Irony in An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad

 

                    The story dealt with in this essay - An Outpost of Progress (1897) was published as part of Conrad’s collection Tales of Unrest (1898) .That is, in its ironic narrative, An Outpost of progress  is well suited for ironic  analysis, presumably,  insofar as Conrad demonstrates the degree to which space and place affect both the characters in the story and style of the text with showing his  ironical way against them . Obviously, by focusing on  the unique setting,  ostensibly,  in  the ‘Outpost’  in which the events take place ; as it appears, this tale relates to the European colonial experience in Africa, and dramatizes the interaction of two worlds, one characterized by the brutal mercantilism of the conqueror and the other by a down to-earth and unsophisticated African mode of life. To clarify more, the Congo basin ,which is the locus of this short story, as well as of his novella Heart of Darkness (1902), which develops the same theme , is a region about which Conrad had first- hand experience in relation to  the dubious trade of ivory conducted by white adventurers. This essay main aim per se, is to show clearly the ironical way which Conrad used in whole throughout his astonishing story. Given this, it would be interesting to study how far Joseph Conrad  uses the two white men as a way of  interest, apparently, with depicting , showing, crticising, and broadcasting them in very caricatured images as feature of Irony. Besides, the narrator took the chance throughout An Outpost of Progress, with ironical way of course, to split the difference  between the black and  the white community. This essay also attempts to see Conrad’s view of progress among this story by focusing on the ironic contrast between the stated ideals and the  actual motives, led, the things that are largely widespread through this story. Moreover,  as well as, the ideas of Civilization and Education. In this context, an ironic reading of the story is also supported by the characterization.

                     As a starting point, it is of paramount importance to know that the reader should bear in mind that Conrad might had the idea of suggesting this deep critique: how can those powerful empires claim that they are civilizing and enlightening the dark places while they may adequately opt for something that could extinguish the natural way our ancestors used to leave vivacity in the universe ? Moreover in his successful attempts of ridiculing the murderer, Kayrets, and his victim, Carlier, made up the sugar incidents; Conrad used it to show the dull and stupid spirit of the civilizing 'cavaliers'- a western intellect. To say the least, what I perceived through this particular description of those two badly portrayed westerners, is a well and specified idea: the western powers through their invalid task of civilizing the dark parts of the word such as Africa showed a schizophrenic mentality; one tends to actually civilize Africans and the second to just take their goods for the progress of the ongoing civilization; one thinks of being superior and trying to teach people higher morals and values while in the end steals things and fights for a piece of sugar; one think he is civilized and has a developed and reputable society while being only a part of a manufactured, drift from natural laws communities; and also a bunch people that takes their power from institutions, but couldn't endure days in a lonesome situation. Simultaneously as done before, ostensibly, the attitudes and doings of Africans dealing with this 'civilizing mission' project As a matter of fact, as it is stated at the beginning of the story, Conrad shows  a highly caricatured against the two white men as a feature of his irony, largely caricaturing them; clearly a way of mocking them; which in itself, gives the impression of Conrad, hardly swallowing western people behavior all those things become clear at the outset of this story when the writer moves from caricaturing ; Kayerts and Carlier to describe the unsuccessfully painter who was in his own country just a loser and a lazy an , but he is pursuing fame; become very famously when he engaged and connected with this station. In accordance, he had been the first chief of that station. It is hard to believe how the painter was a chief of the station in that country ; absolutely, maybe he uses  a civilized mission, to colonize the mind before the land . On this basic, It is an understatement to say that those two characters, they are written off by their director as mentally unfit for their mission which signified ,why they are appointed to a far –off and barely productive trading station.

                   After attempting to tackle the intricate question of the ironical way which Conrad uses in his astonishing story and how he uses the two white men as a way of  interest, it seems necessary to bring into question the difference  between the black and  the white community- that is, An outpost of progress is the subconscious effect of the orientalist  ideas used to justify European imperialism by the two white men. In other words, the settlers,  who are despised ironically throughout this story,  are almost nil. It pits the native Africans, representation of mighty mother nature against the white men, representative of a petty and immortal society. It is made amply clear that all efforts by the white colonialism to tame or to conquer the great African wilderness are in vain .The natives are shown to be lot nobler, braver, and wiser, seemingly, all those things which are showing them reasonably than their white masters. Actually, the natives who take care of those strangers, the previous director , Kayerts and Carlier, and the new director, and supported them even if they were more tender-ness, awareness, consciousness, and understanding things in outstanding way .To be more specifically, the sham of the strangers, the two white men are unable to comprehend and regard as untouchable the natives tribes, the idea here considered the two white men as incapable to discover the strangeness of this wilderness place .On the other hand, Makola alias Henry price ,their chief servant, who imitates  their way of living, equally intimidates and disgusts them .Here to say,  we have sort of relationship between those two strangers  and Makola , but it is based on un-acceptability and, sometimes, on acceptance.

                  Accordingly, Conrad’s view of progress among this story by focusing on the ironic contrast between the stated ideals and the  actual motives, led, the things that are largely widespread through this story which is the very question at stake in this part. The stated ideals , quintessentially, are depicted  just from the narrative voice in ‘An Outpost of Progress’ as distinctive and mysterious; as the place itself and the narrator appears to be an omniscient third-person.Yet, the narrative voice shifts frequently in the text, moving from the wide-ranging distant overview of an omniscient storyteller  to more pointed, ironic commentary, and even into variations of a free indirect discourse that places the reader closer to the characters themselves. Arguably, this movement is a key aspect of the narrative’s spatiality and certainly to show his view and the stated ideals through his fascinating story, since the stylistic choices replicate the various levels of distance between the individuals at the outpost and the world at large.

                   After finishing this rude and hard to swallow description and interpretation of the western psyche, I think the light should be shed and simultaneously as done before on the ideas of Civilization and Education in this literary work. More generally,  Conrad refers with little irony and mockery,   presumably, to the idea of ‘’progression’’ civilization; those two white men who came as a sort of progression in this place which is very distantly from their country. As a matter of fact, they could only live on condition of being machines, without creativity, without initiative, without intelligence, and with a false  set of values there cannot be progress, these two were just the opposite of this, they were a waste of society that needed to get rid of them in order to progress. That is, this type of peoples who are not capable to take care of themselves without help from others. That is to say, the term progress is recurrent, and always to point  to an illusion, of course, at no point are we made to see here that European’s self –appointed duty to enlighten that continent is being attended to, in view of the dramatic events that occur around the trading  station. Furthermore, Conrad showed the idea of Education through his story, An outpost of Progress, especially when he stated and highlighted the European signs of knowledge  and culture themselves become tenuous, unmitigated, inadequate, wasted in Africa as their  derelict state suggests .To make this simple, the books left over by the former chief are torn, decrepit, and feeble, in order they do not have the ability to think clearly, effectively, efficiently and consciously.

                    Throughout the previous reading, I see a little space to recapitulate what I have got as a conclusion and what could be done to improve it. The main idea as I perceived it tends to doubt and question that Joseph Conrad, the writer, makes the two westerners as a center of interest in the development of the story; thus, uses his irony to give his thoughts about the so- called 'civilizing mission'. Beginning his story, Conrad took the chance to describe them in a caricatured way; calling the chief, Kayrets, as short and fat, and his assistant, Carlier, as a tall man with a broad trunk and thin legs; clearly a way of mocking them; which in itself, gives the impression of him, hardly swallowing western people behavior. Presumably, he  expresses at once both the idealism of the European ideology and the acerbic recognition of its hypocrisy when faced with the facts on the ground at the trading station. This ironic position is highlighted in the tale’s final moment, as we see the corpse of Kayerts appearing to stand at attention, with all the formal pomp and circumstance of that quasi-military attitude, apparently, the macabre image of the dutiful civil servant blowing a final raspberry at his boss might be said to explode the discourse of progress and civilization in a single, irrevocable moment, which could be seen as the narrator’s last laugh as well. As the unnamed servant on the director’s ship had predicted, Kayerts and Carlier had indeed ‘formed themselves’ at the outpost of progress, and Conrad makes clear that their formation, much like the form of European imperialism in Africa writ large, was one of absurdity and horror. As we noted previously, that  An Outpost of Progress is a severe indictment of colonialism and deals a huge blow to the self-glorification of western civilization, ostensibly, two descriptions leave the reader with a permanent impression of the final impact that colonialism has on the native peoples. Moreover, I have to admit that this analysis, based only on one short story would be more objective when reading, first, novels of Conrad-such as Heart Of Darkness, and also other writings and critiques evolving around the same matter, of Shinua Achibe and Edward Said as examples. So, future studies can comparatively read more than one work by Conrad to illutrate the points investigated in the present study further.