Conrad’s Lord Jim finally finds a form of peace

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad started off as a challenging read, but really hit its stride in the second half and was well worth sticking through the beginning. What makes it hard to get through is it is told almost entirely as a tale in the second person narrative. The person telling the story, Marlow, tends to jump around a bit and his tangents sometimes lead nowhere. But Conrad does have a knack for hitting the reader with huge events at the end of some of these ramblings, which keeps you going through the harder sections.

The book follows Jim, a young white man who in his mind is destined for great things. He is a young seaman from England, and excels in school and on ship, but when true emergencies hit, his courage always fails him. This happens twice in his youth, but the biggest test is when he is a young man on a ship filled with pilgrims heading to Mecca. He is down in the hull when he notices a thin spot that has dented in, and he knows it is ready to rupture at any moment, and kill everyone on board. He tells the captain and other crew, and with a storm approaching, they all abandon ship and leave the passengers to their fate. Marlow’s tale mostly picks up at Jim’s trial, where we hear how the crew formulated a plot about the ship’s destruction. Jim is disgusted with the others (refusing to see himself as one of them), though in reality he is disgusted with himself above all else. We learn now that the ship did not sink, but instead was found in time and tugged to shore.

Jim is ashamed of the part he played in this, and wants nothing more than to go where no one knows of his history. Marlow takes to him right away, and sets him up with a job off in India. Jim is there for awhile, but when a passing ship starts talking about “the coward that fled the sinking ship”, Jim leaves. He continues to move further east, always moving when his past catches up to him. Finally Marlow calls in a favor to set Jim up as the head of a trading post in a remote corner of the world. None of the locals have heard of Jim, to them he is just a white man that keeps things flowing. He finally finds a home here and finds his courage, and is called by his new fellows Tuan Jim, or Lord Jim. He fortifies the town against other warring tribes, befriends the chief’s son, and marries a local girl. His only enemy is Cornelius, the former head of the trading post, who plots against Jim but is himself too cowardly to act.

Conflict comes when the pirate Gentleman Brown shows up. He comes hoping for a quick easy strike, but is surprised by the strongly fortified town and strong leadership of Jim. He tricks Jim, telling him he was only there looking for food for his starving shipmates. In a fit of compassion, Jim lets Brown go, telling him to head back down the river to the ocean, and promises him safe passage on his life. Cornelius however shares the lay of the land with Brown, allowing Brown to sneak up and kill the chief’s son, Jim’s friend, before heading out to the ocean. Jim’s servant and wife plead for Jim to flee, but they do not know about Jim’s past shame. Jim finally decides to stand for his actions, and confronts the chief. The chief looks over him, and then shoots him in the chest, killing Jim immediately.

This book takes your emotions all over the place. For a good portion, you just can’t stand Jim. He is a coward, never facing the consequences of his actions, and has an excuse for everything. By the end though, Conrad has turned you completely around, and I was actually choked up at Jim’s death, which is so sudden (the book ends almost immediately after his death) that it catches your breath. A definite phenomenal read, you just have to have patience to let it build to its ultimate conclusion.