Fiction on Nature

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Abstract

Joseph?Conrad’s?‘Youth’?is?significant?and?considerable?in? that?it?is?a?novella?which?is?built?on?the?author’s?personal? experiences along with drawing on the interaction between?Man?and?Nature.?Conrad’s?tenth?story?‘Youth’? revolves round Marlow who is both a narrator and a central character. He undertakes a sea journey in which the adolescent?Marlow?becomes?a?man.?‘Youth’?is?a?story?of? discovery and development, of revelation and revolution vis-à-vis man and nature and their sociality. Conrad delineates this sociality through the English people and the sea. The direct engagement of natural elements, water and wind, as adversaries to man is revealed by the author. This engagement makes man not just an object of more or?less?accidental?fate,?but?a?protagonist,?a?fighter?in?the? battles of his existence. What kind of a community gets surfaced?in?‘Youth’?vis-à-vis?Sea??Marlow?starts?his? narrative?by?addressing?five?people?at?the?beginning?of?the? story.?He?says?“between?the?five?of?us?there?was?the?strong? bond of the sea, and also the fellowship of the craft” (69). Such beginning speeches direct us to get involved in a fiction?which?is?a?mirror?of?man?and?nature?community.

Key words: Fiction;?Joseph?Conrad;?‘Youth’;?Man;? Nature; Sociality.

Résumé

La ?Jeunesse? de Joseph Conrad est importante et considérable?en?ce?qu’elle?est?une?nouvelle?qui?se?construit? sur???des?expériences?personnelles?de?l’auteur?ainsi?que? par?le?dessin?sur?l’interaction?entre?l’homme?et?la?nature.??Jeunesse? dixième étage de Conrad tourne autour de

Marlow qui est à la fois un narrateur et un personnage central. Il entreprend un voyage en mer dans lequel l’adolescent?Marlow?devient?un?homme.??Jeunesse??est? une histoire de la découverte et le développement, de la?révélation?et?la?révolution?vis-à-vis?de?l’homme?et?la? nature et leur socialité. Conrad délimite cette socialitépar?l’intermédiaire?du?peuple?anglais?et?de?la?mer.?la? participation?directe?des?éléments?naturels,?l’eau?et?le? vent,?comme?des?adversaires?à?l’homme?est?mis?en?évidence?par?l’auteur.?Cet?engagement?fait?de?l’homme? n’est?pas?seulement?un?objet?de?sort?plus?ou?moins? accidentelle, mais un protagoniste, un combattant dans le batailles?de?son?existence.?Quel?genre?d’une?communauté? se fait surface dans vis-à-vis de ?Jeunesse? de la mer? Marlow commence son récit en abordant cinq personnes au?début?de?l’histoire.?Il?dit:??entre?les?cinq?d’entre?nous? il y avait la forte discours des obligations de la mer, et aussi?la?communion?de?l’artisanat??(69).?De?commencer? ces?diriger?nous?de?s’impliquer?dans?une?fiction?qui?est?un? miroir?de?l’homme?et?de?la?communauté?de?la?nature.

Mots-clés: Fiction; Joseph Conrad; ?Jeunesse?; L’homme;?La?Nature;?La?Socialité.

INTRODUCTION

Joseph?Conrad’s?‘Youth’?is?significant?and?considerable?in? that?it?is?a?novella?which?is?built?on?the?author’s?personal? experiences. More importantly, Marlow appears here for the first time, a character and a story-teller who is also?present?in?Conrad’s?later?works?such?as?Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, and Chance.

In?the?author’s?note?to?the?collection,?Conrad?observes:

‘Youth’?…?marks?the?first?appearance?in?the?world?of?the?man? Marlow, with whom my relations have grown very intimate in the course of years. The origins of that gentleman (nobody as far as I know had ever hinted that he was anything but that) his origins have been the subject of some literary speculation of, I am glad to say, a friendly nature. (3)

Even?before?appearing?in?book-form?‘Youth’?was?very?well? received. It lies on me to confess at last, and this is as good a place for it as another, that I have been all my life all my two lives the spoiled adopted child of Great Britain and even of the Empire;?for?it?was?Australia?that?gave?me?my?first?command.?I? break out into this declaration not because of a lurking tendency to megalomania, but, on the contrary, as a man who has no very notable illusions about himself. I follow the instincts of vainglory and humility natural to all mankind. (4)

He?also?insists?that?‘Youth’?is?a?feat?of?memory?and?a? record of experience rooted in its facts, its inwardness, its outward colouring, beginning and ending in himself. To him, Heart of Darkness is also an experience while being pushed a little beyond the actual facts.

Conrad’s?tenth?story?‘Youth’?revolves?round?Marlow? who is both a narrator and a central character. He undertakes a sea journey in which the adolescent Marlow becomes a man. Their ship Judea sails up the English Channel on the way to load the cargo of coal. Judea is damaged by a blow from another ship and it takes almost one month to be repaired. Then the ship receives its cargo and sets sail to the East. The crew comprising Captain Beard,?Mahon,?Marlow,?and?other?ship?workers,?find?out? that Judea still leaks. They go back to the port for another repair. After setting out, again they find it necessary to approach the bank for more repairs. Then they chose to return to the loading dock and unload the cargo of coal. Reloading Judea, they are certain to enter the sea and start their journey towards East. However, their cargo of coal catches?fire?and?they?spend?time?on?pumping?water?in?and? out of the coal bins. Their attempts seem to be of no use for an explosion of coal gas generates an uncontrollable fire on the deck. Their ship is towed by a passing ship for a short time and they are advised to leave the fateful Judea to save their lives. The reluctant Captain and other crew take to the life boats and observe the sinking ship. Then they set out for Java with three life boats, one of which?is?supervised?by?Marlow?to?be?his?first?experience? of commanding. They reach the Asiatic mainland after days of rowing and sailing while Marlow could beat the other two life boats commanded by others. Quite young and enthusiastic, Marlow confronts the East at the age of twenty?for?the?first?time.?

‘Youth’?is?a?story?of?discovery?and?development,? of revelation and revolution. Marlow is in search of something more desirable than his youth and this is revealed to him through a voyage to the East. That is why?it?is?a?‘memorable?affair’?to?him?and?hence?he?tells? his audience “[i]t was my first voyage to the East, and my?first?voyage?as?second?mate?…?You’ll?admit?it?was? time” (69). Such a discovery becomes essential to his existence and Marlow is aware of that. He states “[y]ou fellows know there are those voyages that seem ordered for the illustration of life, that might stand for a symbol of existence” (69).

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

Now the question is what does Marlow get out of this voyage or which element of life could he discover that was fundamental for him to have a meaningful existence? When Marlow speaks of the ship Judea, he tells, “there was on it, blow her name in big letters, a lot of scrollwork … with motto “Do or Die” underneath …There was a touch of romance in it, something that made me love the old thing something that appealed to my youth!”?(70).?Apart?from?showing?that?life?equals?Harakiri,?the?word?‘Do’?stands?for?‘being’?and?‘existence’? while?‘Die’?represents?immobility?and?death.?Therefore,?‘to?do’?means?to?be?dynamic?and?to?exist?while?‘to?die’? refers to the state of paralysis. That is why Marlow sees it as a source of appealing to his youth. In fact, the story displays the struggle of this young man amongand old people, to achieve a bigger realm of experience of manhood.?Marlow’s?discovery?can?be?a?revelation?of?his? potency and privilege, of his capability and competence, or in other words, of his inner and manly power. In his book Conrad: The Psychologist as Artist, Paul Kirschner envisages,?“‘Youth’?presents?the?self,?not?striving?for? power, but enjoying it as a passing gift of life … a prose ode upon this feeling of power conferred by the strength and imagination of unconscious youth” (41). However, whether Marlow enjoys this inner power as a gift of life

or?is?it?his?‘self’?which?is?identified?with?power?is?central? to?the?fiction,?as?Marlow’s?search?is?for?something?which? gives meaning to his life. Speaking of his youth, Marlow observes: “I remember of my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more - the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men” (91). This declaration and his other announcements reveal some aspects of this power. First, it is a power which leaves him with a feeling of immortality. Second, perhaps such power surfaces when it is fronting other modes of power such as power of the Nature and the physical and psychological power of other men.

Elements of Nature are described and portrayed by

Such?a?statement?stresses?on?the?superiority?of?men’s? power over sea. Although both sea and men interpenetrate, it is the man who knows many things about the sea; about how to use it in terms of fun, travel, and a necessity for sustenance. Hence, this knowledge of the sea leaves him with a power of superior feeling.

Further, Conrad delineates this interaction between English people and the sea, perhaps giving such a privilege to the English. This aspect becomes more and more obvious toward the end of the story through Marlow’s?eagerness?to?see?the?Asian?mainland?and?to? visit the East. Speaking of Bangkok, he says “[m]agic name,?blessed?name.?Mesopotamia?wasn’t?a?patch?on?it.? Remember I was twenty … and the East was waiting for me” (77), and refers to the East as “the land of palms, and spices, and yellow sands, and of brown nations raced by kings more cruel than Nero the Roman and more splendid than Solomon the Jew” (78). This new experience of young Marlow to see the East for the first time shows that he does not know much about those nations and their lives. He views the East as esoteric and that is why he points out “the mysterious East faced me, perfumed like a flower,?silent?life?death,?dark?like?a?grave”?(91).?He?looks? at himself like a conqueror “sleepless and entranced as if before profound, a fateful enigma” (91). To him, the East is enigmatic, mysterious, death-like, and dark. As a Western man, it seems, Marlow tends to discover this land of forgetfulness and neglect and to experiment his power at arriving in such a land. However, this power is not merely the power of his youth, it is also the eclipsed power of colonialism rooted deeply in Western nations when examining Eastern nations. Incidentally, the Eastern land speaks to Marlow in a Western voice on his first arrival at the East, thus “… before I could open my lips, the East spoke to me, but it was in a Western voice. A torrent of words was poured into the enigmatical, the fateful silence” (92).

In Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography, Edward Said observes:

Upon?awakening?in?Bangkok?to?find?all?dark,?inscrutable?East? facing him, he [Marlow] must decide whether he is to accept this immensely?strange?world?to?which?his?brash?youth?has?finally? allowed him to penetrate, or return to the West, to conventional society, retaining only an image of his encounter. There is no real alternative, and he chooses the latter”. (146)

The?writer?insists?in?the?article?that?Conrad’s?reference?

to?Fredrick?Gustavus?Burnaby’s?A Ride to Khiva is a sign

of?his?Imperialistic?mind,?because?Burnaby’s?book?is?a?“heavy-handed political tract which outlines his opinions on?what?was?known?then?as?the?‘Eastern?Question’,?the? problem of imperial rivalry and a possible war with Russia” (42). In the opening pages of his book, Burnaby avers:

Then?Willy?concludes?that?Marlow’s?praise?of? Burnaby?in?‘Youth’?when?he?says?“I?read?for?the?first? time Sartor Resartus?and?Burnaby’s?Ride to Khiva. I didn’t?understand?much?of?the?first?then;?but?I?remember? I preferred the soldier to the philosopher at the time” (72) is?to?memorialize?the?Englishmen’s?fallen?hero.?Marlow’s? association with Burnaby reveals the Imperialistic politics prevalent in nineteenth century England.

Cardinal elements of Nature namely water (the sea), air?(the?wind),?and?the?fire?play?a?pivotal?role?in?‘Youth’.? Judea’s?crew?starts?their?combat?with?the?Nature?by?facing?“the howl of the wind, the tumult of the sea” (74). They are involved in pumping the water out of Judea after they are trapped in a world which “was nothing but an immensity of great foaming waved rushing at [them], under a sky low enough to touch with the hand and dirty like a smoked ceiling” (74). However, Marlow is pleased by such an infuriated sea and cruel wind. Exhausted pumping day and night to survive, Marlow reveals, “we forgot the day of the week, the name of the month, what year it was, and whether we had ever been ashore” (74, my emphasis), and goes on, “I would not have given up the experience for worlds. I had moments of exultation”(75, my emphasis). Two points are important here, one is his sense of timelessness and the other is his ‘moments of exultation’.?In?fact,?both?lead?him?to?discern?the?ways?of? immortality through his power of existence and also the compulsion?of?‘Doing’?rather?than?‘Dying’.

According to Zdzislaw Najder, in The Mirror of the Sea?Conrad?shows?that?a?sailor’s?duty?is?similar?to?creating? a work of art, as there is a bond between the sailor and the

Again, in The Mirror of the Sea Conrad remarks: “the sea has never been friendly to man” (as cited in Najder).

The?crew’s?next?encounter?is?with?the?fire?where?“of? the other twelve men, eight worked while four rested”(80)?to?extinguish?it.?At?first,?the?fire?is?invisible?to?them? like enemies waiting for an ambush at an appropriate hour. Marlow says “and still the air, the sky a ghost, something invisible was hailing the ship” (84). This invisibility and potentiality of the nature to do whatever it desires shows an unlimited and chaotic power which is unpredictable?and?latent.?On?the?other?hand,?man’s?will?or? power is controlled and shaped. In fact, man knows how to realize and when to use his power in confronting other sources of power. In all their attempts to survive, Marlow, Mahon, and Captain Bear leave Judea and take to the life boats?when?they?find?out?the?old?ship?is?captured?by?fire.? Thus, they abandon the ship and look at its magnificent death and “the surrender of her weary ghost to the keeping of stars” while “the sea was stirring like the sight of a glorious triumph” (89).

The?other?source?of?power?that?helps?Marlow?to?fulfill? his discovery and achieve his development is power of one?man?over?another,?as?an?intrinsic?part?of?man’s?nature? and?behaviour?power?corresponds?to?a?man’s?status?and? position in a community. What kind of a community gets?surfaced?in?‘Youth’?vis-à-vis?Sea??Marlow?starts?his? narrative?by?addressing?five?people?at?the?beginning?of?the? story.?He?says?“between?the?five?of?us?there?was?the?strong? bond of the sea, and also the fellowship of the craft” (69). This community in which one is the narrator and the others are audience is shown sharply only in the second and?last?paragraphs?of?the?fiction.?The?frame?narrator?who? is also among the audience is a passive one like other listening to Marlow. They have no intrusion in the course of the story and narration. Therefore, these submissive and receptive listeners, not even characters, are placed in?the?story?for?the?sake?of?Conrad’s?specific?narrative.? Marlow is objectifying them as his listeners and this force of?keeping?his?audience?to?sit?and?hear?is?Marlow’s?power? of narration and monologue, an instance of one individual powering over another or a group. The status of these passive hearers is as close as that of readers too. That is why perhaps they should not be called characters but as puppets suitably used by the writer. They are manipulated to be a tool at the hands of the author, perhaps to render a documentary and factual text, something which persuades the readers to believe and trust his words.

The?other?community?in?‘Youth’?is?the?seamen?and? sailors who accompany Marlow on Judea. They are Captain Beard, Mahon, and other sea workers and hands. Marlow is the youngest among these and also the most ambitious one. He insists “… I was just twenty … It

was?one?of?the?happiest?days?of?my?life.?Fancy!?Second? mate?for?the?first?time”?(70).?In?depicting?his?colleagues,? Marlow repeatedly emphasizes that the fellows are old. Referring to Captain Beard, Marlow avers: “He had blue eyes in that old face of his” (70), and Mahon “was also an old chap” (70). Again at the time of fighting the fire he stresses, “it struck me suddenly poor Mahon was a very, very old chap. As to me, I was as pleased and proud as?though?I?had?helped?to?win?a?great?naval?battle.?O!? Youth!”?(81).?Such?a?comparison?and?other?references? which are given to the age of these figures as being old

or?in?their?last?days?refer?to?Marlow’s?privilege?of?being? young, having powerful sinews and capabilities to endure.

In his book Joseph Conrad: A Study in NonConformity, Osborn Andreas suggests “Marlow, as

narrator?as?well?as?central?character?of?the?story?‘Youth’,? is?Conrad’s?alter-ego”?(44).?In?the?view?of?Andreas?“he?[Marlow]?had?played?a?man’s?part?in?helping?to?bring,?if? not the ship itself, at least the entire crew, without the loss of a single sailor, to its objective on the mainland of Asia”(45). However, in his book Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography, Edward Said envisages:

The difference between Ulysses and Marlow as sailors lies in the fact that for Ulysses, the sea journey with all its adventures and vicissitudes is not his real wish and yearning but his cardinal hope is to return home. However, for Marlow, the sea, the ship, and all his duties on the board become his ultimate goal. Even the cruel sea is to him lovable and friendly; it shapes his challenges and helps him to demonstrate his strength and power; that is why Marlow “preferred the soldier to the philosopher; a preference which life has only confirmed” (72) after he read Ride to Khiva. To him the soldier is a real man for he is engaged in a battle.

CONCLUSION

Conrad’s?‘Youth’?resembles,?to?some?extent,?Stephen? Crane’s?‘The?Open?Boat’.?Both?texts?demonstrate?the?

authors’?lives?and?experiences?aboard?a?sinking?ship?and? their attempts on some open boats. This resemblance is not limited to these two short-stories, but it can also be found in The Red Badge of Courage and The Nigger of the Narcissus, something which persuaded the critics in 1897 to?notice?Crane’s?influences?on?Conrad.?However,?Conrad? denied?any?such?influences.?Yet,?the?two?novellas?share?a? thematic point; an ordeal is undertaken by young fellows in both and there are communities of men struggling to survive to find ways to resist their suffering and tough tasks.

Indeed,?the?entire?story?revolves?round?Marlow’s? reminiscence of his youth and the responsibility put on him. In fact, he gives a good picture of himself and his duty on both Judea and the life boat. On the Judea, he is a?second?mate?and?on?the?life?boat?he?fits?in?as?a?skipper? of a small boat. After the old Judea sinks they take to the life boats and head for Java. Managing the small boat, the exhausted Marlow remarks: “the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men” (91), and then he achieves “the triumphant conviction of strength”

REFERENCES

Conrad, Joseph (2002[1902]). Heart of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough in A Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton.

Conrad, Joseph (1997[1902]). “Youth” in Selected Short Stories. London: Wordsworth Classics.

Burnaby, Gustavus (1877). A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia. London: Cassell, Peter, Galpin.

Kirschner, Paul (1968). Conrad: The Psychologist as Artist. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.

Najder, Zdzislaw (1997). Conrad in Perspective: Essays on Art and Fidelity. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Said, Edward W. (1996). Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.

Willy,?Todd?G.?(1980).?The?Call?to?Imperialism?in?Conrad’s?‘Youth’:?An?Historical?Reconstruction.??Journal of Modern Literature, 8(1).