Gui 1

Burton Gui
Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
July 27, 14
Literature Review
Imperialism in The Sign of Four
The Lliterature usually functions to accurately reflects thea society in which and time
period of the writer, because writerss are unconsciously influenced by its transformation<this is
not the right word for what youre talking about here and ideology. As the most famous detective,
featured in The Sign of Four bisy Sir. Arthur Coanon Doyles second novel to feature the
famous , in late 18
th
, Sherlock Holmes, a does not merely play as an imaginary character
endowed with brilliant intelligence and astute observation, who utilizesing the unique method
named science of deduction , to engagelead readers in anto experience that is, according to
literary scholar George Dove, like aa puzzle-solving game. <<all the ideas that come from others
must be cited<< Meanwhile,<<not the right word for your meaning here--delete althoughLeroy
Panek, who wrote a full-length study of the detective genre, An Introduction to the Detective
Story, explains that Doyle tries to avoid importing social critiques and Victorian moralism,
bringing to his readers and to bring the detective story closer to pure narrativee(80).,
which is pointed out by Leroy Panek in Doyle, HoweverAn Introduction to the Detective Story,
Holmes is still stamped upon the conspicuous age imprintwith the attitudes and beliefs of the
Victorian era. The detective novellas stories of Doyle, especially The Sign of Four, provide
precious literature materials to researcha way to understand British imperialism and the divergent
Victorian attitudes toward its colonialism. At the zenith of an empire upon which the sun
Formatted: Left
Formatted: Font: Italic
Formatted: Left
Gui 2
never set, empire, Britain enjoyed harvests from its worldwide colonies. Relying upon its great
international achievement, the British were confident in Britains their role as a strong power to
world, and Imperialism was prevalent among the society. Accompanying with Eethnocentrism
and discrimination towards other cultures. These ideas are and people evolved into distinct
mystery involving an exotic treasure and a native Andaman islander who is portrayed as a savage
from this sentenceit was to make it clear and easy to readeasier to see the purpose of the
sentence. You have to sometimes leave out details that you want to get in there (you can always
add them in another sentence)because sometimes if you have too many details in a sentence,
the reader gets lost and has to decode the sentence to figure it out.you always want to make
your writing easy to read. In 1857, before the publish of The Sign of Four, the Indian Munity,
the first rebellion of the Indian natives against British colonial rule, awakened the British from
the fragile obedience of native to cause them rethink their governance of colonies.<<this
sentence is hard to understandclarify the point youre trying to make about the rebellion
hereawakened the British from the fragile obedience makes it sound like the British were
obedient (but I think you mean the Indians) of native to cause them rethink their governance
could refer to British or Indianscut out the details you dont need and make sure the basic
sentences idea is clear Maybe Doyle does not mean to deliberately reflect Imperialism in his
novel, but a group of scholars, like Leroy Panek, Christopher Keep, Kirby Farrell and John
McBratney, have tracked theon traces of imperial ideology from the famouswithin Doyles
Based upon examination of imperialism within The Sign of Four, these scholars note a
novel illustrates the fear of insurrections of natives, the desire to of reinforcement of colonial
the fascination with the products made available through dominance ofof benefits from foreign
Gui 3
very good thesis ideaagain, there were too many little details that werent as important that
impeded the clarity--
According to literary critic Kirby Farrell in his article Heroism, Culture, and Dread In
Sign of Four, rRacist descriptions of the aboriginal people being savage and inherently violent
illustrative of common conceptualization towards foreign figures, as a fear of insurrectionary
behaviors in British colonies.<<this is really two points---the descriptions of the colonized
as violent and the fear that the colonized people will revolt Kirby Farrell in Heroism, Culture,
Dread In The Sign of Four mentions that With its rebellious black fiends (p.234) and black
devils (p.232) colonial India comes to express the dark face of the England idealized in the
novel(34). Tonga, as the companion of criminal Jonathan Small, epitomizes the rebellious
Indian stepping upon Britain and coming with hostility, and he is also referred to the fear, among
British, towards foreign incursion.<<foreign incursion is good (and Tonga represents that)but
this is not the same thing as an insurrection by the colozied people (like the Indian rebellion,
is something that took place in India>> just make sure you are perfectly clear about what your
point is here (and above in your intro) Tonga performs his war dance when Small exhibits him
in their travels (156;ch.12), Mcbratney adds the point in Racial and Criminal Types. Through
Watsons perspective, even though Tonga is falling down to the bottom of Thames, his scary and
distorted appearance still frightens Watson, a former military doctor. I caught one glimpse of
venomous, menacing eyes amid the white swirl of the waters, Doyle depicts (1641). These are
exact kind of distortion of other races and the fear promoted by imperialism especially after the
Munity of India. Also, Watson describes Tonga as a little black man the smallest I have ever
seen with a great, misshapen head and a shock of tangled, disheveled hairand chattered at us
with half animal fury(1627). Christopher Keep in Addiction, Empire and Narrative in The Sign
Gui 4
of the Four demonstrates Tongas sunken eyes and animal fury are a complex distillation of
contemporary accounts of the murderous rage exhibited by the Sepoys during the
Munity(214). As one can clearly see<<its not something we can see on our ownuse the
article to help you show that this description is not the reality (summarize what he says) this
description does not reflect the reality, but complies with the look on the world where
imperialists presented their anxiety and where natives who had disobeyed their government in
the colony were demonized. As an intruder from the savage world, Tonga has arrived in
England and brought with him the sheer excessiveness of the colonial world(Keep, 214). To
exclude evil incursion, Britain has to invite Sherlock Holmes, the representative imperialism,
who has the most sophisticated detective skills in western countries.<<this is a good point, but
its not the same point that your introduction says its going to be--- your intro is about fear of a
rebellion (in India) but this is more about fear of an incursion (of the foreigners coming to British
soil). Seems like the easier thing to do would be change the intro to match this point.
The progress of tracking the murder of Bartholomew Sholto by using the Imperial
Gazetteer reflects the influence from criminal anthropology and racial criminal types framed to
reinforce governance of India, as an imperial desire of consolidating British imperialism.
Ethnographic information before the Munity was used to expand more territories and maximize
revenues of British interests in India. However, after the Indian Rebellion, British rethought of
collecting data to forestall another rebellion (McBratney, 151). Keep addresses, Canon
Doyle employs nineteenth-century typologies of gender, class, and race, and thus creates a
detective designed to enforce the fixity and naturalness of established social order
(686-87)(216). Then, McBratney demonstrates, The discourses of census powerfully molded
perspectives onBritish fiction writers, like Doyle, who wrote about India. We still see this
Gui 5
shaping power especially in that writers susceptibility to the language of racial typethe
foreclosure of political consciousness and activity in Indian(153). When Sherlock Holmes
begins to track down the mysterious companion of Small, the description of the Andaman
Islanders that Holmes identifies as the first volume of a gazetteer which is now being published
lights a bright clue leading towards Tonga (1303). With the help of the gazetteer, Holmes finds
the murder; British enforced its governance in India and excluded any reasons of causing
aggressiveness of natives except to racial instincts. Likewise, in the case of Tonga, the
fixation on type obviates all consideration of ramifications of colonialism. Doyles narrative
ascribes the Islanders violence not to any legitimate resentment of British invasions of the
archipelago but to his races innate proclivity for monstrous aggression, McBratney adds to the
discussion (156). Thus, as Tonga and his poison darts dramatize ungovernable anger which
must be extinguished, so Holmes enacts an equally dissociated conscience It is not society or
a privileged class punishing a rebellious upstart, but rather Truth annihilating savage
Evil(Farrell, 35). Imperialism rationalized its colonial influences upon natives, which stamped
rebellions as a type criminal and the brutal nature of the colonized. In the novel, Tonga who
represents for the rebel is distorted by Doyle as a cannibal feast (1304) and eventually ends up
his life Somewhere in the dark ooze at the bottom of the Thames(Doyle, 1645). <This point
isnt as clear as the first one--- some of what you have here seems to be better as explanation for
the first point (about how the exotic other is described, fear of the non-British and how it came
from the Gazeteer). I think it might be best to drop this point and just have two--- the first one is
good (fear of incursion as reflected in the descriptions of Tonga and the info about him in
England, at the bottom of the Thames, etc). Then move on to the second one---although the
British are afraid of the exotic other, and often describe it as savage---they are addicted to the
Gui 6
products and goods they get as a result of colonizing this other. I think those two points fit
together nicely and make a strong essay.
Regardless of the fear of exoticism, these scholars notices the Sun Never Set empire
had a deep addiction towards its foreign colonies, which according to the scholars,
can<<<remember your focus is to review what the scholars say, so you need to keep adding
phrases that keep that purpose clear throughout>> also can be addressed from the novel. Though
the mid- to late-nineteenth-century view of the colonies had bred into a conflicting imperial
conception, it was still widely held that the colonies were vital to the success of the British
Imperial government (Panek 80). Miss Morstans accessories from India do not escape Watsons
attention especially the "a small turban of the small dull [grey] hue, relieved only by the
suspicion of a white feather in the side" (Doyle, 313). He quickly turns and focuses all his
attention on the accessories that finally serve as his basis of attraction to her. He is also very
descriptive of Thaddeus Sholtos not so humble abode. <<give specific examples of Thaddeuss
room---these are all quite relevant to your point He associates the foreign objects found in the
house with decadence. It is a western characteristic tendency to view the other cultures as not
civilized enough to their level. The British officials in the colonies accrued lots of wealth from
their colonial visits as seen from the character Abdullah Khan. He tells Jonathan Small, "We
only ask you to do that which your countrymen come to this land for. We ask you to be rich"
(Doyle Loc., 1897). The general feeling amongst the British visiting the colonies was that the
treasure they had was theirs for the taking. As Khan is seen telling Jonathan Small, the colonies
are simply sources of wealth for the British Imperialists. Though they do not value the people or
even their culture, they still consider the economic opportunities presented by the colonies as
massive (Keep 207). They exploit them by taking whatever gems they find and even acquire
Gui 7
large tracts of land for themselves despite the remarkable loathing of the local cultures. Sholtos
house is described by Watson as "The carpet was of amber and black, so soft and so thick that
the foot sank pleasantly into it, as into a bed of moss" (Doyle, 502). He further goes on to
depict this tendency as he talks about "a lamp in the fashion of a silver dove," noting that it,
"[hangs] from an almost invisible golden wire in the centre of the room. As it burned it filled the
air with a subtle and aromatic odour" (502). <<this should come earlier where I was asking you
for details While they loot the riches from their colonies, the so-called savages wallow in poverty
despite being the owners of these spoils (Farrell 34). In addition, Keep addresses, Cocaine is, in
this sense, the archetypal colonial product: it traces an arc from raw substance originating on the
ill-defined[India]periphery of empire(210). He further discusses that Holmes symbolizes
Imperialism, which he needs cocaine to stimulate his mind, as Britain needed Narcotics to earn
money. Thus, India is like drug, which imperialists could not resist its attractive interests, as well
as poison, which they were afraid of insurrections in colonizes (210-11). Good points!
The Sign of Four is an outstanding literature, which witnesses social transformation and
imperialism in the Victorian era. Sherlock Holmes acts as a social guard fighting against barbaric
and savage natives, representing for rebellions from British colonies and threatening stability of
the heart of the empire. However, unwittingly, he also cannot resist addiction of exotic products,
as symbolizing imperialists relied upon irresistible interests in colonies. The novel completely
records the conflicting feeling among British towards colonialism. Although Sherlock Holmes
used to be stamped upon Imperialism, he still represents a spirit based on sophisticated analysis
and solid evidence to solve problems. Taking off label of Imperialism in nowadays, he
transcends into a classic hero without super power, just with his intelligence owned by even
ordinary people.
Gui 8






Really good start, Burton! This is the best draft Ive read thus far in terms of ideas and also in
terms of showing that you really understood the scholarly texts that youre using. I think your
first priority should be to cut that second pointuse what you can from it as intro in point 1, and
work to make sure every sentence is as clear and accurate as possible. Then go back and make
sure your citations are in correct MLA fomat, too.






Works cited
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of the Four. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2013. Kindle
eBook. Online.
Farrell, Kirby. "Heroism, Culture and Dread in The Sign of the Four." Studies in the Novel 16.1
(1984): 32-51. Print.
Formatted: Left
Gui 9
Keep, Christopher, and Don Randall. "Addiction, Empire, and Narrative in Arthur Conan Doyle's
"The Sign of the Four"." NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 32.2 (1999): 207-221. Print.
Mcbratney, John. "Racial And Criminal Types: Indian Ethnography And Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's The Sign Of Four." Victorian Literature and Culture 33.01 (2005): 149-167.
Print.
Panek, LeRoy. An Iintroduction to the Ddetective Sstory. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green
State University Popular Press, 1987. Print.


Formatted: Font: Italic
Formatted: Left