“The Lagoon”
by Joseph Conrad
Presented By: Dillon Kumontoy, Khayyam Saleem, Anuraag
Shankar
Pre-Quiz
1. Who was the main character (the
one telling the story)?
a. Arsat
b. Tuan
c. Diamelen
d. Mara
2. Where does the story take place?
a. New Zealand
b. Boca Raton
c. Malay Peninsula
d. Senegal
3. Who is sick/dying in the beginning?
a. Diamelen
b. Tuan
c. Arsat
d. John
4.
5.
How did Arsat’s brother die?
a. Suicide
b. Tuberculosis
c. He was killed while Arsat was trying
to escape
d. Nonsense! Arsat’s brother did not
die!
What happens to Diamelen in the end?
a. She lives happily with Arsat
b. She runs away and goes back to
Inchi Miday
c. She marries John.
d. She dies.
Biography
● Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski
● December 3rd, 1857-August 3rd, 1924
○ Berdiczew, Poland (Russian Occupation)
● 1862- Father was taken into penal exile
○ Romantic nationalists
○ Organized the secret Polish National Committee
○ Family became very sick
■ Mother died of TB
■ Father also contracted TB
Biography
● Taught at home by his father (poet/playwright/translator)
○ Frailty, and loneliness
○ Escaped through books
● May, 1869- Father died
○ Taken into the care of his uncle
● October, 1874- Merchant Marine for the french
○ three voyages (West Indies)
Biography
● After a suicide attempt- English merchant navy
● 1886- The Black Mate
○ First story (Magazine competition)
○ Praised by Henry James H.G. Wells
● 1896- An Outcast of the Islands and Jessie George
Biography
● 1899- Heart of Darkness
○ Published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
● 1902-Typhoon and Youth
○ collection of short stories
● 1900s- A shift in the subject of his work
○ experiences at sea => politics
■ Nostromo (1904)
■ The Secret Agent (1907)
■ Under Western Eyes (1911)
Biography
● Still lived an uneasy life
○ Plagued with money and health problems
he could not work effectively unless he
were close to breakdown, on the edge of psychic disorders,
○ “Apparently,
ill in body and mind… The inner disorder was far greater, and when it
was at its most intense, he function the most effectively artistically” Frederick R. Karl
● 1910- Nervous breakdown (persisted)
Biography
● Mainstream popularity with Chance
○ Due to strong advertising campaign in America (New York Harbor)
○ Financial security and fame
● Other works
○ 1920-The Rescue
○ 1923-The Rover (Last Novel)
○ Last Essay (Published posthumously)
Location of Story
Literary Terms
Image
● Language that creates a concrete representation of an object
or an experience
● Creates a vivid mental picture in the reader’s mind
● Collectively referred to in a story as the imagery
In The Lagoon
● “slanting beams of sunset touched the broadside of the canoe with a fiery
glow, throwing the slender and distorted shadows of its crew upon the
streaked glitter of the river”
● “receded from the marshy bank, leaving a level strip of bright-green, reedy
grass to frame the reflected blueness of the sky. A fleecy pink cloud drifted
high above”
PASSAGE
“The forests, somber and dull, stood motionless and silent on each side of the broad
stream. At the foot of big, towering trees, trunkless nipa palms rose from the mud of the
bank, in bunches of leaves enormous and heavy, that hung unstirring over the brown
swirl of eddies. In the stillness of the air every tree, every leaf, every bough, every tendril
of creeper and every petal of minute blossoms seemed to have been bewitched into an
immobility perfect and final. Nothing moved on the river but the eight paddles that rose
flashing regularly, dipped together with a single splash; while the steersman swept right and
left with a periodic and sudden flourish of his blade describing a glinting semicircle above
his head. The churned up water frothed alongside with a confused murmur. And the
white man's canoe, advancing upstream in the short-lived disturbance of its own
making, seemed to enter the portals of a land from which the very memory of motion
had for ever departed.”
Literary Terms (cont.)
Character
● A person who figures in the action of a literary work
● Types
o Protagonist/Main Character - central figure in a literary work
o Minor Characters - ones who play lesser roles
In The Lagoon
● Main character - Arsat
● Minor Characters - Diamelen, Tuan, Ichi Miday
ACTIVITY
REMORSE
and
IMAGERY
Post-Quiz
1) Define the term “imagery” within the context of the story?
2) How did the subject of his writings change in the 1900s?
a) from ________________ to ________________
3) Name another one of Joseph Conrad’s most famous works.
4) TRUE or FALSE: Arsat was satisfied with how he lived his life at the end of
the story.
5) In what mental state does Joseph Conrad supposedly perform his best?
Bibliography
Gaydosik, Victoria. "Conrad, Joseph." Facts On File Companion to the British Novel: 20th Century, vol.
2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 12 May 2015
<http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&WID=17319&SID=5&iPin=CBNII113&SingleR
ecord=True>.
Brackett, Virginia. "Conrad, Joseph." Facts On File Companion to the British Novel: Beginnings
through the 19th Century, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literature. Facts On
File, Inc. Web. 12 May 2015
<http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&WID=17319&SID=5&iPin=CBNI065&SingleR
ecord=True>.
Bloom, Harold, ed. "Conrad, Joseph." Joseph Conrad, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers.
Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2000. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 12 May
2015
<http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&WID=17319&SID=5&iPin=BMSSJCo02&Singl
eRecord=True>.