“Looking beneath the surface” entails going beyond the physical appearance in search for the truth and analyzing the real issues that underlie something. In other words, a philosopher is expected to assess something carefully before drawing a conclusion on it instead of accepting to be fooled by the superficial sparkles that mean nothing.
Aurelius, who was a Roman emperor and a great philosopher, coined the term, but it has gained relevance among modern thinkers who insist on conducting a proper analysis on a subject before coming up with generalizations. Based on this classification, an individual is expected to figure out the actual meaning of important information when conducting explorative research to understand the causes or the effects of something.
The ideas of the Polish novelist in the Heart of Darkness aimed at unraveling the issues that faced ivory traders in the Congo basin meaning the author attempted to look beneath the surface. In his analysis, Joseph Conrad noted that the river was big and resembled a huge uncoiled snake whose head was in the sea while the body was in the land (Conrad 41). The tail of the snake was lost in the depths of the land.
Thus the actual length or size of the snake could not be established. The writer did not mean a real snake; instead, he referred to the nature of ivory trade that was practiced in the Central African region. The writer went a notch higher to explain the role of imperialism in influencing colonialism and racism globally. The author proved that Africans never benefited from the trade given the fact they exchanged their expensive goods with valueless products manufactured in Europe and dumped in Africa.
The western powers were so heartless to the extent of forcing the ivory traders to dispose of their products without any form of compensation. In his analysis, the color of Africans never reflected their behavior and reasoning, but the whites were simply hiding under their skin, yet they had dark hearts that were indifferent to the sufferings of the majority.
Kafka’s Metamorphosis describes the processes that an individual could go through to achieve his or her desired interest (Kafka 112). The author looked at the real issues that faced people in their daily lives in their quest to richness. In this regard, he attempted to look beneath the surface instead of simply claiming that life was unfair to individuals. He established that life did not allow them to grow rich because of certain reasons.
He compared a salesperson, Gregory Samsa, to an insect that underwent metamorphosis having enabled it to develop new structures and features. However, the author was never interested in giving the causes of transformations; instead, he focused on explaining the challenges of a new status.
He noted that Samsa struggled a lot to fit in society, having acquired extra features and structures that made him a burden to the entire society. The author was trying to prove his point that people change after acquiring new statuses while some may refuse to believe that they no longer belong to a certain class.
In his work, The Beast in the Jungle, Henry James explained the role of waiting in human life by disputing the claims that it entails loneliness, fate, love, and death (James 23). He used an example of a man who had a belief that his life would be hindered by a catastrophic event and there would be no way he would avoid it since it was waiting like a beast in the jungle. One of his friends bought a house in the English capital, London, and opted to stay with him waiting to see what would happen.
The suspicion Marcher had convinced him not to marry since he did not want his wife to face the difficult times ahead. He later realized that he had been simply wasting his time, yet nothing was going to happen. On his part, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot expressed pessimism just as Henry James’s work, meaning waiting is dangerous.
The lives of the two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, ended miserably after several years of waiting for Godot who failed to turn up (Beckett 34). The two spent most of their days preparing for the arrival of the visitor refusing to believe that uncertainties would prevent the appearance of their treasured guest. They refused to participate in important societal activities and practices since they never wanted to miss seeing their main person in life.
It was painful noting that the visitor would not appear after continuous preparation for many years. The works of the two authors suggest that waiting is not a good idea for an individual wishing to move forward with life since chances of misplacing the treasured goal are high. It is clear that waiting only results in pain since the concerned persons rarely continue with their normal life after realizing that what they were expecting cannot be attained.
Works Cited
Beckett, S. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove/Atlantic, Inc, 2011. Print.
Conrad, J. Heart of Darkness. New York: Superior Publishing House, 2010. Print.
James, H. The Beast in the Jungle. New York: Forgotten Books, 2012. Print.
Kafka, F. Metamorphosis. Lanham: Start Pub, 2013. Print.