Analyse the symbloic meaning(s) of the cross

Joseph Conrad`s story ‚An Outpost of Progress’ is set on a trading station at the Congo River in Africa where two men have been send to run it. Their names are Kayerts and Carlier and they are completely uncapable of operating the station, which contains of three houses and „some distance away from the buildings“ (p.10, l.16- 18) stands a cross „much out of the perpendicular“ (p.10, l.18) where the first chief of the useless station is buried. First of all, the cross is a religious Christian symbol, which stands for death and sacrifice. This gives the reader directly the first inidication of how the story will continues and how it probably could end. Kayerts and Carlier visit it one time and they commiserate the man, who is buried unter the tall cross and they vow that they will care of themselves so that they will not end like the first chief, who died of fever.

 

From the first pages on the cross accompany the two white men, who get lazy after a while, sitting on the veranda and doing nothing.

One day, Carlier goes out and replants the cross firmly and it seems as if he arranges it unconsciously to be Kayerts grave. All this foreschadows the destiny of the two white men.

 

As the reader expected it, Kayerts and Carlier are getting very lazy and dissatisfied after a while, because they slowly notice that the station is useless and that nobody looks after them. The spend days with eating nothing, but rice and drinking dark coffee, waiting for a glint of the steamer, which actually ought to come. But neither this day nor that day the steamer appears on the Congo river and they „become daily more like a pair of accomplices than like a couple of devoted friends.“ (p.30., l.11-12). And one day, it was bound to happen, the conflict brakes out and ends tragically. Being responsible for killing his companion, Kayerts feels desperate and horrible. He thinks one night about his situation („and now found repose in the conviction that life had nor more secrets for him: neither had death!“, p.34, l.30.) and in the end he chooses the cross to commit suicide, although he is not a Christian.

The cross, known as a symbol of death, was also chosen by Kayerts to clarify the meaning of his guilt and atonement and to show the Managing Director, how it will ends if people were send into the wilderness, without any civilisation around. 

Analyse the symbolic meaning(s) of the cross

The two main characters, the Belgian agents Kayerts and Carlier, who lived a life of failure, have been send to an useless station in the Belgian Colony Congo. The station where Kayerts and Carlier worked was a checkpoint for the trade of ivory and slaves.
Near the station was a tall cross "much out of the perpendicular"(p.10,l.17) put up by the director of the station over the first agent's grave, who died of fever.
First of all the cross is a very important icon of the Christendom. But neither Kayerts and Carlier nor Makola, who believes in "evil spirits" (p.10,l.1), are Christians. That is the reason why the cross is not a religious icon in this story.
At the time of the European imperialism many people came to Africa, who exploited the black people, oppressed and killed them.
Also Missionairies came to help but as well to convince the black people about the Christendom but the cross is also not an icon of the missionairies.
The cross of the station has the symbolic meaning of failure and death.
On one hand of failure because the two Belgian were useless as the whole station, "look at this two imbeciles.They must be mad at home to send me such specimens'', (p.11,l.55-56). Both failed in their former life and both have not the power and the intelligence to manage the station.
On the other hand it is a symbolic meaning for death because it was put up over the first agent's grave but the most important fact is that Kayerts committed suicide after he has killed his assistant Carlier because of a conflict about sugar in a hopelessness period at the station. Kayerts committed suicide by "hanging himself by a leather strap from the cross'' (p.37,l.41).
Kayerts and Carlier came to this station to work as agents but their life ended at the cross near the useless land.

Sophia

Analyse the symbolic meaning(s) of the cross in Conrad's short story

Joseph Conrad’s short story “an outpost of progress”, deals with the topic civilization, with its blur bounds to savagery.
Kayerts and Carlier, two European agents in Africa, are assigned to run a trading station.
Behind the houses of the station, is a grave of a painter, the former chief of the station, who died of fever. The crooked cross of the grave, symbolized with his uneven shape, the struggle that the man will soon find with themselves and each other. It also includes the fear of the same destiny as the dead man… the outlook on the future, where they shall meet the same fate. The cross itself is a religious Christian symbol of sacrifice and redemption. It combines luckiness and grief.
Before reading the story the question might show up, whether some of them have to sacrifice or not? They came to have a better future. Kayerts for example needs the money to help his daughter financially.
Furthermore, the title “Outpost of progress” is very ironic, because the only thing that did not happen is progress. The two men feel inferior and after a while they get lazy and moody. Gobila’s people left them, the only civilized people in their area.
So as a matter of fact the short story ends tragically with the dead of Carlier, who was shot by Kayerts, and shortly after Kayert commits suicide by hanging up himself on the cross.
The cross surrounded by the mist, makes an invitational appearance to make his life an end and most important, it buries also the last thought of civilization.

Essay: Analyse the symbolic meaning(s) of the cross in Conrad's short story

In the story „An Outpost of Progress“ two new agents, Kayerts, the chief, and Carlier, his assistant, were sent to a lonely outpost in Africa to run an useless trading station.

Some distances away from the station is a tall cross, under which the former chief of the station is buried.(“In it, under a tall cross much out of the perpendicular, slept the man who had seen the beginning of all this;…”p.10, l.17f)

This grave foreshadows the fatal ruin of the two white men and of the Company’s try to civilise the wilderness.

The first chief had been an unsuccessful painter and also Kayerts and Carlier came to the station because of personal failure in the past: Kayerts left his post in the Administration of the Telegraphs to earn a dowry for his daughter Melie, who was brought up by her aunts because her mother had died.

Carlier left the army and was forced by his brother-in-law to take the job with the trading company.

At the beginning of the story Kayerts and Carlier both work at the station but soon it becomes clear that they are unprepared and lazy. They are, in opposition to Makola, incompetent to run the station, the two whites can’t life out of an organized and civilised society. They just can’t stand on their own feet. (“They were two perfectly insignificant and incapable individuals, whose existence is only possible through the high organization of civilized crowds.”p.12, l.16ff)

The two agents don’t realize Makola’s plan to sell the ten station men and afterwards they don’t judge him, they just take the tusk which was swapped for the ten stationmen, who Kayerts and Carlier were responsible for.

Therefore Gobila’s people don’t bring food to Kayerts and Carlier anymore, the two white men are short of provisions and that’s why their health deteriorates and they fail physically.

In the end they mistrust one another and the second chief Kayerts shoots Carlier. Afterwards Kayerts commits suicide on the first chief’s grave. His tongue, which sticks out at the Director is a clear symbol that civilization, the two agent’s mission, failed.

Laura S.

The symbolic meanings of the cross

In the beginning of the story the symbolic meaning of the cross is quiet unclear. The Director put it up to mark the grave of the former and first chief of the station who died of fever, but if he really died because of this is a little bit uncertain.
The cross is a Christian symbol first and foremost, Jesus died at the cross for our sins. But in the wilderness of the Congo it seems a little lonely: Kayerts and Carlier don't really believe in the Christian religion, Makola believes in the evil spirits just like the other "savages", who lived around the station - therefore no one appearing in the story actually believes in the Christian religion and so the cross is reduced to its cultural value, representing a religion that is more a cultural aspect than a vivid devotion. The cross is also a symbol for colonialism. When the first Spanish seamen came to America, they forced the natives to convert. One of the reasons, why the Spanish royal house sent missionaries to explore the entire world is to spread Christianity. If the natives refused to convert they were killed. The crusades followed a similar pattern. Since such times of violently expanding the Christian fellowship the cross also became a symbol for oppression, force and repression on the one hand - but as far as the missionaries themselves are concerned also for progress, sense of mission and development.
But in the wilderness of the Congo the cross is as useless as its symbolic meanings. It is as useless as Kayerts and Carlier and the station. When the strangers come and see the cross, they are irritated by it, they don't understand the meaning or the use of it. This may be a hint of its senselessness.
When Carlier and Kayerts first see the cross, they both get the same image on their mind: What happened to them if one of them would die? (p. 13, l. 48-49, 57-58) This foreshadows the later course of the story and returns when Carlier replants the cross which is ironic when you think that Kayerts later commits suicide there. Both Carlier and the Director pave the way for Kayerts tragic death.
After Kayerts shot Carlier he feels despaired and lost. He sees the cross in the fog and it seems to him as the only place he can turn to. If he already has the intention to kill himself is not shown clearly. Maybe, in the last moments of his life full of despair, he has nobody to beg to but God. But even there he gets no help, the station is dropped by the natives, the Director and even by God. The only solution is to follow the former chief and die under this useless, forelorn cross.
Ultimately the cross may be seen - concerning the whole background of the story - as a symbol of the colonizer's futile mission.

2) Analyse the symbolic meaning(s) of the cross in Conrad's short story.

"An Outpost of Progress" by Joseph Conrad tells the story of two Belgian colonists, Kayerts and Carlier, who are sent to run a trading station in Congo. It appears that they are incapable of the situation there, which leads them to the bitter end: In a fight Kayerts kills Carlier and eventually he himself desperately commits suicide by hanging himself on a cross that is built "some distance away" (p. 10, l. 17) from the buildings of the station. The cross marks the first agent's grave who had died of fever.

Analysing the symbolic meaning of the cross, you would certainly begin with the Christian meaning. But since nobody of the main characters, neither the colonists nor the director Makola, admit themselves to the Christian belief, this interpretation is neglectable. The only analogy would be the agents aim to civilize the trading-station which reminds of missionaries, who tried to convert people in foreign countries to their faith.
The cross as a symbol of death seems to lead to more insights: In the beginning of the short story the reader gets to know that the first agent of the trading station is burried next to the buildings. This seems to be a forecast of Kayerts and Carliers destiny. The next appearance of the cross is when Carlier replants it because it was "much out of the perpendicular" (p.10, l. 17). Again, it is a forecast of the collision between him and Kayerts - Carlier is going to be the next to die.
When the armed strangers arrive at the station and linger around the grave and point "understandingly at the cross" (p.20, l. 26), Kayerts and Carlier become aware of the fact that they are living in dangerous conditions. In this case the cross symbolizes danger and again has a very negative meaning for the Belgians.
In the end Makola faces "Kayerts, who was hanging by a leather strap from the cross" (p. 37, l. 38).
So in my opinion, symbolizing death and the forecast of Kayerts and Carliers doom is the most suitable interpretation of the cross.