Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

83 reviews

dustypaw's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Colonisation

Moderate: Chronic illness, Slavery, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder

pyrorchis's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation

mine_gerber's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Colonisation

saravsw's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation

cm93's review against another edition

2.75

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

danielshelsel's review against another edition

3.0

dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Slavery

anhedonia_n_anomie's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, Violence

Minor: Racial slurs

ragna_'s review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This is really fascinatingly written; a very evocative portrayal of a man journeying both into the barbarity of his own culture and the psychological darkness of his on mind. The elliptic narration that grows more and more unsure of its own truthfulness is genuinely frightening and unsettling and had me at the edge of my seat. What does of course not work anymore is the use of local Congolese (for lack of a better discriptor) cultures as a "prehistoric mirror" the "savagery" of which reveals the darkness also lurking within European culture, I don't need to tell anyone that this is racist. But it's also a story with a distinctly anti-colonialist position, depicting and denouncing the mindless hypocrotical violence inflicted onto Africans under Colonialism, published in a mostly pro-Colonialism magazine, no less. So I think this is an interesting study in how anti-colonialist writing in Europe developed and how racist rhetoric was still very much a part of that, which we can use to reflect on our current political rhetoric, especially progressive ones which are nonetheless undoubtedly still marked by racist bias. I would recommend this both for quality of writing and relevance to contemporary discourse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Colonisation

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism

jasminawithab's review against another edition

2.0

challenging slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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read for a uni class and it was okay

i hated pretty much every character but i got a 100 on my essay for it so thats something i guess

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Classism

Minor: Violence, Cannibalism

scorpi07's review against another edition

2.0

dark slow-paced

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I listened to this one to fulfill the prompt: A book I should have read in high school.
I’m not sure why they were teaching this in high school. I guess the storytelling style (a narrator retelling Marlow’s narration) is interesting and the prose itself is well written and artfully packed with metaphors. However, with all of the options out there, this is a poor book choice to critique colonialism, or to suggest imperialism is bad. Marlow is racist and doesn’t grow much, and the objectification of black people is pervasive throughout the book. Gross.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation

Moderate: Terminal illness