While the process of travel is fairly simple, there are many motives for why people travel. In stories such as Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conradt, The Destination by Wang Anyi and Return to a Certain Darkness by Satendra Nandan, travel is a constant theme. While the protagonists, Marlow, Chen Xin and Nandan similarly travel around the world, their motives are not constant. They choose to travel for both personal and political reasons while gaining a larger understanding why their travel is important.
The most prevalent reason for travel in these three stories is politically based. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow was able to voyage to the Congo because of Belgium’s imperial rule of The Congo. The Congo was rich in ivory recourses which Belgium …show more content…
The result of China’s idea of pure-socialism led to education being cancelled and the youth were sent to the countryside. While Chen Xin was away, Shanghai had become more of a modernized, western society. Ten years later when the law was lifted, Chen Xin moved back to the city where he was unaccustomed to modern Chinese life, “He had become a stranger, a outsider, whom the Shanghainese looked down upon” (Anyi 118). The lack of comfort and respect in this new culture took a toll on Chen Xin as he struggled to find his new identity in this western culture. Chen Xin’s main struggle was to find his destination. He was forced out of free will for ten years and was forced back into this fast paced society.
Another motive for travel is for personal reasons. While Marlow went to the Congo for overall bigger political reasons, he made the trip because his love to explore and be on the water. “Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration” (Conradt 6). Marlow’s knack for exploring started as he was young and his passion led him to the Congo. Although his voyage was based off of political reasons, his love of exploration led to his job as a captain for The
The most prevalent reason for travel in these three stories is politically based. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow was able to voyage to the Congo because of Belgium’s imperial rule of The Congo. The Congo was rich in ivory recourses which Belgium …show more content…
The result of China’s idea of pure-socialism led to education being cancelled and the youth were sent to the countryside. While Chen Xin was away, Shanghai had become more of a modernized, western society. Ten years later when the law was lifted, Chen Xin moved back to the city where he was unaccustomed to modern Chinese life, “He had become a stranger, a outsider, whom the Shanghainese looked down upon” (Anyi 118). The lack of comfort and respect in this new culture took a toll on Chen Xin as he struggled to find his new identity in this western culture. Chen Xin’s main struggle was to find his destination. He was forced out of free will for ten years and was forced back into this fast paced society.
Another motive for travel is for personal reasons. While Marlow went to the Congo for overall bigger political reasons, he made the trip because his love to explore and be on the water. “Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration” (Conradt 6). Marlow’s knack for exploring started as he was young and his passion led him to the Congo. Although his voyage was based off of political reasons, his love of exploration led to his job as a captain for The