Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Joseph Conrad's "The Nigger of the Narcissus" -- what matters is the captain's orders

The Nigger of the Narcissus, by Joseph Conrad. Published in 1897.

I don't use the word "nigger" except in the context of referring to its use by others, such as in the title of Conrad's novel, published in 1897. Its use in the title raises some issues worth thinking about. I believe the word had pretty much the same connotations back in 1897, when Conrad published this novel about the African sailor, James Wait, on board the Narcissus, a cargo ship sailing from India to England. I get the impression from the narrator (who is not necessarily the author, Conrad himself, but seems to represent Conrad) that he uses the word because it was in common usage then on sailing ships as a coarse insulting description of a black African. The narrator himself doesn't seem to hate Africans, or James Wait. At the very least, the word was commonly used among sailors in that time. And no doubt, Conrad used the word in the title knowing that it would help draw attention to his novel.

After the initial introduction of James Wait to the crew, I don't think the word nigger appears much. After the opening pages, when James Wait first appears to the ship's crew, the other sailors call him "Jim", "Jimmy" or "James", and the narrator refers to him as "Wait". He is a full character, who pulls the sympathy of much of the crew to him when he falls sick. Given the motley characters and their behaviors on this ship, Conrad does not describe James Wait as having any less a soul than the others, or as inferior to them.

As for the novel itself, I liked it, but not that much. Many scenes are over-long, and the mix of characters seem a bit cliched, as if Conrad had to catalog every type of human behavior in this little universe of the Narcissus. The story is a good one -- how to keep a group of people working together despite class divisions and racial divisions, when their lives are in danger. Ultimately, Conrad seems to say you have to bow to the control of a single man, the captain. And that's all that matters.