Number 21 July 1999
The Journey Motif Analyzed in Heart of Darkness and Jasmine
Rachel Brooks
In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine, the physical journey represents the setting for the psychological journey that both main characters undergo. Each stage of the journey is correlated to an emotional insight, and the implications are great enough to incur a change in the protagonists' lives. Through the discovery of distant lands and foreign ideas, Marlow and Jasmine are prompted to look internally to find the answers to their questions. Their struggles are personal, and they are driven by different guiding forces, yet both experience a greater sense of self-awareness by the end of their journey.
Initially, Marlow and Jasmine embark on physical journeys involving movement over water. Marlow's fascination with the Congo River drives him to set out in search of the unknown, to fulfill his longing to explore the "blank spaces" of the map (Conrad 5). Marlow first crosses the English Channel to Brussels, a city that elicits an image of a "whited sepulcher" (7), which serves as an omen of the events that are about to unfold. The city, and the operation of the trading company, appear on the surface to be benevolent, but hidden at the very core are darkness and corruption. Jasmine's journey begins under quite different circumstances. She also crosses the ocean in search of a new and mysterious land, but for a very unique reason. Leaving Jyoti behind, Jasmine travels a long and indirect route to Florida where she intends to throw herself onto a funeral pyre in the custom of a traditional Indian widow.
The further from home Marlow and Jasmine travel, the more alienated they feel from the world and the people around them. Viewing the coastline of Africa for the first time, Marlow describes it as an enigma, and relates his experience to "a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares" (11). Once inland, his physical journey upriver brings forth a greater understanding, both of the environment and his perception of it. He is inspired to reexamine the European notion of colonialism and the African people that it is affecting. For Jasmine, her westward journey becomes the catalyst for many new transformations. Correspondingly, she leaves behind more and more of her Indian culture. After surviving her experience with Half-Face, Jasmine comes under the protection of Lillian Gordon. It is Lillian's kindness and generosity that encourage Jasmine to carry on toward her dream of "Vijh and Wife" (Mukherjee 81), to search for the life that she and her husband had envisioned. Lillian reinforces what Prakash and Masterji had already discovered - that Jasmine is destined for greater things. Spiritually renewed by the support of her friend and the memory of her husband, she resumes her journey to seek a new life in New York.
Marlow is also transformed as he travels into the heart of the jungle. As he follows the river upstream in search of Kurtz, he feels unsettled, yet enlightened, by the events that are unfolding around him, and is forced to reconsider his impression of the Africans. He acknowledges that they are indeed very much human, contrary to what most Europeans assert. "But what thrilled you," Marlow says, "was just the thought of their humanity - like yours - the thought of your remote kinship with" those who were considered to be savage and uncivilized (Conrad 32). Unsettling as it is to him, Marlow identifies with this notion, and it undoubtedly causes him to contemplate who he is and rethink his place in the world.
Jasmine's quest for fulfillment occurs through a series of metaphorical deaths and rebirths. Each stage of her journey brings a new identity with it; she is molded by the people she encounters, and her desire for assimilation is gradually realized through the relationships she develops. Repressed by the Vadheras' persistence in holding on to the Old World, Jasmine struggles with her need for a release from the past. It is not until she becomes "an American in an apartment on Claremont Avenue" (Mukherjee 146), facilitated by Taylor and Wylie, that she feels her expectations are being realized. She develops a feeling of pride and self-respect that comes with earning her own money and functioning as an integral part of a family. Jasmine becomes Jase, finally reborn as an American. Unfortunately, she is forced to continue her journey, and undergo yet another reconstruction.
Marlow's journey of self-discovery is spurred on by his fascination with Kurtz. He is both repulsed and intrigued by the mysterious man he is sent to bring back from the heart of the jungle. But the culmination of his journey emerges when he arrives at Kurtz's station, and experiences the complexity of the man first-hand. Marlow is able to live vicariously through Kurtz; he acknowledges that Kurtz "had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while I had been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot" (Conrad 65). While Marlow resists any radical change in his own life, Jasmine seeks self-transformation, and is able to live a sequence of lifetimes through a metaphorical reincarnation at each new point along her journey. She becomes more courageous as she accumulates the experience and knowledge of each identity. By the time Jasmine has become Jane, she has emerged a stronger woman, with a greater understanding of her needs and desires.
Marlow and Jasmine are elusive at times; their thoughts and actions are often not easily understood. But their journeys are exemplary of the challenges all people face in life. Both novels address influences that guide us through our spiritual lives, and how they potentially affect our decisions and choices. Marlow does not reach this understanding until he leaves a place of modernity and travels "back to the earliest beginnings of the world" (30), returning to Europe at the end of his journey a changed man. Conversely, Jasmine is able to progress emotionally and achieve personal fulfillment once she leaves the antiquated society of India for the United States. The ambiguity of Heart of Darkness and Jasmine accurately reflects the fluid and unpredictable nature of our own existence, and the adversity we must surmount in our journey through life.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. 1902. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1990.
Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. 1989. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.