Seminar Response 1-28

I don't think that Marlow is portrayed as being racist in this chapter. Although there are a few questionable phrases that Marlow says, but anyone who is in a new place is not used to the different culture of the people there, even if that means they are shooting arrows at them and are not fully dressed. “Yes; I looked at them as you would any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses” (42.) Here Marlow is acting just like anyone else would and want to learn more about them and their culture. What Marlow meant by the quote listed in the prompt was that they acted so differently than he was used to (37). I know that he was shocked when they started shooting arrows at the boat and was even more shocked when his driver had been hit by a spear.

Seminar Response 1-23

Throughout the first chapter, the author uses darkness as a metaphor for evil instead of its literal meaning. The places that Marlow went to were places where there was a lot of killing and bad things going on. He was not used to the different morals that he had observed in the Congo and found it easier to refer to it as darkness. In the introduction it was stated that darkness or the color black meant the unknown, something difficult to comprehend, foreboding, and evil. In the reading, I can find most of these different definitions used in the chapter.

UN Seminar Response

The UN was designed with the intent to help solve world problems united and also to help prevent wars from happening. In some cases, the UN is far from this ideal that it was created upon but one thing for sure is that it has helped in some cases in which the world would have just watched. Even though it may be corrupt and needs work, I think that the UN is something worth keeping based on the past and what it could do in the future.

            In the documentary, they gave some benefits/good things about the UN. One of these things was is that the UN treats everyone equally. No matter how big or small, each country is important and can be involved in the different committees. Even when the UN "failed," they at least tried to help resolve the conflict and put time and effort into helping the situation instead of ignoring it.

 

            I will admit that the UN has its problems and is not as effective as it could be. In the documentary, they talked about how the Israeli and Palestinian conflict was not effectively solved by the UN. Some may even say that they made it worse by bringing the two groups of people against each other even more than before. Another example of when the UN didn't do a good job was in the Serb and Bosnian conflict. Even though the UN tired, they were overrun by the perpetrators in the situation.

            In conclusion I think that the UN is a very useful tool in helping keep world peace. Even though there are some things that could be fixed, I think that keeping the UN is a good thing to do. Not every time the UN intervenes in a situation will the result have a fairy tale ending.