King Leopolds Ghost Essay - 727 Words

Book Review of King Leopolds Ghost, by Adam Hochschild nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;What some have considered to be the first international scandal of the modern era took place in the Congo from 1890 until 1910. King Leopold II of Belgium was at the head of this so-called scandal. Although Europe and the rest of the world seemed to have forgotten the victims of these crimes, there is a considerable amount of material to use when attempting to recreate the horror that took place in Leopolds Congo. This is exactly what Adam Hochschild is attempting to do by writing this book. By using the written words of mostly Europeans and Americans, which creates a distorted view of history, he wants to show that the Holocaust type event†¦show more content†¦By acting as the director and guiding his actors and stagehands, Leopold finds the angle he needs and that is pretending to engage in a philanthropy movement in the quot;dark continent.quot; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In Chapter 9, quot;Meeting Mr. Kurtz,quot; Hochschild provides a good description of the novel, Heart of Darkness, and in the process enlightens the reader about the true background and meaning to Joseph Conrads novel. Early in the book, Hochschild mentions the novel and how it has been studied for Freudian overtones, mystic echoes, and its inward vision. According to him, the book is more fact than fiction because there are many similarities between the book and Conrads very own travels into the Congo. In fact, Hochschild calls the narrator of Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Conrads alter ego. Probably the biggest example of how the book is based on Conrads own travels is the fact that the stories villain, Mr. Kurtz, is clearly inspired by a number of real people. These include George Antoine Klein, Major Edmund Barttelot, and Captain Leon Rom, who probably is the real-life basis for Kurtzs most important signal, a collection of African heads around his house. Heart of Darkness is given a completely new spin because of Hochschilds interpretation. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Hochschild has a tendency to be too descriptive. There are some parts in the bookShow MoreRelated King Leopolds Ghost Essay2090 Words   |  9 PagesKing Leopolds Ghost King Leopolds Ghost tells a story of the Belgian King Leopold II and his misrule of an African colony, named (at the time) the Congo Free State. It is a wild and unpleasant story of a mans capacity for evil and the peculiar manifestation of it. 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When I began reading, I wasn’t sure where the novel was going, but I soon caught on to what Hochschild was revealing. As the story begins to unfold he tells a story of King Leopold II of Belgium who managed to seize land next to the Congo River in Africa. King Leopold used political manipulation and lies to get what he wanted. K ing Leopold had everyone fooled that he wasRead MoreKing Leopolds Ghost860 Words   |  4 PagesKing Leopold’s Ghost By Adam Hochschild Question 1 Between 1880 and 1920, the population of the Congo was slashed in half: some ten million people were victims of murder, starvation, exhaustion, exposure, disease, and a plummeting birth rate. Why do you think this massive carnage has remained virtually unknown in the United States and Europe? During all this death there was only a few who would go down into the Congo because of all its dangers. So with hardly anyone already going downRead MoreKing Leopold s Ghost Response Paper1444 Words   |  6 PagesChakravartty 4/16/15 King Leopold’s Ghost Response Paper With an estimated death toll of ten million people, King Leopold’s conquest of the Congo is recognized as one of the bloodiest holocausts in human history. The sheer brutality of this gruesome process triggered the world’s first international human rights movement. However, unlike the holocaust of Jews committed by the Nazi regime in mid-twentieth century Germany, the Belgian extermination of the Congolese has gone largely forgotten. In King Leopold’sRead MoreKing Leopold s Ghost : A Story Of Greed, Terror, And Heroism2325 Words   |  10 Pages King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild explains the lead up to and the establishment of the Congo Free State under Belgium. 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