Thursday, October 31, 2019

Answer question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Answer question - Essay Example My initial career in marketing and communication proved successful. It helped me land my first job. However, the challenges in the workplace served as an awakening of the need to develop a unique personal brand that could extend into other fields. I focused on acquiring new skills and undertook a writing course. This short course imparted me with new skills of being able to author articles published in different media, although expanding into writing from marketing seemed absurd to some people, I have exhibited immense growth in my new field. Through my publications, I help and inspire other people in the competitive business field, providing them with ideas on how to succeed in marketing. Therefore, extending my personal brand was a way of broadening my career front (Mobray, 2009). In a bid to excel in the publishing of my articles, I have also faced the compulsion of indulging in business research. For me to develop ideas that are functional in the dynamic business market, I have developed rigorous research skills that have helped me become an outstanding communication artist. This is because I rely on primary data to publish my articles. In the future I am willing to explore new opportunities in a bid to extend my personal brand

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Operation Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Operation Management - Research Paper Example But what is common in all those examples is that they get some input, either in materials, or in services, they process it with the help of manpower and machineries, they provide customers with some tangible benefit. This whole process is operation Management. As seen from the above examples, the roles of operational management can be widely varied. In the smallest example of manpower handling, the operations manager of a mining organization where he handles unskilled workers and the operations manager of software company, where the operations manager handles highly skilled manpower. The strategy of handling manpower in these two cases will be entirely different. The total gamut of operations management includes: During Product Design stage: Matching Product Design with demand, perceptible and implied, production feasibility in terms of cost, competition etc. Product Planning stage: lifecycle, Costs, Revenue and Profit during life cycles, Entry and exit strategies, Produce range, Quality, cost of quality, Total quality management, Forecasting of supply demand availability or input sources Process Planning, Capacity Planning, Short time schedule, long term schedule, Material requirement Planning, Just-in-time operations approach Maintenance and Replacement of Plant and Machinery In the following chapters we will look into all the above aspects of operation Management in detail. Operation Strategy: The first aspect of operation management is operation strategy. The operation strategy of an organization includes its range of products, the processes involved, its employees, its location, its infrastructure facilities, and its relation with customers. The main thrust of operation strategy is its direction by... The first aspect of operation management is operation strategy. The operation strategy of an organization includes its range of products, the processes involved, its employees, its location, its infrastructure facilities, and its relation with customers. The main thrust of operation strategy is its direction by which it is going to meet the customers' demand and satisfaction. The operations strategy is framed in general terms without specifics and describes the features of the products and processes rather than details. The steps to a operations strategy include:1. Analysis of business strategy of the organization,2. Using this analysis goal are set which the operation strategy must meet.3. Analysis of environment like market, customer, competition, location availability of manpower, products, change environment4. Identifying the factors of the process like capacity, quality, technology, which will give distinctive advantages5. Designing of organizational structure, controls, and fun ctions to support the process6. Defining of monitoring systems for measuring performance.7. Continual improvementThe success of a company depends on its well-defined operation strategy and implementation of the strategy. The failure of the strategy generally is attributed toBadly designed, unrealistic, not implemented properly, not related to actual operations, ignores the key factors, lack of support from the people who are supposed to implement them.Once the operation strategy is made then the next important aspect is product design.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Environment Management Strategies

Environment Management Strategies Human existence is indispensably related closely with the nature. Because, there are direct or indirect interactions between human and its environment. Human activities are mainly about concerning their common needs and any further specific life requirement. Fortunes are on their hands, because majority of the materials they need can be discovered in many ways on earth, and that is why interaction of both parties is inevitable. It is clear that there are causal impacts that involved within the ecosystem. Generally, human as the creature who has needs and desires, have intention to take advantages from nature and its environment, in any good or bad term. But, unfortunately there are some indications that human over enforcing their greed. The desire of fulfilling needs somehow able to give reverse impact. Some are malicious and not beneficial at all. As time goes by, the nature gives some concrete unpleasant feedback. Controllable or not, there are some disasters that come over. Howeve r, some undesirable effects somehow caused by the human itself, it is the result of reckless human who do not seek any bad possibilities coming in the future if they dont being responsible to the mother nature. That is why; environmental management is severely needed, and should be one of the considerations in any action when generating interaction with environment. In every business, there are so many aspects to be concerned about. There may be a huge consideration of its own product development aspects, human and capital management, customer relationship or even market research and strategy. However, sometimes theres a little crack that overlooked, this crack in time can be a very crucial and destructive intervention. A kind of crack that mostly forgotten is about environmental management. Yes, I do agree that human is the ruler of this world. This lovely mother nature is completely in human hands. They are a very intelligent yet powerful creature on earth, theyve got the brain and intuition. But the greed is the biggest human flaw, they easily forgotten about possibilities they may cause in their activities. In big or even small scale of business, nothing can be an exception for this issue. First of all lets take a look for a small and simple example, culinary and food business. People may not consider this, because this is a very common thing that used to happen in daily life. Some food business has their own way to pack their food. The packaging they use to wrap food should be a thing to reconsider. Because, after consumer eat the food inside, the packaging is no longer needed and just easily thrown away, and instantly become a garbage. And what kind of garbage it is, is important to be noticed. Its okay if they use paper wrapper, because it is still can be recycled and even better if they use recycled paper, because that means they still consider this issue. But unfortunately, how about them who use styrofoam? Hey, it can be the simplest form of eventual earth destruction. Styrofoam is hardly disposed, if buried it can infect the soil. Then imagine how many thousand businesses on earth that did it that way? How many million people who bought their stuff that way? It is a massive motion of earth destruction. Well, thats only a simple of one kind of businesses. How about other kind of businesses on earth? How about other gazillions trashes and garbage that human make? How irritating to see this mother nature get dirtier each day. And also theres another fact. The Environmental Protection Agency reports the United States produces approximately 220 million tons of garbage each year. This is equivalent to burying more than 82,000 football fields six feet deep in compacted garbage. There are no statistics readily available for the entire planet, but considering the United States makes up about 4% of the worlds population, this is a LOT. It could be estimated that the entire planets yearly production of garbage to be somewhere in the vicinity of 4 to 5 BILLION tons. Well, that is true, and inevitable that human may cause it, but however there are still some prevention and overcoming methods to solve this problem. It can be in many ways and methods. Year by year human starts to realize the importance of this issue, which is why some methods of saving environment eventually emerged. Well, those are some short review about environmental management in smaller scale, now lets take a closer look at environmental management in big scale, which will be described and explained thoroughly after this section. The next review is mainly based on material of study of C.J. Barrows book of Environmental Management for Sustainable Development Chapter 1 and 2. This book comprised a very closer look of environmental management that strongly elaborated in multidimensional aspects, which is very interesting and important. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Environmental management is very crucial part oh human aspects that need to be deeply considered. It seeks to steer the development process to take advantage of opportunities, avoid hazards, mitigate problems, and prepare people for unavoidable difficulties by improving adaptability and resilience. It is a process concerned with human-environment interactions, and seeks to identify: what is environmentally desirable; what are physical, economic, social and technological constraints to achieving that; and what the most feasible options are. Actually there can be no concise universal definition of environmental management, however it can be briefly summarized in this aspects: supporting sustainable development; demands multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or even holistic approach; it should integrate and reconcile different development viewpoints; co-ordinate science, social, policy making and planning; proactive process; timescales and concern ranges from local to global; stresses st ewardship rather than exploitation; and dealing with a world affected by human. In other way, environmental management can be explained as methods of ways when dealing issues due to the importance to improve environmental stewardship by integrating ecology, policy making, planning and social development. The goals include: sustaining and if possible improving existing resources; preventing and overcoming environmental problems; establishing limits; founding and nurturing institutions that effectively support environmental research, monitoring and management; warning of threats and identifying opportunities; where possible improving quality of life; and finally identifying new technology or policies that are useful. And moreover, actually environmental management may be subdivided into number of fields, including: Environmental economics Sustainable development issues Environmental assessment, modeling, forecasting and hand-casting Corporate environmental management activities Pollution recognition and control Environmental enforcement and legislation Environmental and development institutions and ethics Environmental management systems and quality issues Environmental planning and management Assessment of stakeholders involved in environmental management Environmental perceptions and education Community participation Natural resources management Environmental rehabilitation Environmental politics Environment aid and institution building Generally, the environmental managers must ensure there is optimum balance between environmental protection and allowing human liberty. Then, the question is how it can be done? Basically there are several steps in environmental management implementation. First, we need to identify goals and define problems, then determine appropriate actions, which will be continued as draw-up plan. Next, implement the plan, which followed by ongoing development management. After that keep monitor and evaluate the situation. If there are adjustments needed, do it. Then finally when the exact model of environmental management is generated, continuous development will be able to be conducted. Moreover there are some plenty approaches to environmental management which can be seen below: Ad hoc approach: approach developed in reaction to a specific situation Problem-solving approach: follows a series of logical steps to identify problems and needs to implement solutions Systems approach: for example, Ecosystem Agro-ecosystem. Regional approach: mainly ecological zones or bio-geophysical units, which may sometimes be international. For example, Watershed River basin Coastal zone Island Command area development authority Administrative region Sea. Specialist discipline approach: often adopted by professionals, For example, Air quality management Water quality management Land management Environmental health Urban management Ocean management Human ecology approach Tourism management Conservation area Management. Strategic environmental management approach Voluntary sector approach:: environmental management by, or encouraged by NGOs. For example, Debt-for-nature swaps Private reserves Ginger groups which try to prompt environmental management Private funding for research or environmental management. Commercial approach: environmental management for business/public bodies Political economy or political ecology approach Human ecology approach THE EVOLUTION Through the ages, human starts to realize to understand the importance of environmental management in sustainable development method. However, in years during the development there were changes and evolution among the concept. For example, in 1930s the Soviet Union fascist regime and even briefly USA explored state manipulation of development. However few tried to shift laizzes faire attitudes toward environmental management before 1960s. Then finally since 1970 environmental management appeared as problem solving field, providing practical assistance. However before 1900s it still paid limited attention to social issues. In 1970s human also realized that it has to cope with changes of fashion, variations, changing technological capabilities, social capital, social values, skill, confidence and many other variables. And also, by the time there were ethics concern classifications in four groups: Technocratic environmental ethics = resource-exploitative, growth-oriented; Managerial environmental ethics = resource-conservative, oriented to sustainable growth; Communalist environmental ethics = resource-preservationist, oriented to limited to zero growth; Bioethicist or deep ecology environmental ethics = extreme preservationist, a anti-growth. Group 1 is anthropocentric and places faith in the capacity of technology to overcome problems. Group four is unlikely to attract support from enough people to be viable approach, and offers little guidance to environmental managers. Meanwhile the ethics of group 2 and 3 were more likely to support sustainable development and provide guidance for environmental management. By the way theres another grouping of environmental management: Anthropocentric- human welfare is placed before environment or biota; Ecocentric focused on ecosystem conservation Biocentric organisms are seen to have value per se CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Related to the environmental issues, there are some problems emerged in the surface. Eventually problems come from small to huge scale range. There are some possibilities of environmental problems such as pollution, soil erosion, over-fishing, loss of forest, and physical surrounding changes. Environmental stress may be caused by human activities (e.g. resource exploitation, urban growth, warfare, globalization, capital penetration and technological change). Environmental management may need to modify the activities and ethics of individuals, groups and societies to achieve its goals. There are three main approaches, which can be adopted to try to do that: Advisory This is a method, which can be conducted through education, demonstration, media and public advice Economic or fiscal This is an approach, which can be conducted through taxation, grants, subsidies and trade agreements Regulatory This is an approach, which can be implemented through laws, restrictions, licensing and zoning. Hopefully these approaches can effectively help environment to be in better condition. However, environmental managers should be able to face the problems nicely by choosing suitable methods and approaches in given situation. CONCLUSION Environmental management is evolving and spreading. It has still to be adequately adapted to suit all conditions, and will continue to get developed as well as the growing number of human activities that related to its interaction to the environment. Environmental management demands a proactive approach to development and must integrate closely with other disciplines. Without proactive environmental management, development is unlikely to be sustainable and people will be more vulnerable to disasters. Considering that the world and its resources are finite, yet human demands and population continues to increase, sustainable development is the key issue to be concerned about. However, even though there are no one single approach to environmental management, there are key concepts and tools to choose from. Sufficient environmental managers should be able to identify suitable strategies and tools best suited for a given situation. A precautionary and proactive approach is wise to be impl emented when sustainable development is a serious goal to be considered.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Comparing Half Caste and Search for my Tongue Essay examples -- John A

Comparing Half Caste and Search for my Tongue Culture. It’s a very complicated term, with many different interpretations, but what does it actually mean? In this essay I will compare two poems from completely different cultures to see if we get any comparisons, the poems I have chosen to write about are Half-Caste by John Agard and Search for my Tongue by Sujata Bhatt, I have chosen these because I feel they raise some very significant points. But back to the question mentioned earlier, what is culture? Everyone has a different view on culture, but to me it is a huge influence on our everyday lives, many different issues contribute to the term ‘Culture’ from the way we dress, to our beliefs, attributes, how we live, and even what we eat. It affects us all differently depending on how we understand it, for example, if we were to believe that culture was just a religious matter we would only be affected by what that religion tells us, whereas if we were to believe that culture was a whole way of life we would be affected in a completely different way. Culture is important to us all, regardless of how we feel about it, it gives us a guide to our lives and shows us some boundaries; it can also give us advice and help us to be a better person. The word ‘different’ can be used in two contexts; we can say it both complimentarily and offensively, my understanding of this is that some people are afraid of what’s different and therefore have to make comments to feel safe. But when we say ‘different’ cultures we are referring to the way other people live, and if we are afraid of this we must all seriously reconsider ourselves. As I have already mentioned one of the poems I will be studying is Half-Caste by John ... ... the end of the poem though she seems to have won the fight. In conclusion, everyone looks upon culture differently; there are those who take it seriously and those that don’t. But whether or not we like it we are all part of a culture and should therefore respect other’s. Of course culture can be seen as something to fight with, there are so many people in the world with different views it would be surprising if it wasn’t! In my opinion both authors use language as something to fight with and against in their own unique ways. Both of these poems use some sort of violence to get a message across, this to me is a type of fighting, so the answer to my question is ‘YES’ we could see culture as something to fight with or against because of the language both poems use, for instance the taunting that John Agard uses and the metaphors that Sujata Bhatt uses.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Birth Control and Abortion Essay

Other times of birth control which are a little bit more complexes are the IUD anther more percent type of birth control is getting there tubes tied. There are other things that women can do if they do become pregnant and they choose they do not want to have a child at this time in their life. There are pills they can take five days after they have sex which can be bought over the counter at any drug store, There are also abortion pills that can be taken up to your 6th week of pregnancy, and last but not least a women has the choice to terminate a pregnancy by getting an abortion. Abortion is a big issue in today’s times and it is also a topic that can make some feel one of many different types of emotions. Abortion can happen up until the 13 week of a pregnancy. Abortion is a permit solution in terminating a pregnancy it can also be damage a female in many different ways not only physically but mentally as well. Abortions are a way to terminate pregnancies but they should not be used as a type of birth control. There are many pros and cons of both situation and everyone women should look into their options Birth Control comes in many forms for both men and women. The most common for the two would be condoms and birth control pills. Women can also seek other methods like diaphragms, Depo-Provera shots, Norplant’s, Nuvarings, or even a birth control patch however; the most powerful form of birth control would be absence (Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 2007). All these methods are proven effective but may cause some side effects in some people. Birth Control Method| Common Side Effects| Depo-ProveraLess than 1 out of 100 women a year will become pregnant by taken the shot when directed. Cost: $35 – 75Injected into the arm and last for 3 months. * Irregular bleeding especially within the first year. * Change in sex drive. * Change in appetite or weight gain. * Headaches * Nausea * Sore breast| Norplant’s (Implants)Less than 1 out of 100 women a year may become pregnant. Cost: $400-800Inserted into the arm and last for 3yrs. | * Change in sex drive. * Irregular bleeding within 6 to 12 months. * Discoloring or scarri ng where the implant was placed. * Rarely, an infection in the implant location. * Sore breast * Weight gain| Birth Control PillsFew as 1 in 100 women will become pregnant in a year if they use the pill effectively. Cost: $15-50 per monthMust take pill every day at same time to be most effective. | * Bleeding between periods. * Breast tenderness. * Nausea and/or vomiting| Condoms 2 out of 100 women may still become pregnant after using a condom correctlyCost: $1 eachCan be used by men. This device also prevent against sexual transmitted diseases. Female condoms are also available. | * Most common complaint is people are allergic to the latex which condoms are made from. * Condoms do break which forms no protection. | These are just a few of the outlined cost and complications that have been associated with different forms of birth control. Although, many have a great success record absence is the only method that is truly 100% effective. However, if women and men both actively participate in using contraceptives then they may avoid STD’s (with the use of condoms), and unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. Abortion is a medical procedure for any expecting mother to elect to have about her own body. The procedure can be performed up until the mother is in her second trimester. When a child is in the first trimester they weigh on average a 1/2 ounce and estimated to be 3 inches long (Just mommies, 2003-2012). During the first trimester the child also has a heartbeat that can be heard with ultrasonic devices. When a mother reached her second trimester the child is still growing developing more specific features. By the end of the second trimester the child will have developed all major organs (Just mommies, 2003-2012). Many people consider the abortion procedure to be immoral and wrong because it involves taking the life of an unborn child who has already developing in the womb. Over 7% of women just their reason for seeking an abortion because they were a victim of rape or incest and health concerns for the mother or baby (M, 2012). Many women who opt for this procedure may find themselves suffering from guilt or depression afterwards resulting in a life altering experience. For individual who don’t want to have children they have different types of birth control that can to prevent pregnancy. Birth control can come in a pill, patch, shot, surgical, internal, or abstinence. Birth control is not only for women but men as well. Men can use condoms to help protect them from getting women pregnant as well as protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. Men can also have a vasectomy which can cause them not to be able to produce children at all. Women have a similar procedure but it is called a tubal litigation. This prevents the woman from producing an egg and being fertilized. Each form of birth control comes with some type of side effect and it is best that the individual chooses what is comfortable for them. The side effects can vary depending on the individual and how their body adapts to the medication. Some women like to look at abortion as a type of birth control. There are different types of abortion and also different types of birth control. With abortion the different methods are used at each different point in pregnancy and may be performed different each time also. There are the first trimester abortions which can be suction aspiration or dilation and curettage also known as D&C. the suction aspiration is the most common surgical methods that is used in the first trimester abortions, this is when the cervix is numbed and stretched open. It allows the abortionist to suck the baby’s body out with a knife like plastic tube. During the suction the lining of the uterus may be torn away. The D&C methods are somewhat similar to the suction. The instrument used for this procedure is called a curette (a loop shaped steel knife) which is used to scrape the wall of the uterus. During this procedure the baby and the uterus if cut up into pieces and then sucked out. An abortion can also be performed with a chemical implantation. Abortions can take place in each stage of pregnancy and is performed in different ways according to the size of the baby and what stage you are at in your pregnancy. For the second trimester there is a procedure that is used that is similar to the D&C and it is called the D&E or dilation and evacuation. With this procedure the woman is given some type of sedative and the abortionist is dilates the women and use instruments such as forceps to pull the baby to pieces. There is also a late second and third trimester abortions. During the late second and third trimester abortions the abortionist uses instillation techniques which is injects lethal chemicals into the amniotic fluid by an amniocentesis, intra cardiac injections which stop the unborn heart or hysterectomies which are identical to a cesarean section and is intended to harm the child. These are only a few of the abortion techniques that are used but more exists. Birth control and abortions can help with decision making when it comes to having or not having children. Some individuals look at abortions and are totally against it and other may use it as a form of birth control. Women start out as teenagers using birth control to prevent early pregnancy or pregnancy at all. Both of these methods come with side effects and it should be strictly the individual’s choice to use either one.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Marlow in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

In Heart of Darkness Conrad tries to deal with issues which are almost inexpressible.   The mysterious effect of the jungle wilderness on Kurtz, and on Marlow himself, puzzles the imagination and bewilders the understanding.   We might ask why Conrad chooses to tell the story through the character of Marlow, rather than simply to set it as a first person narrative.   The story is, in fact, about Kurtz, and about the way that contact with the primitive touches on the reality beneath human civilization, but it is also part of Marlow’s autobiography.Marlow is a character, not just a narrative voice, and his characterization enables us to judge and understand what he tells us.   He stands for certain impressive values – the practicality of the seaman’s life, the belief in the value of work, the refusal to judge too quickly, and the calmness of mind which allows him to consider and respond to the ambiguities in Kurtz’s experience. With his detached and skeptical manner, the fruit of a life among practical things, he makes the extraordinary story as believable as is possible.   We do not identify with him exactly, and he is not simply the voice of Conrad, but he is a convincing and unpretentious narrator who offers us glimpses into the ineffable.Much of the earlier part of the novel is concerned with establishing Marlow’s character and credentials as a narrator.   The actual narrator who speaks on the first page tells us that Marlow is the sort of seaman who is â€Å"trustworthiness personified† (5).   But he is â€Å"not typical† (8) in that â€Å"to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale† (8), which perhaps prepares us for Marlow’s attempt to convey to us the scale of his experience and its importance.   The maritime traditions and habits of mind are central to Marlow.   He values work over fantasy.   At the jungle station â€Å"I went to work†¦ In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life† (33), which is a vital and mature desire in him.   His instincts are to reject nonsense and absurdity and stick to the real.Talking to the ridiculous agent at the station, â€Å"this papier-mà ¢chà © Mephistopheles† (37), he tells us of his horror of lies, not because he is particularly virtuous, but because â€Å"there is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies – which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world† (38-9).   The agent’s insinuating invitation to Marlow to accept his petty corruptions meets with an instinctive shudder that speaks for his integrity.   Every man wants to get on, says the agent. â€Å"What more did I want? What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven!   Rivets.   To get on with the work† (40).   There is something wonderfully refreshing about such healthy disgust, and this contributes largely to our readiness to listen to Marlow as the tale reaches its most critical stages.It was a relief, he says to get back to the work of repairing the steamboat, not because he actually likes labor, â€Å"but I like what is in the work, – the chance to find yourself.   Your own reality†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (41). A powerful moment for him is the discovery in the riverside hut of Towson’s manual on seamanship, which, in the middle of the chaotic world of the jungle, gives him â€Å"a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real† (54), for the real is what he longs for, as the guarantee of sanity and purpose.   It reassures him that the book has been studied and cared for, the spine â€Å"lovingly stitched afresh with white cotton thread† (54) and the margin annotated with what he thinks is cipher but later discovers to be Russian.If Marlow’s integrity and devotion to the real is created thoroughly, so are his attitudes to wh at he experiences before he meets Kurtz.   Conrad gives him a style that is consistent.   He is skeptical, a little sardonic, and down-to earth.   He tells how he worked on his relations to try to ensure that he could go to Africa:The men said â€Å"My dear Fellow,† and did nothing.   Then – would you believe it? – I tried the women.   I, Charlie Marlow, set the women to work – to get a job.   Heavens!   Well, you see, the notion drove me.   I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul.   She wrote: â€Å"It will be delightful†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (12)The voice is familiar, humorous and unaffected, and we feel every reason to trust what he says.   His devotion to the real makes him immediately sensitive to dishonesty and cant.   His view of â€Å"progress† is justifiably jaundiced.   The captain whom he replaces has been killed; â€Å"I heard the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens† (13), and he is sur e that afterwards â€Å"the cause of progress got them, anyhow† (14).   His charge is â€Å"a two-penny-half-penny river steamboat with a penny whistle attached† (18) and he feels that his aunt talks â€Å"rot† when she describes him as â€Å"an emissary of light† (18).   He records the bizarre sight of a French warship lobbing shells into the jungle to destroy â€Å"enemies† (20).He is bewildered by the sight of the accountant at the station in his â€Å"high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (25) working alongside the black workmen who are dying in the grass.   He encounters a white man who has the job of maintaining the road.   He is drunk, and â€Å"Can’t say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles further on, may be considered a permanent improvement† (29).   The man who tries to put out the fire in the store shed carries a bucket and declares â€Å"that everybody was ‘behaving splendidly, splendidly,’ dipped about a quart of water and tore back again.   I noticed there was a hole in the bottom of his pail† (33).Everywhere Marlow’s shrewd and ironical intelligence spots the signs of decay, corruption and self-deception.   The whole establishment at the jungle trading station is â€Å"unreal† (35), and when the manager starts canting about Marlow being â€Å"of the new gang – the gang of virtue† (36) â€Å"I nearly burst into a laugh† (36).   The whole experience has for him the insane logic of dream, â€Å"that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is the very essence of dreams†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (39).Such judgments and descriptions strike the reader as immensely observant and yet mo destly expressed.   Marlow feels fundamental decencies being abused by the colonial trading world, and it is hardly surprising that he becomes increasingly interested in Kurtz, who is clearly feared as well as despised by the other agents, largely because he has some sort of vision, a commodity seriously lacking in the ivory trading world.   Marlow’s convincing honesty and down-to-earth qualities even make Conrad’s symbolism easy to approach.The Fate-like knitting women in the Brussels office are entirely real as well as allusive.   One wears a dress â€Å"as plain as an umbrella cover† (14).   Marlow notes how the two women introduce many â€Å"to the unknown†¦ these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall† (16).   It is a rare and powerful effect, not clumsy, as it might have been, because we are so convinced by Marlow’s practical and realistic attitude.When it comes to the encounter with Kurtz we are therefore ready to give Marlow the benefit of the doubt as he reveals his own complex attitude to the man, and tries to explain what it is that Kurtz has seen and felt.   It is Kurtz’s idealism that first interests him, here in this nightmare place of unreason.   The other agents laugh at his hope that â€Å"Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, but also for humanising† (47).   At the same time Marlow cannot escape the thought that the savage figures seen on the bank are not inhuman, â€Å"the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar† (51) and we can see how he might understand how Kurtz’s own soul has been captured by the darkness.He finds that he wants to talk to Kurtz, even though he realizes as soon as he gets to Kurtz’s station that â€Å"He had taken a high seat among the devils of the land† (70), something Marlow knows will be almost impossible for his audience to understand; â€Å"How could you? – with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbours†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (70).   This is where Marlow’s story moves into the area of the incredible and the only partly expressible   Kurtz’s high-minded writings end suddenly with the savage cry â€Å"Exterminate all the brutes† (72).   The â€Å"brother seaman† talks of how Kurtz has inspired him – â€Å"I tell you†¦this man has enlarged my mind† (78).   But Marlow can only conclude â€Å"Why! He’s mad† (81) despite the Russian’s protests.The skulls are the evidence of his total breakdown, that the darkness â€Å"had whispered to him things about himself that he did no know† (83). The spell of the wilderness had awakened â€Å"forgotten and brutal instincts† (94) in him and dragged his soul â€Å"beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations† (95).   Marlow i s able to see Kurtz’s story as a tragedy.   His aim had been to â€Å"Live rightly, die, die† (99) but he had not known what was in himself, and Marlow’s readiness to stand by him at the end, even to rescue him in a way, rests on an awareness that Kurtz was not despicable, and that he himself might well respond in the same way.â€Å"He had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while I had been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot† (101).   Back in Europe, like Gulliver, he is disgusted by his fellow man, â€Å"like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger† (102), and he lies to Kurtz’s â€Å"intended† because neither she nor anyone else would be able to comprehend the truth.Marlow does not claim to know or understand everything.   It is the unassuming nature of his narrative stance that convinces us.   The â€Å"real† narrator calls the whole thing â€Å"one of Marlow’s inco nclusive experiences† (10). But no one could be omniscient with such a subject; Marlow only glimpses one of the great mysteries, and none of us is ever granted more than that.   What Conrad has done is to choose a narrative method and a type of narrator which conveys as well as possible immensely difficult things.Works CitedConrad, Joseph.   Heart of Darkness.   Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.