots and has holes/slits for ventilation and visibility.  The rerebrace (REER-brase) is also referred to as the upper cannon.  Each part of the suit is designed to pivot and make movement easier.  A common technique to design suits is to utilize "lames," or overlapped strips of metals.  This idea is somewhat like shingles on a roof, and it makes the armor flexible.

Other forms of armor could include chain mail or scale armor.  Chain mail uses metal rings, woven together to create a flexible, protective fabric.  Scale armor uses small overlapping metal plates attached to a cloth.



Example of chain mail...



http://medievallifestyle.com/armor-and-weapons/suit-of-armor.html
http://www.weaponsemporium.com/WE-Chainmail.htm

Grendel Creative Piece

Grendel Creative Piece - Write a survivor's account of one of Grendel's attacks

     It was my first night in Heorot after our mead gathering.  Of course, I was scared to be chosen as one of the new guards.  Stories have spread across the lands and across the seas of the creature from hell who haunts these corridors.  We have been attacked by this creature several times.  I dared not expose myself to such horrors, but when I was called, it was a matter of honor.  No man shall call me a coward.  I will die to live in honor and be remembered nobly.
     I prepared myself for sleep, but took any necessary precautions should the hall be attacked.  I slept in a dream state of constant night terrors.  I could see the creature; he haunted my dreams.  There is blood dripping off his face and running down the walls, and all I can do is cower in fear for my life.  I wake to an earth rumble; the world could be at an end.  The high oak doors burst open and shock spread throughout the hall.  "Grendel!" some yell.
     Mass chaos, I know not what to do.  A few men charge the creature from hell, but in vain.  They are knocked aside, left unconscious out of battle.  One man is picked up, ripped in half.  His blood is sucked up and bones cleaned.  Red drips off the face of the creature, completely hysterical.  It appears as though the creature attempts to speak our language, but it is merely babble.  I summon the strength and courage to pick up my spear and quickly but cautiously advance upon the creature.  He tears open another of my comrades, and turns to greet me.
     "Hello, foul creature.  Go back to the abyss!"  I jab my spear forward with no effect.  He smacks me aside and slaps me silly.  He acts playfully as a cat plays with a mouse until it dies.  Blood pulses through my veins and even drips down my own face.  I prepare to embrace my passage over the great divide.  I am not like those who weep for more time to live life in a new way; instead I sing my death song like a hero going home.
     The next moment I remember is waking up to the faces of my own kin.  My brothers in arms stand beside.  Few I notice are no longer present.  I help to clean up the mead hall and replace the high oak doors.  What creature of the shadows attacked us?  Why has God forsaken us?

Old English and Old Norse

Below are two columns of words from Old English (on the left) and Old Norse (on the right).  The rows have a pair of similar words, one taken from Old English, one from Old Norse.  The Norse and English words are included along with a simple definition.  Many of the Old English words have cognates to Old Norse words, and vice versa; they are both very closely related languages.  The origins of some of these words can be traced to Middle English, Old English, Old Norse, Old Frisian, etc... they all have pretty close associations with each other.

Old English                                            Old Norse

craft ---    cræft       "strength, skill"       skill ---    skil       "distinction, difference"

wish ---   wȳscan    "joy"                      want ---  vanta    "to lack"

rear ---     rǣran      "to raise"                raise ---   reisa    "to rise, to rear"

sick ---     sēoc                                       ill ---       illr        "ill, bad"

watch --- wæccan   "to be awake"        wake ---  vaka     "to rouse from sleeping"

he ---       hē                                          they ---    their     "they" replacing Old English hī

Source: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/121/294811716_a4db39244e.jpg

Sources:

http://dictionary.reference.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse#Relationship_to_English

Three Key Ideas from "The Reading Monster" by Patrick Brantlinger

1.  Frankenstein is filled with political meanings.  This piece of criticism looks at a context set in the French Revolution or the Enlightenment, and Victor as being aristocratic oppression, reationality, or radicalism.  Therefore, the Monster represents the working-class.  This view gives a whole new personality to Victor, as being the over powerful aristocracy over the poor, soulless, education-less, working class Monster.

2.  Frankenstein is a novel about two educations, or "miseducations," and discusses literacy, and science.  Victor's story is filled with the pursuit of knowledge and science.  In this essay, Brantlinger describes that Mary Shelley expresses a continuity of alchemy into modern chemistry.  Also, it is "undecidable whether the Monster's creation is the result of modern science or of black magic."  So the question of science appears in many instances.  Beyond science, the Monster learning to speak, and read comes up in the education topic.  "The family circle the Monster longs to join represents everything that Victor, in his obsessive pursuit of the secrets of life and death, has rejected."  The Monster self-educates himself and gains the capabilities of challenging his creator.  Again, Brantlinger suggests that the most difficult ideas for readers to accept is the Monster's literacy.

3.  Why has the Monster, already stripped of soul and education, taken on his creator's name, Frankenstein?  This is one of the shorter ideas finishing off the essay, but is an interesting topic for Brantlinger to bring up.  After reading Frankenstein, it is obvious that the Monster has no name, and Frankenstein is the name of the creator.  Several possible answers are given: "because the Monster is nameless, it makes sense to give him his father-maker's name," the Monster is a symbol of Victor's identification, or the Monster is Victor's alter ego.  This topic does not necessarily change interpretation of the novel itself, but asks an interesting question regarding the confusion over the name of Frankenstein and the Monster.

Blog assignment #3 - Victor Frankenstein's complexities

In the passage where Victor Frankenstein describes his goals and work of assembling the creature, it seems as though Victor is attempting to play the role of God.  He makes his intentions clear in that he wants to create “a new species [that] would bless [him] as its creator and source.”  When he figures out how to create life, he also thinks that he can bring people back to life and therefore cheat death.  Mary Shelley creates this attitude in which Victor thinks he is worthy of praise and all-powerful.  Yet, Victor fails to think of the immediate future when his creation is immediately brought to life and what the consequences of that would be.

            Victor’s overall composure that Mary Shelley creates is tense, complex, and always changing.  The passage immediately begins with saying that “no one can conceive the variety of feelings” that Victor felt.  Victor becomes obsessed with the idea of having creatures look up to him as their creator.  His obsession is such that he “lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.”  He clings to some hope that he can complete his project, yet also is somewhat disgusted.  He describes his work as being tremendous that can come with great outcomes, yet he calls his creation “filthy.”  Eagerness pushed him to finish his work, but he naturally loathed the inhuman aspects as well. 

            Victor narrates his own story, and so at this point he is telling of his past.  One can find hints of disgust can possibly regret in the tone in which Victory retells his story.  His original motives were to seek praise and to control life and death.  Upon retelling his past, there is a bit of remorse that Victor feels.  There is a little bit of a contrast between his original drive to create life and his gradual feelings of disgust that develop up to the monster’s animation.