Historical Analysis of "An Outpost of Progress"

It all started with the Industrial Revolution, which formed the basis of this story." The Industrial Revolution was a period of major industrialization and innovation that took place during the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and quickly spread throughout the world". All the western world turned their face to the other countries because it was easier to go away now and they could find a lot of resources for their new machines. And that immediately led to colonialism. Literally, colonialism is; "control by one power over a dependent area or people."Westerners had settlements to trade with other continents at the moment. But it was not enough, the settlements were not enough, at this point the war of imperialism began. England and the other Western countries were going from one continent to another and trying to dominate them. British Empire dominated almost half of the world, and it became the empire on which the sun never sets. This is a brief summary of the historical background of the story, but there is also the literary history of the story. An Outpost of Progress was one of the pioneers of Modern Era Literature. According to Purba’s YouTube video; ‘’This period corresponded to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Modern literature was crisis literature; there were many crises in society and individuals during that period. This literary age did not worry about teaching or entertaining. Because it was very difficult to describe the situation people were in. The modern literature era's aim was different; it tries to describe the inner world of humans. These situations and thoughts brought things to literature such as; "unreliable narrator" and "stream of consciousness." Writers wrote their works like they were thinking.  And, the rise of England also affected literature in many ways. For example, mixtures of people, global dislocation, and colonialism showed themselves to readers in the works. And the thoughts of the period should not be ignored because, during this period, some specific thoughts entered history for the first time as events did. Also, Positivism and materialism emerged and abstracted the religion. Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin showed themselves in this era. People began to distrust their minds, the world, and God. The thought that people cannot know the world completely has prevailed.’’ (Learning Literature with Purba, 2021) While all these were happening, Joseph Conrad was a captain at that period. He saw a lot of things, and these things appeared in papers as a work of this era." Although Heart of Darkness is the most famous work, he has written more than one story about what he saw during his Congo visitation because he could not fit things that he saw there into one story. As the quote stresses, the depiction of what he saw there was not easy. In addition to the quote, the following examples can be shown; slavery, racial superiority, and the real face of imperialism.

The biggest historical facts that stand out in the story are imperialism and colonization, of course. Even a little child may know what colonialism is, but in An Outpost of Progress, all the truths that are hiding under the roof of colonialism emerge. People can find the real face of colonialization in the story. Kayerts and Carlier are part of this colonial wheel. While the two men are sitting at the station, they find books and newspapers that were left over from the first guards of the station, and they read these sentences from the newspaper to each other; "It spoke much of the rights and duties of civilization, of the sacredness of the civilizing work, and extolled the merits of those who went about bringing light, and faith and commerce to the dark places of the earth." (Conrad,1898, p.57) This quote shows how Europeans have moved from their original goals because there is nothing in the story in the name of light and civilization; this situation is also the same in real history. The characters just sit in the station without doing anything, and they just wait for ivory which is more precious to civilization for them. All the work is done by their assistant Makola and the other black workers. The only purpose of these two men is valuable resources, just like the aim of Europe and Britain on Africa, nobody cares about these people or light or civilization; their only concern is about money. Europe's presence in Africa did not make sense, just like these two men. And also, Kayerts and Carlier get ugly as long as they are in there like the countries that they represent. As The Director of these men leaves Africa by the steamer, he looks at them and says; " I told those fellows to plant a vegetable garden, build new storehouses and fences, and construct a landing stage. I bet nothing will be done! They won't know how to begin. I always thought the station on this river useless, and they just fit the station!" (p.54) The Director knows that imperialism can never do anything useful, he knows everything, but he is also part of this imperialism. His country's profits are more important to him; he does not care about the useful parts like others. So briefly, since colonization and imperialism found their places in history, The Director, Kayerts, and Carlier found their places in literature.

Thoughts of racial superiority and slavery are the other bleeding wounds of the era. With the industrial revolution, Europe had raised the level of civilization a lot, and then it was time to rule the world for them. They came to Africa with things that the natives had never seen before, like; steamers and advanced technological weapons. Even the clothes were new to them. Natives saw these things, and they treated white people as if they were holy beings. In the story, Gobila, who is the chief of a tribe, thinks that Kayerts, Carlier, and the other white men who come earlier than Kayert and Carlier are immortal. "It can be understood from this quote; "The death of the artist, who was the first white man whom he knew intimately, did not disturb this belief, because he was firmly convinced that the white stranger had pretended to die and got himself buried for some mysterious purpose of his own, into which it was useless to inquire. Perhaps it was his way of going home to his own country?" (p.57) Because of that, Gobila loves them and helps them. He sends potatoes, poultry animals, wine, and sometimes a goat with the women of his tribe. But this love is unrequited love. Neither Gobila nor the other black people see any favor or any good thing from them. On the contrary, the two men even make animal analogies to them. While the natives are giving them the ivory that they collect, Carlier calls out this sentence; "Fine animals. Brought any bone?" (p.56). They treat them as if they are not human beings, and at the same time, they take natives' everything to their country almost for free. This line was written to show the situation in real life, Conrad did not make it up, he just wrote what he saw. This way of thinking and acting continued in Europe in real life. When they took black people with them to Europe under the roof of slavery, Western people thought the same way as Kayerts and Carlier. ‘’Western people also used the theory of evolution put forward by Charles Darwin in the 1850s to justify killing African people because Darwin said that advanced people could kill others.’’ (Early Theories of Evolution: Darwin and Natural Selection, n.d.) So, all these racist thoughts led to African people's exploitation and slavery at those times. As the two men argue at the end of the story, Carlier says; "You are a slave-dealer. I am a slave-dealer. There's nothing but slave-dealers in this cursed country." (p.58) Kayerts gets very angry with the word "slave-dealer" and they start fighting because of the truths. Kayerts does not accept slavery, just like Europe of the era. Ignoring slavery became the end of both Europe's imperial arm and these two fellows.

The last pertinent point is the relationship of this story with the Modern Period and philosophies in the period. There were a lot of new cases in the Modern Era so, new thoughts left their mark on the works that were written in this period. As mentioned above; the literary works did not worry about teaching and entertainment because this period's other name is the chaos period. In the story, there are no didactic elements, there is criticism, but Conrad does not criticize instructively; his aim just makes the reader feel uneasy. With the Modern Era, the trust in the human mind disappeared because the branches of science came and destroyed all the values that they were connected to before therefore, the period's name is chaos. Technological developments started to scare people because they saw things that they had never seen before. And philosophers gained popularity; ‘’Nietzsche declared that God is dead. So, what caused the death of God? ‘’The culture is becoming increasingly secularized. The reason is not hard to fathom. The scientific revolution that began in the 16th century soon offered a way of understanding natural phenomena that proved clearly superior to the attempt to understand nature by reference to religious principles or scripture.’’ (Westacott, 2018) People were alone with their inner world, and even ‘’God’’ notion and old values left them at those times, so the inner world became popular in literature also. All these found their place in An Outpost of Progress naturally. In the story, the narrator describes the surroundings as follows; "Even the brilliant sunshine disclosed nothing intelligible. Things appeared and disappeared before their eyes in an unconnected and aimless kind of way. The river seemed to come from nowhere and flow nowhither. It flowed through a void." (p.56) This is how the loneliness and meaninglessness that were created by the era find their place in the author's lines. The readers feel uneasy while reading these sentences, like people who lived at that time. When the steamer leaves, the two men feel lonely even though they are two. The narrator describes this moment as follows;" To the sentiment of being alone of one's kind, to the clear perception of the loneliness of one's thoughts, of one's sensations--to the negation of the habitual, which is safe, there is added the affirmation of the unusual, which is dangerous; a suggestion of things vague, uncontrollable, and repulsive, whose discomposing intrusion excites the imagination and tries the civilized nerves of the foolish and the wise alike." (p.54) This loneliness is not about being away from home or being in Africa; this is about existential loneliness because Kayerts and Carlier live in the Modern Era, and they are also carrying the values of that time.

In conclusion, An Outpost of Progress shows the values, judgments, and events of the period. Joseph Conrad criticizes the events that he witnessed in the story, and he is using symbolizing techniques while doing it. He reveals the racism, colonization, and imperialism in Africa in the 1890s. And he also shows that he was greatly influenced by the ideas that were marked in the Early Modern Era and the facts from his own period. His characters are attesters of history and they are also chaotic Modern-Era people, so the characters are in both historical events and philosophical thoughts. Although the work is short, it is more memorable than an encyclopedia of history because it teaches even the inner world of a colonist, not only colonization or something else. He does not directly add historical facts to his work, and he is parodying them; this situation makes Joseph Conrad and his stories immortal. He will always show the traces of history to people.

REFERENCES:

Conrad, Joseph. Tales of Unrest (1898). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.

Early Theories of Evolution: Darwin and Natural Selection. (n.d.). Palomar. Retrieved from: https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/evolve/evolve_2.htm

History.com Editors (2009). Industrial Revolution Retrieved from: https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution

Learning Literature with Purba. (2021, February 9). Modern Age | History of English Literature [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXlmBPP5ed0&ab_channel=LearningLiteraturewithPurba