Heart Of Darkness
.... not the absolute pure nautical theme that flows throughout many of his novels. Stories such as Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness are based upon true to life experiences that Joseph had while at sea. Another unique aspect of Conrads writing, would be the lack of simple romance within all of his novels. This lack of emotional passion is most likely due to a drastic love affair when he was 17 that ended with an attempt to end his own life. Of Conrads many works some include Nostromo, Typhoon, The Secret Agen .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... blacks. I guess you could say that the white men were filled with a black hatred inside. Another example is found when Marlow enters the Belgian companys office. Sitting in the office are two women dressed almost completely in black. Marlow is no beginning to understand the seriousness of the journey he is going to make. Even his predecessor dies because of a quarrel over two black hens. The usage of black is almost too much to handle. Another example that I also
remembered from the movie was .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... was best in them" (249). This is the gift of the great. Kurtz was a great man. He was a born leader.
The Kurtz prior to the journey seems to be a man with a heart of gold. "His goodness shone in every act" (250). But in actuality his soul was conformed by society and the "warning voice of a kind neighbor" (206). He was a man with principles just because principles were all around him. Kurtz was dependent on that kind neighbor to keep him noble.
The Kurtz in trans .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... that pole," outside of Kurtzs house and Kurtz had been hunting with tribes in the area (Conrad, 73). When Marlow arrived Kurtz, was ill and dying. Kurtz cried out the words "The horror! The horror!" right before he died (Conrad, 85). These words cried out by Kurtz as he died created the most important passages in Heart of Darkness. The way this one passage is interpreted determines how the book is interpreted.
One interpretation is that the "horror" is death and Kurtz i .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... his health for the
remaining years of his life. Marlow's journey into the Congo, like
Conrad's journey, was also meaningful. Marlow experienced the violent
threat of nature, the insensibility of reality, and the moral
darkness.
We have noticed that important motives in Heart of Darkness
connect the white men with the Africans. Conrad knew that the white
men who come to Africa professing to bring progress and light to
"darkest Africa" have themselves been depri .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... different culture that exists out there.
Throughout the book, Conrad, via Marlow's observations, reveals to the reader the naive mentality shared by every European. Marlow as well, shares this naiveté in the beginning of his voyage. However, after his first few moments in the Congo, he realizes the ignorance he and all his comrades possess. We first recognize the general naiveté of the Europeans when Marlow's aunt is seeing him for the last time before he embarks on his journey. .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... man's defecation, hands and feet were chopped off for their rings, men were lined up behind each other and shot with one cartridge , wounded prisoners were eaten by maggots till they die and were then thrown to starving dogs or devoured by cannibal tribes." (Meyers 100.)
Conrad's "Diary" substantiated the accuracy of the conditions described in Heart of Darkness: the chain gangs, the grove of death, the payment in brass rods, the cannibalism and the human skulls on the fence posts. Conrad did not exagge .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... the fact remains that the Whites may be considered the savages for working these Blacks to death. However, as ironic as it may seem, their view was that the natives were there to be conquered. All in all, Conrad writes about civilization versus savagery. Through the novel, he implies that the setting of laws and codes that would encourage men to achieve higher standards is what creates civilization. It prevents men from reverting back to their darker tendencies. Civilization, however, must be learned. L .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... he devalues something like the Europeans do. It is this understanding of the insignificance of meaningless labels that the Europeans had, and conversely the importance of his making things meaningful that will lead to Marlows enlightenment. Since he is not corrupted by the materialistic ideals of the rest of them, he is able to see the situation with an objective view and reflect upon it. Also, he feels a certain bond between the natives when he sees them dancing about on the shore, which shows that M .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... of ruthless power, of craven terror"(p.153). All of human nature, evoked from the lack of constraints he found in the wilderness, fought within him until the end - when he sums up his struggles and observations of human nature with one phrase: "The horror! The horror!" Marlow admires Kurtz for these words, because Kurtz had learned and reached a conclusion on human nature in his last moment of life, and, as Marlow says, "the most you can learn from [life] is some knowledge of yourself...." (p. 154). Mar .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... Congo professing to bring progress and light to "darkest Africa" have themselves been deprived of the sanctions of their European social orders. The supposed purpose of the colonizers' traveling into Africa was to civilize the natives. Instead the Europeans took the natives' land away from them by force. They burned their towns, stole their property, and enslaved them. "Enveloping the horror of Kurtz is the Congo Free State of Leopold II, totally corrupt though to all appearances established to last for a .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... immense double doors standing ponderously ajarh(13). Moreover, the older woman at the offices was like a gatekeeper of gDarkness.h These descriptions indicated that the real darkness was in greedy whites, who were without moral sense, thus dark-skinned natives were victims of darkness of whites. Through his work in the Congo, Marlow found only gsurface truths,h which had been adulterated and concealed by European culture, not core truths. The reason why gthe meaning of episode [for him is] not insid .....
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Heart Of Darkness
.... Marlow to never reveal the truth about Mr. Kurtzs life and death. The first woman that we meet is Marlows aunt. She is the one paying for his trip to the Congo, yet Marlow does not respect her views. Marlow says, "She talked about weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways, till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable... Its queer how out of touch with women are" (Conrad 11). In essence, Marlow is saying that women are out of touch with reality, even though it is clear .....
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Heart Of Darkness - Colonization
.... the pamphlet, the reader is bombarded with disturbing imagery of Irish people and their children being treated like livestock raised for consumption. The narrator refers to the parents of the children as "savages" (NA 1050) and "breeders" (NA 1051) and "dams" (NA 1048). Then he compares the children to "roasting pigs" (NA 1050) and continues as if he were writing a cook book. He speaks of how delicious he thinks these infants would be "whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled" (NA 1049) or served .....
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Heart Of Darkness - Ignorance And Racism
.... glance, with the complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages" (Conrad 19). Achebe, also, detected Conrad's frequent use of unorthodox name calling, "Certainly Conrad had a problem with niggers. His in ordinate love of that word itself should be of interest to psychoanalysts" (Achebe 258).
Conrad uses Marlow, the main character in the book, as a narrator so he himself can enter the story and tell it through his own philosophical mind. Conrad used "double speak" throughout his book. Upon arriving .....
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