Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is definitely a novel that is uniquely written. While reading the novel I found myself re-reading certain parts to make sure I had the right understanding. I'm glad that I read King Leopold's Ghost first, because it gave me a vivid idea of what was going on during that time.

I was intrigued by the character Marlow. Through all the situations that he came across, I felt that he was alway alert and attentive to was was going on around him. He went into his mission not knowing much of anything about Kurtz. As the mission progressed he began to get the true picture of who he was. One particular passage that got my attention, was when Marlow saw the picture that Kurtz had painted. The description that Conrad gave me a feeling of something evil. He even referred to it as sinister. Reading this passage and the part in King Leopold's Ghost really let me see how much of a horrible person Kurtz was.

I didn't really understand the whole rivets thing, maybe someone else understood it better than I did. I also enjoy his symbolic referrals. One in particular, was how he referred to the river as an Snake uncoiled. I thought that was an interesting discription. Overall, I think this was a wonderful novel.

King Leopold's Ghost (The Conclusion)

Our class discussion on Tuesday really had me thinking about how horrible slavery was. Reading King Leopold's Ghost, opened my eyes to an aspect of slavery that I had never knew. There are so many things in this book that I couldn't even believe. It hurt me to read some of the passages that were so graphic and in detail. One passage that got to me was the one on pg.132. Reading how they were dragged from their houses and were beatened, starved and had their babies thrown into the grass to die, painted an image in my mind that I will never forget.

After reading the first one hundred pages of the book, I had realized that King Leopold was a greedy man. Now that I have finished the book I just can't believe how greedy he was. The rubber boom in the Congo was great in Leopold's eyes, because he saw it as a way for him to get out of debt. However, the whole system of collecting the rubber was horrible. Even though he didn't make hostage-taking as an policy, it turned out to be. The other horrible aspect of his rubber system was the severed hand policy. When I read how this policy worked I was just stunned. It hurt me to see how those Africans had to suffer and die because of greed.

George Washington Williams, was one person that I thought was as a good man during this time. What I like about him was the fact that after he witnessed what was going on in the Congo he tried his best to bring it to the attention of everyone. His Open Letter to me was a cry for help that was ignored, because of how prosperous the Congo was.

Like I said before, after reading this book I have a whole new aspect on slavery. I have learned alot about what happened, that I had never knew. I more than likely would have never known about it if I had not taken this course. It's sad to know that their are alot of other people who don't really know about slavery from this aspect, because it is not taught as an important part of history. I glad I had the opportunity to read King Leopold's Ghost.

King Leopold's Ghost

Reading the first one hundred pages of this book was interesting. This book is more of a historical novel so it took me alittle more time to get into. However with reading the first one hundred pages I came across a few interesting things that grabbed my attention.

For me when the book started talking about King Leopold is where I really began to get into it. one situation that caught my attention, was his marriage to Marie-Henriette. It was a marriage that was bad from the start. Even though they disliked each other they had to deal with it. On page 39 when his son died, showed how masculinity was a major factor then. He believed that royalty was meant for men only, and that was his only son. Even though they had three daughters, I was amazed at the fact that when their last daughter was born, he was so upset that it wasn't a boy that he refused to have anything to do with his wife.

Another thing I've noticed about King Leopold is how greedy he is. I was just out done when he talked Stanley into going back to the Congo after he had been deathly ill. It is clear that he is on a mission to conquer as much of Africa as he can. He is a very ambitious man, I can't wait to see how far he will get.

Atlantic Slave Trade

The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the transportation of millions of African Slaves. These slaves were transported from Africa to locations in Europe and America, basically locations surrounding the Atlantic ocean known as the New World. It involved the largest intercontinental migration of people in world history before the 20th century. The majority of the slaves were taken from the west coast of Africa from a stretch of land below the Sahara Desert. They were transported by ship from Africa to the Americas( The New World). This voyage was known as the Middle Passage.

The trade began because of the growing need for labor on plantations. So Africans became the labor source. They preferred Africans over European natives because they were better immune to diseases such as measles and smallpox and could work better under the sun.The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade for slaves. Going and stealing the slaves was their first method of getting the slaves. That soon became a problem because of violent confrontations with there owners. So they soon began trading merchandise in exchange for slaves. The Spanish and British soon picked up on the slave trade idea.

Ending the Atlantic Slave Trade was a long process. The Europeans began shifting from agriculture to industry in the late 18th century. With this shift slave-operated plantations had to compete for capital and preferential laws with textile mills and other industries that hired free laborers. Besides the economic changes, Antislavery sentiments started around Europe stemming from the roots of Christian religious principles. By 1807 Britain banned the slave trade and so did the United States in 1808 and others soon followed. It did continue throughout the 19th century, it did not completly stop until slavery was outlawed everywhere in the Americas.

African Image

In this image I see african people gathering for a meeting or a celebration. Judging from the background it looks like they are in a forest. I don't quite know what the center of attention is, but from the expressions of their faces they are very intrigued. When I first saw this image it made me think about different parts in Things Fall Apart. One particular part, is when they all gathered at the market place to be informed of the killing of Ogbuefi Udo's wife. We you read something you try to picture an image of what your reading. This picture gave me somewhat of an idea and a connection of different meeting scences in Things Fall Apart.

Things Fall Apart

This was my first time reading Things Fall Apart. I think it is an awsome novel that was greatly written. There were a few characters in this novel that stood out or grabbed my attention. I really enjoyed Okonkwo, I was really intrigued me seeing how much he really resented be like his father Unoka. I feel it was an internal fear that stuck with him throughout his life, and he did whatever he could to steer away from it. Because he wanted to be seen as this strong and successful man, to me he was more of an intimidator to his wives and children. I was really shocked when he killed Ikemefuna because he didn't want to be seen as weak. It did take a toll on him after the fact because he did consider him as his son, even though he didn't really show it. In the end I feel his fear is what played a role in his death.

Nneka is another character whose story got my attention. I was glad that she had joined the christians. I was amazed that she had four pregancies and child births, and each time she had twins they were thrown out. That is a feeling I believe no woman would want to live through. So it was a great sign of relief for her not to having to deal with the pain of losing her babies anymore.

The Marriage ceremonies with bride prices was also interesting to me. It takes a great deal to meet the bride prices. Here in America we have it easy compared to the Ibo tradition. They have to present something to just about everyone in the brides family. I just thought it was unique how their marriage ceremonies went. http://www.oraifite.com/culture-and-traditions/igbo-marriage.php

Geography of Africa

Africa is the second largest continent in the world, it is two and a half times the size of the United States. Africa has a total of 53 individual countries. Sudan is Africa's largest country and Seychelles is the smallest. The Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean are the five bodies of water that surrounds the continent. The Mediterranean Sea separates Africa from Europe and the Suez Canal connects the northeastern part of Africa to Asia. So without this connection, Africa would be considered an island. Egypt's Sinai Peninsula which is located east of the Suez canal is often considered part of Africa. Madagascar is the largest African island and the fourth largest island on the Earth. Madagascar lies off the southeastern coast of Africa.


Africa straddles the equator, it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Temperature is high through the continent because of the continent’s location relative to Equator. The northern region of Africa is very hot and dry. The largest desert in the world The Sahara is located in this region of Africa. The equatorial area is covered by tropical rain forests. In Africa's southern areas the heat is not as bad due to the moisture from the oceans, it consist of grassy flat highlands.


Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. It is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. Lake Assal in the small country of Djibouti, is the lowest point with 512ft below sea level. The Nile river is the longest river in Africa and the world. The Congo river, Niger river and Zambeze river are other long rivers in Africa. Lake Victoria is largest lake in Africa, other lakes are Tanganyika, Albert, Turkana and Nyasa.

http://www.africanculturalcenter.org/1_0geo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Africa
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/af.html
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/africa.html

About Me

I am a 21 year old senior attending Western Michigan University majoring in Human Resource Management. I was born and raised in Benton Harbor, Michigan a very small town with an estimated population of about 13,000. I have no siblings. I graduated with honors from Benton Harbor High School in 2005. I am a very fun and outgoing young lady. I enjoy shopping, sports and spending time with family and friends. Upon graduation from Western, I plan to continue my education by going to grad school.