An Analysis Of The Scapegoat In The Nigger Of The "Narcissus"

Joseph Conrad(1857--1924)was a forerunner of English modernist novels,whose writing covered jungle novels,political novels and sea novels.Conrad's life was a magic.His life experience in Poland,Russia,France and England contributed to his writing.The Nigger of the “Narcissus”(hereinafter referred to as The Nigger)was a milestone for Conrad.Its publication and success helped Conrad make his decision to be a professional writer,which gave this novel special meaning and high research value.This thesis analyzes The Nigger with the scapegoat theory and the mimetic mechanism of the French philosopher Rene Girard in the hope of producing a new interpretation of this novel.The Nigger of the “Narcissus” depicts a voyage of the “Narcissus”,a cargo ship,from Bombay to London,during which the ship meets a violent storm and faces the danger of shipwreck.All crewmen believe that the only nigger James Wait's death will be the chance for them to live through the disaster.And when Wait is dead,the “Narcissus” gets her head wind and arrives at her destination.This thesis holds that Wait is actually the scapegoat,and that the process of encountering and overcoming the dangers during the voyage is in essence the course of the crewmen's persecution of Wait as their scapegoat.Bases on Rene Girard's research on scapegoat,which divides the scapegoat persecution into four elements(the overwhelming social crisis,the accusation of crime,the selection criteria for scapegoat,and the persecution itself),this thesis analyzes The Nigger in four parts: the overwhelming social crisis,the scapegoat identification,the collective persecution and the outcome of the scapegoat sacrifice.The overwhelming social crisis in the novel is the storm the “Narcissus” meets,which nearly overturns and destroys it,and the absence of the head wind,which,if lasting too long,may mean death for all the crewmen for lack of water or food.In the crisis,the crewmen try to choose a scapegoat.Wait is the only nigger among the crewmen.Besides,he has an unwelcome temper,weak health,and the name Wait not enjoyable to say the least for these crewmen detained on the sea – all these lead to Wait's fate of being the scapegoat.Wait is persecuted throughout the voyage,from other crewmen's rejection at the beginning,to their negligence during the storm,to their death curse.As they desire,Wait at last dies.After the sea burial of Wait,the head wind arises and the ship reaches the destination successfully.Obviously,Wait's experience in the ship meets all elements of the scapegoat persecution.Moral virtue is an important topic in Conrad's novels.In The Nigger,a great number of moral virtues are found in the crewmen,like the diligence in Singleton,royalty in first mate Baker.But during the voyage,when the crewmen are threatened by death,they throw away their moral virtues and join in the scapegoat persecution.This thesis suggests that the mimetic mechanism is the reason for their persecution.According to Girard,the mob behaves out of common mimetic desire and expels outsiders.Both the criterion of selection and the collective persecution are driven by mimetic mechanism.The crewmen choose Wait as the scapegoat,because he is the one who does not share the common desire with other crewmen.When the crewmen agree that “killing Wait can bring head wind”,they cooperate with each other,weakening Wait step by step.Wait stops his breath when Donkin steals his things from under the pillow.The seamen hold a sea burial for Wait,and in their cheering,they get the head wind.The crewmen choose Wait as the scapegoat and survive from the crisis by persecuting Wait.Through the alarming depiction of this process of scapegoat persecution,Conrad unveils the weakness of human moral and human nature.Girard believed that only when the members of the group are aware that they are transferring their own guilt and responsibility onto the victim can the crisis truly be overcome.Reading this novel and understanding how the scapegoat mechanism is at work can help us build up an awareness against this human weakness and prevent us from this wrong way of thinking when the similar crisis happens.There are dark sides in human nature,but they should not conquer human life.People should understand what is wrong,and avoid doing the wrong thing.Hopefully,this analysis of the scapegoat phenomenon in The Nigger and the interpretation of it from the mimetic mechanism,can benefit others in their research in the scapegoat phenomenon in the text,in society and in history.