Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews February 11, 2023 February 4, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Isak Dinesen proposes that Africa is a pastoral landscape in which men exist in a truer form than they do in Europe. With modernization, industry, and cities, Africa exists as a land where everyone lives close to nature. Man's proximity and reliance on his surroundings place him in a position much as he was at the beginning of time. As a result Africans are able to remember truths that Europeans have since forgotten. Africa exists as a virtual paradise, much like the one where Adam and Eve once dwelt. Dinesen's philosophy emerges from the "pastoral school" consistent with many nineteenth century writers and painters, who believed that man exists in his most godlike form when he has a strong connection to nature.
Dinesen believes that Africans and Europeans are fundamentally different. This difference emerges not because of biology, but because the European and African exist on different planes of history. Because of their different historical backgrounds, natives and Europeans possess fundamentally different characteristics. For example, the native mind functions in a different way than the European mind, because the European mind has lived through the Renaissance whereas the native mind has not. Dinesen does not say whether or not the European or native mind is preferable. Because of the essential difference between natives and Europeans though, Dinesen sees future trouble as they try to resolve their different relationships to modernity. Dinesen is not sure how the native Africans, who exist in a more pure human state, shall manage.
The narrator believes that an essential aristocracy exists in certain person, which means that they possess an innate sense of dignity and knowledge of how to act nobly. Aristocrats are not only Europeans. Many native Africans that the narrator knows share distinguishing aristocratic qualities. Having an aristocratic air allows one to connect deeply with other human beings, regardless of their culture and race. In the case of Denys Finch-Hatton and Berkeley Cole, for example, their aristocratic nature makes it easy for them to work closely with native men on safari. The essential refined humanity of these various men make their specific race and culture insignificant because they can interact with a mutual code of respect.
Dinesen's code of aristocracy excludes the middle class, many of whom are European settlers who have come to Africa. When Dinesen observes less than honorable behavior by white settlers, these settlers almost always belong to the bourgeoisie. Between the natives and the European aristocrats exists an essential connection, but with the middle classes troubles begin to arise since the middle classes do not understand the code of aristocracy.
Please wait while we process your payment