Submitting to symbolism
Every great author posses the ability to create a novel deeply woven in symbolism and subliminal messages. Underneath the literal journey encountered in Joseph Conrad?fs Heart of Darkness lies a tale saturated with subtle, yet, significant imagery that brings forth the true meaning of the novella. Throughout Heart of Darkness Conrad uses a plethora of simple colors, objects, and places to convey multifaceted images and ideas. His fine execution of the tools of the English language allows him to quickly lure the reader aboard the Nellie and not release him until the horror is over. Although the interpretation of symbols in the Heart of Darkness is elaborate, due to their simplicity they are often overlooked. An overriding series of symbols in Heart of Darkness is the ongoing contrast of white and black, dark and light, and respectively holding representations of good and evil. Amongst most literature white/light relates to a civilized community and black/dark denotes savagery. However, Conrad often depicts many things usually associated with light to be dark in coincidence with the glittering light shed on dark images. Conrad illustrates the wrath of Europe, ?gAnd this also has been one of the darke
Drawing from the text the river may be concluded to be an image of a demon or a snake threatening all who it may entrap. As the novella commences Marlow encounters huge buzzing flies that constantly pester and annoy him. Towards the close of Heart of Darkness he finds himself amidst a swarm of small flies. The diminishing size of the insects is a representation of the growth in Marlow?fs character as his journey progresses. Symbolism as such is one of the great examples of Conrad?fs intelligence Heart of Darkness overflows with symbolism and is by far one of the greatest novels of the twenty century. Conrad employs the literary tricks as he unwraps more than just the quest of a man and his trip through the Congo. Looking between the lines helps convey the true meaning in Heart of Darkness and enhance the reader?fs enjoyment of the novel. Not to forget that Conrad closes the book with classic symbolism of Marlow in the lotus position closing his spiritual journey. The action of travel upriver is another instance of the African environment trying to halt the progress of the whites while traveling downstream gives them a quick way out of the ?gdarkness?h and back to civilization. This alludes to Kurtz and his ?gchoice of nightmares.?h st places of the earth.?h (Conrad 18) Furthermore, Conrad's frequent symbolic combination of life and death is a parallel to light and dark, echoing the fact that the two must exist simultaneously - there cannot be without the other. "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1071
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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