Kurtz’s relationship with women in “Heart of Darkness”

In “Heart of Darkness”, the power-hungry ivory trader Kurtz has a constrained relationship with women. He has a beautiful fiancé living apart from him, but they are not allowed to get married due to Kurtz’s lack of status. Still, his intended/fiancé is madly and unconditionally in love with the talented man. Unlike Kurtz’s intended, Kurtz himself has a secret mistress. She is a gorgeous black lady with countless numbers of money spent on jewelry and clothes. Since the notorious mistress is a well-liked woman among the natives, she is the perfect golden key to their ivory. Kurtz have mentioned his business of stealing goods from the natives a lot of places in the novella.

Since Kurtz’s English fiancé has a family embossed by richness, good education and status, Kurtz sees him marrying her only because he wants a better reputation on the European continent. She is only a trophy, a first medal, and not someone he would share the rest of his life with. Mr. Kurtz is a selfish man, who only cares about having the power over the ivory in Africa and Congo. His mistress also works as a trophy, but in another way. The black goddess is what we can call a bait for the natives. No wonder why Kurtz has such a good tone with the natives and still works dirty behind their backs when he makes sweet love with their precious female.

The book, “Heart of Darkness”, is an old guide to how powerful men treated rich woman with status back in the late 1800s. They were objects and trophies all together. Kurtz’s sight on women was unfortunate, but necessary in his situation. At least that was what he thought. The worst thing was the book’s ending when Kurtz’s fiancé was tricked to thinking Kurtz loved her and that his last word was her name. In the end everything was just big game of love, money and conflicts. The game had no winners.

Famous English person

Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England on January 13, 1977. The man he briefly knew as his father Harry Bloom, was a legendary political activist who fought for civil rights in South Africa. But Harry died of a stroke when Orlando was only four years old. After that, Orlando and his older sister, Samantha Bloom, were raised by their mother, Sonia, and family friend, Colin Stone. When Orlando was 13, Sonia revealed to him that Colin was actually his biological father.

Orlando attended St. Edmunds School in Canterbury, but struggled in many courses because of dyslexia. He did embrace the arts, however, and enjoyed pottery, photography and sculpturing. He also participated in schools plays and was active at his local theatre.

At the age of 16, he moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and gaining a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. Like many young actors, he also auditioned for a number of television roles to further his career, landing bit parts in British television shows like “Casualty” (1986) and “Smack the Pony” (1999). Then he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It was there, in 1998, that Orlando fell three stories from a rooftop terrace and broke his back. Despite fears that he would be permanently paralyzed, he quickly recovered and returned to the stage.

As fate would have it, seated in the audience one night in 1999 was a director named Peter Jackson. He asked Orlando to audition for his new set of movies. After graduating from Guildhall, Orlando began work on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Today, he is one of the busiest and most sought-after actors in the whole world. He is also married to the Victoria’s Secret model, Miranda Kerr. They have a son together, called Flynn.

Rebecca and Oda

Mentor Business

How to behave:
I am going to be polite, friendly and open for new experiences when I’m stationed in my mentor business. I think District Court is a very interesting place to be for the six days. Even though it will be hard with the forcible and the terrible cases in court, I’m looking forward to see how the judge, prosecutor and the witnesses co-operate against the accused and his/her defence counsel. When we met out mentor, she told us that it would be a lot of paper work and reading. Even though that is not likely going to be the most fun part of it, I will try to stay positive and keep my head above water.
It will also come in handy to ask a lot of questions and not be shy. Even though it might be a lot to answer for the mentor and other employees, it will be worth it in the end. Maybe I will end up with taking studies within this area.

How not to behave:
I am not going to be sad, impolite and uninterested. Even though the days will be long and demanding, I must think about the fun and interesting about the hard work. I would like to leave the mentor business with a good feeling. If I’m not active and asking questions, I will most likely not be pleased when I’m done. It is also important not to be late and lazy. In other words I have to get tons of sleep and make the right priorities. I have to be reliable.

Wandering Girl

Glenyse

Homesick, scared, young and native

Servant to Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow

Who loves to be around nice people, beautiful cups and red carpets

Who feels dispirited, worthless and humiliated

Who needs consideration, freedom and her family

Who fears to be tired, not good enough and loose her identity

Who gives service, care and her soul

Who wishes to experience to be accepted, loved and appreciated

She lives in the garage of a villa

Ward

Travel Diary Day 3

Sunday 15th of February

Dear Diary

Considering the fact that I walked around for several hours in this big city yesterday, with shoes costing less than 500 NOK, it’s not hard to figure out that my heels pretty much got attacked by huge galls. Of course my feet hurt yesterday, when I was actually walking, but I first realized how ugly the wounds really were when I got back to the hotel. And that certainly didn’t help. The whole day I’ve been walking around in the only pair of shoes I brought that didn’t gnaw, Uggs. Since the shoes are stuffed with thick wool, I was sweating throughout the whole day in Disney Land. Not the most pleasant experience, but I still had fun. It was like entering another world filled with imaginary friends and roller-coasters. I especially liked “The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror”, which made both me and my stomach scream. It had to be the longest 2 minutes of my life. The attraction contained a haunted elevator which raised and fell at a terrifying speed, over and over again.  As the hours went by, I settled down at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill for some delicious chicken tacos.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Suddenly the clock passed closing time and I had to leave like everybody else. Back at the hotel room, I picked up the paper, The Los Angeles Daily News, from the floor and read the first page; “Original Darth Vader costume up for sale in London”. Under the article’s picture the text was; “LONDON – The force can be with you – for a price”. I found it kind of funny, that people are actually willing to pay between 250,000$ to 365,000$ (in NOK that will be between 1, 5 million crones to 2, 1 million) for a used costume!

Darth Vader costume

 I forgot to tell you that I got my luggage back this afternoon. The feeling of putting my make-up on after 3 days without it was amazing. Now I can enjoy the remaining 5 days without having any other worries on my mind. 
Sleep tight, but don't let the bed bugs bite.

Travel Diary Day 2

Saturday 14th of February

Dear Diary

The rain was pouring down this morning. Luckily I had placed the umbrella in my purse instead of in the other luggage, which hasn’t arrived yet. I wanted to prepare myself, so I logged on internet and found out that the average temperature in Los Angeles in February was 19 degrees! Well, thanks to the people who lost my luggage, I’m not prepared. This sort of climate is something I’m not used to at all. It’s probably snowing back in Norway right now. I also found out that there are 3.83 million people living in this 1,290.6 km2 big city. That makes it the second most populous city in the United States. On Wikipedia I typed the city and read that Los Angeles was officially founded on September 4th, 1781, by the Spanish governor Felipe de Neve.

I am staying at The Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza, which I’m already in love with. But the breakfast was nothing to brag about. The orange juice tasted like old soda without bubbles and the food was just like I had seen it on TV, containing a lot of unhealthy fat and calories. I gave the thick pancakes a try, without changing my opinion about it, though. 

The rest of the day went to “some” shopping and sightseeing. I have to admit that the shopping part went a little bit out of control. But the stores, the service and the clothes and shoes were all so marvelous. Still, I can’t wait for this wonderful day to end, mostly because I’m finally going to Disneyland tomorrow!

Los Angeles, CA

Map showing Disneyland

Sleep tight, but don't let the bed bugs bite.

Travel Diary Day 1

Friday 13^th of February

Dear diary

I found myself standing among thousands of busy people at The Los Angeles International Airport in California, America, this morning. It felt like the entire world populations were surrounding me. Strangely enough I found out afterwards that the airport was the sixth busiest in the world! The huge masses of people were doing everything from saying goodbye to their beloved ones to taking care of business deals through their Blackberrys or Iphones. I just wanted to get a glint of my luggage, but it was nowhere to be found. Panic hit me when all of the European people from the same airplane started to roll away from the gate with their luggage. The band was empty, so I therefore ran zigzag between thousands of people desperately looking for the information counter. On my way I saw big posters of well-known celebrities. Angelina Jolie was posing almost naked with a perfume in her hand next to a handsome man. Who knew she grew up in LA?

Map showing Los Angeles

The colored woman in the counter asked me all sorts of questions while polishing her nails with a nail file. The looks she gave me really got on my nerves, so I quickly found something else to look at. “What to do in Los Angeles, California”, I read inside me. A flag on the front-page caught my sight. I saw 50 stars in the left corner and a lot of red and white stripes. The subtitle was “Stars and Stripes”. When I turned the first page, I actually found it quite interesting to read about the American flag. Each and every star represents a state, and the stripes symbolize the 13 first states in America. I decided to bring the information map with me. Then the lady in the counter confirmed that my luggage was missing. What a lovely surprise! I wonder if the date of today has anything to do with it.

Stars and Stripes

Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite.