A Look into Heart of Darkness
There are many pieces of literature that can thoroughly deal with one theme and make it flow fluently throughout the story. Only a few outstanding works of literature can deal with many aspects of literature and still manage to intertwine them so the end result is a magnificent work of literature that is deemed a "classic" by the masses. In Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness the Europeans are cut off from civilization, overtaken by greed, exploitation, and material interests from his own kind. Conrad develops themes of symbolism, personal power, imagery, social justice, racism, and character development. In Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness many different aspects of literature are dealt with.Character development in a story is very important in a novel. It could be the one thing that could make or break the novel. Good character development usually entails the reader growing with the character, relating to the character and having empathy for the character. The two characters that Joseph Conrad opted to make the reader progress with, were Kurtz and Marlow (also the narrator). Kurtz had lived in the Congo, and was separated from his own culture for quite some time. He had once been
Kurtz is about self-realization; about the mistakes he committed while in Africa. The colonizers' cruelty towards the natives and their lust for ivory also is spotlighted in Kurtz's horror. "Thrown upon their own inner spiritual resources they may be utterly damned by their greed, their sloth, and their hypocrisy into moral insignificance, as were the pilgrims, or they may be so corrupt by their absolute power over the Africans that some Marlow will need to lay their memory among the 'dead Cats of Civilization (Conrad, 105)." The white men who came to the Congo were professing to bring progress to Africa. The supposed 2. Meyers, Jeffrey. Joseph Conrad. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991. Also there was irony with the light and darkness. When Marlow came into the dinning section of the boat there was light while just outside where Kurtz had died it was pitch black. "There was a lamp in there-light-don't you know-and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark (Conrad, 69)." This symbolizes the inevitable passing of the torch. As one great leader has fallen another has stood up in Marlow. With the light in the room that Marlow was in all by himself it shows that Conrad was looking for the perfect way to make Marlow become the next Kurtz. Another way the theme of "dark" and "light" came into play was with the growth of Kurtz throughout the book. Kurtz being a genius, an orator, ivory producer, writer, poet, musician, artist and a politician, he represented the light amongst most sailors. As soon as Kurtz was cut off from civilization he revealed his dark side. Once he entered within his "heart of darkness" he was shielded from the light. Kurtz turned into a thief, murderer, raider, and he allowed himself to be worshipped as a god. "The horror! The horror!," was the dying words of a great yet terrible man, Kurtz (Conrad, 68). The horror to 1. Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness 3rd ed. Ed. Robert
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Approximate Word count = 1409
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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