..."Now, we must all fear evil men. But, there is another kind of evil which we must fear most... And that is the indifference of good men" (Duffy). This quote by Troy Duffy makes a statement about an evil that one often overlooks. Throughout history, evil men have committed horrendous crimes deserving of death. However, people often forget that the apathetic man has something to be blamed for. In Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, he shows how good men become desensitized and leave all logic, decency, and concern when removed from civilization. Conrad's novel illustrates a plethora of themes about man when placed in such a primitive environment. In his novel, Conrad uses the literary elements of symbolism, characterization, and setting to illustrate the theme that humans become depraved when removed from civilization. The literary concept of symbolism is exemplified in people, places, and things in order to portray how depraved humans can become. One primary example is the heads of the "criminals" atop of poles outside Kurtz's hut (Conrad). This symbolizes Kurtz's physical and mental downgrade from domesticated to savage. He has figuratively and literally become an animal at this point in time. He is so broken off from decency that he no longer cares how violent and brash his actions are. Furthermore, there is another example...
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...into self. The importance of restraint is stressed throughout Heart of Darkness. In the novel Marlow is saved by restraint, while Kurtz is doomed by his lack of it. Marlow felt different about Africa before he went, because the colonization of the Congo had "an idea at the back of it." Despite an uneasiness, he assumed that restraint would operate there. He soon reaches the Company station and receives his first shock, everything there seems meaningless. He sees no evidence here of that "devotion to efficiency" that makes the idea work. In the middle of this, Marlow meets a "miracle". The chief accountant has the restraint that it takes to get the job done. He keeps up his appearance and his books are in "apple-pie order." Marlow respects this fellow because he has a backbone. "The cannibals some of those ignorant millions, are almost totally characterized by restraint." They outnumber the whites "thirty to five" and could easily fill their starving bellies. Marlow "would have as soon expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield." The cannibal’s action is "one of those human secrets that baffle probability." This helps Marlow keep his restraint, for if the natives can possess this quality Marlow feels he certainly can. Kurtz is the essence of the lack of restraint Marlow sees everywhere. Kurtz has "kicked himself loose from the earth." "He owes no allegiance to anything except those animal powers, those various lusts, and...
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...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 this town. Describing the town as white is misleading, because the town holds an obvious feeling of death. Conrad makes...
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...When Kurtz arrived in the Inner Circle, he realized the control that he could potentially have over the natives, so he took advantage of it. He began manipulating the natives into practically becoming his slaves and then proceeded to mistreat them if they did not do what he asked. The natives were forced to leave behind any sort of rituals and beliefs in order to follow Kurtz’s demands. This forceful act of colonization is seen many times throughout this novella. At the beginning of the book, Marlow had been sent overseas to Africa to end the evil that Kurtz had been enforcing. Marlow began his journey thinking that Africa was a foreign, bare piece of land, but in all reality there were functioning lives there. When Marlow’s ship arrived, his mindset changed and he realized that they were literally inside the “heart of darkness.” “Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining clamour, modulated in savage discords...
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...Darkness inside Human Mind Joseph Conrad, who wrote The Heart of Darkness, once said, “The mind of man is capable of anything.” What he is telling us was that a person will do any actions by any means regardless of its consequence. There is always an evil side living inside the human soul, and this evil side breaks out during times when there is a difference in culture; for example, during World War II, Nazis killed any Jews that appeared in Europe, and their reason was Jews were not considered Germans, and they were believed to be disloyal and untrustworthy. This shows the difference in culture that created darkness inside the mind of the Nazis, who told them to do unimaginable things. The madness, fear, imperialism, death, escape, and difference in culture are the main theme of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now; although they were written in different times, settings, and purposes, they both express how savage the human mind can be when he confronts with darkness. Both the novel Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now address the idea of imperialism. Imperialism, defining as a country’s political, military, and economic domination over another, is the theme that talk thoroughly in both works. For instance, in Heart of Darkness, richer nations are robbing the goods in Africa, such as ivory and slaves, while in Apocalypse Now America is trying to subvert Vietnam from being Communism. A modern example that relate to the idea of imperialism is America showing assistant...
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...the conflict between North and South Vietnam because its policy makers feared the spread of communism. American young men were sent by the thousands every month to Vietnam. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives. The main theme of both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now are based on a man that is known as a great military leader, and has a dossier full of accomplishments. Kurtz, which has been overtaken with darkness. His mind is not that of someone who is thinking straight. Kurtz in Heart of Darkness turns out to be emaciated and weak when Marlow first gets to see him and Kurtz in Apocalypse Now a strong figure with a sinister presence when encountered by Willard. In Apocalypse Now Kurtz is in Cambodia with the Montagnards, who treat him like a God. It is said that Kurtz methods have become “unsound”, and that he needs to be terminated. Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness both illustrate the futility of war and war’s damaging psychological effects on the human mind. Marlow and Willard, two men who each narrate the book or movie are overtaken by their interest in Kurtz and what he has...
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...Heart of Darkness is about humanities’ self-interest. Throughout the book, greed and plotting eventually lead to paranoia and self-doubt. Paranoia, self-doubt, and mental instability are inevitable when greed takes over people’s lives. In this way, Kurtz was affected exactly in this manner. Marlow went into this adventure looking to make money to survive, but more so he was looking for adventure. When he was little, he dreamed about exploring the world and was his true intention for going on this exploration. Marlow had a feeling that the Company was all about the money, however, Marlow was looking for something more than the money. He wanted to help civilize foreign lands. In speaking with his aunt, Marlow got the first hint as to what the Company was all about, however he joined the adventure anyway, “She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways’ till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit.” The Company was lucky to have Marlow in their expedition. Among the greedy, plotting workers, Marlow was a kind man, taking everything in without any bad intentions. Marlow felt terrible about the way he saw the natives treated. While on board Nellie, he regretted that the boiler operator was stuck on board the ship rather than out dancing with his fellow natives. Throughout the story, Marlow mentioned how bad he felt for the “slaves” also. He even gave one slave something to eat. All the petty...
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...Shirley Reigada Professor Frongillio HUM2250 October 5, 2014 The film substitutes Vietnam for Africa in setting but leaves, with the exception of some characters, the novel’s basic structure intact. Do you agree that the movie retains the key elements and core meanings of the novel? Is the movie a literal, loose, or intermediate adaptation? What are the major changes and are they significant? Is the movie more political or mythical, prosaic or poetic, realistic or formalist, in your point of view? In the film Apocalypse Now by F.F Coppola, and the adaption of Heart of the Darkness was updated to fit in the movie with the environment and the time frame. Also being true to many of the events, characters, themes and the ideas presented in the story. I wondered what ideas would have changed and what indicated the director, and even the society as one, felt about the concepts that were no longer satisfactory....
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...encounter fog, which obscures their vision more and more, the deeper they get into the jungle. As Brandon Kershner states, Conrad seems to play on “the interest in immediate perception, especially in difficult conditions for visual perception and comprehension…; the interest in smoke, fog, mist, and so forth as an integral part of the subject’s representation” (Kershner). One morning when the sailors get close to the heart of the jungle where Kurtz lies, they wake up to “a white fog, very warm and more blinding than the night.” (35) Just as Marlow and the other sailors cannot see clearly in the jungle, they fail to see...
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...David Santamaria Ms. Pasonelli AP English 7 November 2015 Light vs Darkness: The Irony within Heart of Darkness Through history there has always been a battle between good and evil, light and dark, the innocent and the guilty. Many times authors, spanning over a wide range of genres have embedded this battle into their stories. Joseph Conrad, did just that in his creation of Heart of Darkness. Amongst the deep jungles of the Congo River, Conrad places Marlow into a world where darkness dominates everyday life. Marlow throughout the story is seen to have pure intentions and can be seen as a symbol of light, whereas Kurtz who has been amongst the heart of the Congo for various years, can be seen as the embodiment of darkness. Now, the distinction of light and dark, good and evil, innocent and guilty, is not only represented between Marlow and Kurtz, but also by Kurtz’s intended and his mistress of the darkness from Africa. Conrad in the depiction of these characters uses irony to show that light is representative of ignorance and naivety whereas darkness is the embodiment of the truth and experience. To be naïve is to show lack of experience. This trait lies at the heart of every man and woman as well as boy and girl. Naivety goes hand in hand with ignorance and can often be seen as an embodiment of innocence as well as purity, which are representative of light. Marlow within Heart of Darkness, ultimately proves to be naïve as well as ignorant throughout various times...
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...chapter two of Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, he begins to reveal each characters true feelings about Kurtz. Conrad’s use of similes, personification, and aphorisms, display Marlow’s and other character’s emotions in a less obvious way. “I am as harmless as a little child, but I don’t like being dictated to” (33). This quote is used to help the author explain the uncle’s sensitivity towards being told what to do. Conrad compares the uncle to a child because as an adolescent all people are constantly being told what they should and should not do whether good or bad. Conrad’s use of personification throughout chapter two shows not only the positive effect that the forest is having on Kurtz but the negative as well. “For me it crawled towards Kurtz ---exclusively; but when the steam pipes… deeper into the heart of darkness” (36). The quote used on page 36 is saying that slowly but surely Kurtz is becoming evil; he is following the darkness of the forest instead of staying in the light where he belongs. The author’s use of personification helps each reader of the novella develop a greater understanding about the type of person Kurtz is. The author uses aphorisms within the entire novel to talk about the truth of life within the jungle and how it has affected Marlow. “Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest of beginnings…. ---what is it? half-a-crown a tumble” (35-36). The past paragraph for on pages 35 and 36 tells the truth about karma and represents...
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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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...texts contain binary opposites connoting culture, which is exactly what Walcott’s “The Gorilla wrestles with the superman” represents. The ‘gorilla’ represents the black native man; strong, natural and powerful which ‘wrestles’ with the superman, in this case British colonists. The image of the ‘gorilla’ representing the black man suggests a hint of racism - gorillas are primitive and often untameable. However the image of ‘superman’ is also not all-powerful, the idea of a superman is unrealistic. This image is a binary opposite, although these two representatives are both mighty in their own right, they possess very few similarities - natural versus supernatural. Walcott struggles with his own culture, his recurrent themes focus on dichotomy of Caribbean and Western civilisation. These seemingly opposing backgrounds cause a cross-cultural identity issue. Walcott’s split ethnicity connotes a ‘wrestle’ and struggle within himself. The effects of colonisation is a theme that can be explored within ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ‘Translations’. In both texts there is a ‘wrestle’ between the colonised and colonists despite containing opposite settings. Colonisation dehumanises the colonised and colonists themselves, to a varying extent, yet there is evidence of this in a three texts. In Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’, Kurtz the protagonist was notoriously known for his vicious and immoral actions. Marlow’s description of Kurtz...
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...Sparknotes – Dorian Gray • Written by Oscar Wilde in 1890. • Devoted to a school of thought and a mode of sensibility known as aestheticism, Wilde believed that art possesses an intrinsic value—that it is beautiful and therefore has worth, and thus needs serve no other purpose, be it moral or political. • Dorian is a cultured, wealthy, and impossibly beautiful young man who immediately captures Basil’s artistic imagination • Although Lord Henry is a self-proclaimed hedonist who advocates the equal pursuit of both moral and immoral experience, he lives a rather staid life. • The Victorians believed that art could be used as a tool for social education and moral enlightenment, as illustrated in works by writers such as Charles Dickens and George Gissing. The aestheticism movement, of which Wilde was a major proponent, sought to free art from this responsibility. • “We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us.” • The Picture of Dorian Gray has often been compared to the famous German legend of Faust. The legend tells of a learned doctor who sells his soul to the devil in return for knowledge and magical abilities. Although Dorian Gray never contracts with the devil, his sacrifice is similar: he trades his soul for the luxury of eternal youth. • He is the last Lord Kelso's grandson. His mother was a Devereux, Lady Margaret Devereaux. Poor chap was killed in a duel at Spa a few months after the marriage. They...
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...measurements of Marlow’s head and saying that what happens to men in the congo is “psychologically interesting.” From this point forward, when the reader has glimpses into Marlow's mind, there are black to white transformations in his opinions, feelings, and subconscious. Marlow’s physical journey into the darkening jungle illustrates how he is changing psychologically. At the start of his journey, Marlow is mentally sound, emotionally sensitive, and personally humble. By his diction and actions, the reader can see that his mind is clear and that he is prepared for his journey. In his first testing moment, Marlow steps into the shade and is appalled when he sees overworked and abused natives lying moribund on the ground. This scene shows that Marlow feels for humanity and that he is starting to realize the hypocrisy of the company here and questioning his own morals in following them. Additionally, because Marlow knows it is essentially by chance that he received the job, he is humble in his...
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