Personal Choice

There are plenty of different ways one can perceive just about anything in the known world. For instance, one person could find certain joke or pun hilarious while another might find it plain stupid or even overtly rude. One might find a particular author to be a master of his craft while another might find him absolutely terrible. These differences in perception, however, are not all bad. Actually, they are quite the opposite. Varieties on perception of a specific thing not only leads to new points of view on a subject being discovered, but can also lead to artistic inspiration to help further put the minor points of view into the limelight which can then have drastic affects on the overall situation of the world. A particularly specific example of this event would be Joseph Conrad's very own Heart of Darkness. In the novel, a new and seemingly naive seaman sets out to Africa to assist with the management and shipping of trade goods from Her Majesty's colonies in Africa. However, the sailor soon learns that ,where he went to find adventure, there is nothing but tragedy, corruption, and evil in the darkness of the jungles in Africa. During the time period the book was written in, the majority of the European powers and their people ,in the terms of imperialism, perceived themselves as being righteous and just for having imperial ambitions in Africa. They would carry that notion so far as to say they were even liberators to the African and other colonial peoples from their original, "barbaric" ways of life and sought to instill true, "good" European culture in their colonial states. However, Heart of Darkness would prove to be quite the wrench in the gears of those ideas and perceptions by giving the true point of view of the situations of European colonies, specifically those under British rule. Heart of Darkness showed the public the truth of just how corrupted, evil, and disgusting the colonies were. They were not pieces of land that were continually invested in to better the lives of non-Europeans. No, they were instead invested in only for the betterment of the Europeans themselves. They were created solely for profit by any means necessary, nothing more. With this new perception reaching more mainstream attention, the vast political attitude towards colonies in other parts of the world changed in Britain. There wasn't much clamor for reform or anything like that on the mainland, but suddenly the arguments for colonization slowly became more and more invalid. Eventually, as we know, Britain lost support for keeping it's overseas land and allowed for the independence of just about every square inch, saving a few islands, to pass through its government with hardly any opposition from anyone save a select few. These kinds of events that completely shift the world stage have happened and, hopefully, will continue to happen throughout world history. It is very good when in a society the few can be heard and have the potential to become the many which in itself would have endless possibilities for things like political reform and technological growth. All with a simple scribble from a pen.