...Heart of Darkness Essay Light and dark imagery is one element most commonly used in literature, and has held specific symbolic meanings for hundreds of years. Simply stated, light generally symbolizes good, while darkness symbolizes the complete opposite, evil. More specifically, Conrad uses detailed imagery of light and dark to show that white men can in fact be more savage than the natives. While the contrast of light and dark, white and black, and good and evil is a common theme in his novel, Conrad reverses the meanings of the two. In his story often the light is viewed as more menacing and evil than the darkness, and the white characters more spiteful than the black. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses light and dark imagery and the reversing of their regular meanings as a main focal point throughout the novel. Conrad establishes throughout this the theme that not everything is as it seems. Conrad uses light imagery as a symbol of civilization. Darkness is defined as the absence of light just like the black jungle is defined as the absence of white man’s civilization, a civilization full of corruption and evil. Conrad’s first description of Brussels is an example of this. “In a very few hours I arrived at a city that always made me think of a white sepulcher.” It is significant that Conrad describes the building as a white coffin, because the job there is sending men out to retrieve ivory, ultimately resulting in their death. This cycle of evil begins and ends in...
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...Throughout the two novels, Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” the common theme of oppression by using psychological methods prevails. Tess’ parents and Alec can control her by leveraging guilt as a way of victimization which ultimately seals her fate. Mr. Kurtz in” Heart of Darkness” takes control over the weaker African natives to force them into submission. Both stories have this underlying theme of power and domination resulting in feelings of slavery and victims of fate. “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” is a tale of the tragic life of Tess that results when she accidentally kills Prince, the family horse. Tess’ parents use the guilt that she feels to exploit her and force her to work for the family. Therefore, she encounters Alec, who ultimately rapes and impregnates Tess. Instead of Alec being condemned for his actions, Tess is publically criticized and cast aside for this act, even though she was the victim. The cruel hand of fate hangs over all the characters and actions of the novel, as Tess’ story is defined by the bad things that happen to her. Thomas Hardy himself, as the author of the book, naturally causes the many unfair coincidences and plot twists that beset Tess, however as the person telling the story, he also manages to appear as her only champion against an unjust world. Tess's difficult situations are described as mere sport for the "President of the People who will never die," which is very...
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...life is flashing before his eyes, and the horrors and savagery that he succumbed to are at last realized. He is literally horror-struck by the actions he committed throughout his journey in the Congo. Truthfully though, there are many interpretations that can be made from this last utterance. Once Marlow, the main protagonist in the story, arrives on his steamboat to pick up Kurtz, he is greeted by this Russian man who lives with him. This strange man who idolized Kurtz informs Marlow of the deteriorating mind of Kurtz, who would disappear for weeks at a time, and forced the natives to perform very savage rituals to worship him. The Russian man, nicknamed the Harlequin, also idolizes Kurtz as much as the natives, mentioning to Marlow that Kurtz has “Enlarged my mind.” (Conrad 2.37) Kurtz is a man who had a very interesting background, but was mentally consumed by the darkness and...
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...Mashanna Hartley Mr. Robert Hunter APOL 104 3 October 2015 Critical Thinking Paper What is Secular Humanism? Secular Humanism is a compressive, nonreligious, and life stance incorporating natural philosophy, a cosmic outlook rooted in science, and a consequentialist ethical system (What). Secular Humanism uses science, intellect, and personal opinion to answer life’s most difficult questions. Paul Kurtz said, “Humanism cannot in any fair sense of the word apply to one who still believes in God as the source and creator of the universe,” (Noebel, p.444). The question of Origin Secular Humanism View: Matter always existed and given enough time, the end result is what you see. The Human Manifesto II, secular humanism finds no evidence to belief in supernatural. God is not necessary for morals and God does not answer mankind’s existence, according to atheists, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins (Weiner and Gutierrez, p.64). Man is a machine, according to naturalism. Man has little or no control over his/her existence. Since man is considered to be a machine, if the machine breaks, the man’s life is over (Weiner and Gutierrez, p.65). Christian View: Christians believes God created universe and all life (Genesis 1:1-25). Christians believe animals will change to adapt to their surroundings (Genesis 1;11-12, 21-25). God created us in His own image (Genesis 1:11-12). God made man out of dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7) and made woman from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:22). She...
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...transformation within the wilderness, Marlow stated, “I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know….it echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core” (Conrad, 53). Marlow is identifying that Kurtz’s unconscious desires surfaced and were encouraged by his ID, “psychological drives” (Rathus 402), upon entering the secrecy the dense Congo wilderness provided, which influenced Kurtz to commit and allow the atrocities around him to occur. Jackie Watts wrote on the idea of unconsciousness through Freud’s perspective and stated, “Freud did not see the unconscious as readily accessible to conscious awareness but as an ever present tension to our conscious way of being.” Due to his lack of morals and heartlessness as implied by the description of him being “hollow at the core”, Kurtz did not have the tension Freud described between our conscious and unconscious way of being. Therefore he was easily swayed and gave into his unconscious desires when he felt secluded and free from the judgement of society within the wilderness. These forbidden thoughts Kurtz had, began to consume him and eventually resulted in his death or the “wreaking havoc on his mental and physical health” (Roberts). Marlowe, however had uneasy feelings and did experience the conscious tension that Freud described previously. Marlowe stated, “The others might have been asleep, but I was awake” (Conrad 24). Marlowe is letting the reader know that he was spiritually aware of the horror occurring...
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...GROUP INTERACTION JOURNAL ARTICLES Compiled by Lawrence R. Frey University of Colorado at Boulder Aamodt, M. G., & Kimbrough, W. W. (1982). Effects of group heterogeneity on quality of task solutions. Psychological Review, 50, 171-174. Abbey, D. S. (1982). Conflict in unstructured groups: An explanation from control-theory. Psychological Reports, 51, 177-178. Abele, A. E. (2003). The dynamics of masculine-agentic and feminine-communal traits: Findings from a prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 768-776. Abele, A., Gendolla, G. H. E., & Petzold, P. (1998). Positive mood and in-group—out-group differentiation in a minimal group setting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1343-1357. Aberson, C. L., Healy, M., & Romero, V. (2000). Ingroup bias and self-esteem: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 157-173. Abougendia, M., Joyce, A. S., Piper, W. E., & Ogrodniczuk, J. S. (2004). Alliance as a mediator of expectancy effects in short-term group psychotherapy. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 8, 3-12. Abraham, A. (1973a). Group tensions as measured by configurations of different self and transself aspects. Group Process, 5, 71-89. Abraham, A. (1973b). A model for exploring intra and interindividual processes in groups. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 23, 3-22. Abraham, A. (1974-1975). Processes in groups. Bulletin de Psychogie, 28, 746-758. Abraham, A., Geffroy, Y., & Ancelin-Schutzenberger...
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...Chapter 1 SIGMUND FREUD AN INTRODUCTION Sigmund Freud, pioneer of Psychoanalysis, was born on 6th May 1856 in Freiberg to a middle class family. He was born as the eldest child to his father’s second wife. When Freud was four years old, his family shifted and settled in Vienna. Although Freud’s ambition from childhood was a career in law, he decided to enter the field of medicine. In 1873, at the age of seventeen, Freud enrolled in the university as a medical student. During his days in the university, he did his research on the Central Nervous System under the guidance of German physician `Ernst Wilhelm Von Brucke’. Freud received his medical degree in 1881and later in 1883 he began to work in Vienna General Hospital. Freud spent three years working in various departments of the hospital and in 1885 he left his post at the hospital to join the University of Vienna as a lecturer in Neuropathology. Following his appointment as a lecturer, he got the opportunity to work under French neurologist Jean Charcot at Salpetriere, the famous Paris hospital for nervous diseases. So far Freud’s work had been entirely concentrated on physical sciences but Charcot’s work, at that time, concentrated more on hysteria and hypnotism. Freud’s studies under Charcot, which centered largely on hysteria, influenced him greatly in channelising his interests to psychopathology. In 1886, Freud established his private practice in Vienna specializing in nervous diseases...
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