Total Page : 328
Publisher : BiblioBazaar
Publication Date : 2007 02 22
>> the second white mans grave in Sambir
I know the white man in many lands have I seen them always the slaves of their desires
This is Conrads second book and like his first it deals with the colonial enterprise but in this book white men are their own worst enemies The native Malay characters are given more in the way of identity in this book and they are seen as having complex views There is intrigue in this book as white men from different nations try to assert their dominance in the region but the Malays too have a plan and that is to take advantage of the whites aggressive and competitive natures and set them against each other Great plot But Conrad also gives you each characters story and each character is always more interesting than whatever role they are playing in the overall plot One of the most attractive and elaborated themes in this book is the one of mans place in nature and mans own nature The beauty of the tropical locale is made even more attractive and alluring by the women who walk through the foliage like apparitions veiled in sunlight and shadow Conrad describes the forests the light in the tree tops and the shadows on the forest floor and all nature is seen as metaphor for mans own dualities and incongruites A much matured writer from Almayers Folly The plot is simpler than Almayer was but thats good The simpler plot allows Conrad more latitude to deal with the individual characteristics and that is certainly one of Conrads strengths He sometimes overdoes it with the repeated use of words like inscrutable and the always heavy darkness and his overall view of man seems dim as man in his eyes is an only partially lit enlightened being To Conrad man remains a lost creature for the most part who just by chance or luck or ill omen gets caught up in events he cannot fully comprehend A limited resource man may be but while reading it is hard not to see it his way The summing up scene at the end of the book with a drunken Almayer who also appeared in Conrads first book the Almayer of Almayers Folly relating the now long passed events of the book to a traveling and equally drunk botanist is an excellent closing comment on the continued folly that is the colonial enterprise and man in general
