Heart Of Darkness Essays (Examples)

Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now
Heart of Darkness

The film version of Conrad's famous novel Heart of Darkness by Francis Ford Coppola entitled Apocalypse Now has been acclaimed as an important and insightful film. The novel is based on the early colonial invasion of Africa, while the film version deals with the context and the reality of the Vietnam War.

However, the film follows the major themes and underlying meaning of the novel and in fact expands on the novel by bringing these themes into the modern context. Coppola's film is essentially successful in capturing the atmosphere of the book and in portraying the conflict between good and evil in the human heart -- especially with regards to the character of Kurtz.

It should be noted that Coppola saw the film as much more than just another movie about the Vietnam conflict and the horror and confusion of that…

Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now
Comparing and Contrasting Coppola's Apocalypse with Conrad's Darkness

hile Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now is framed by the music of The Doors, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, upon which the film is based, uses the narration of Marlow as a framing device for the murky tale of the "horror" that hides in the human heart. The difference in framing devices has more to do with the difference in medium and inspiration than it does in overall meaning (Greiff 188) -- and yet the music of The Doors provides a much bleaker context for the narrative that Coppola explores in Apocalypse Now than the stylishly literary and ultimately ironic narrative woven by Conrad. Coppola, in fact, updated the narrative in a number of other ways -- namely in the shift of time and setting from the Congo at the turn of the century to…

Similarities among the Characters

The Russian trader in the "Heart of Darkness" approximates Enoch in "Things Fall Apart" in providing the spark the leads to the explosion of the narratives. The Russian trader tells Marlow about Kurtz's secret, which leads Marlow to confront Kurtz. Enoch violates sacred rites that result in the burning of the church, the imprisonment of tribal leaders, Okonkwo's rebellion and suicide. The general manager in Conrad's novel approximates the district commissioner in Achebe's novel. The pilgrims and cannibals in Conrad's work are also a parallel of Achebe's court messengers, who decide to obey white colonizers. Marlow can be compared with Mr. rown in their kindness and tolerance of the natives, despite their superiority to these natives. And Kurtz's African mistress in Conrad's work is comparable to Okonkwo's favorite daughter, Ezinma, in Achebe's novel and as the only female characters of significance to the works.

Comparison etween…

e must be cautious yet. The district is closed to us for a time. Deplorable! Upon the whole, the trade will suffer. […] Look how precarious the position is (Conrad 1902, p. 143).
Otherwise, he notes, the ivory Kurtz collected is perfectly good. But in the face of months of strange rumors, the Company's refusal to check his activities earlier amounts to moral complicity; as Phil Zimbardo notes in a different context, management "effectively gave [Kurtz] permission to do these things, and [he] knew nobody was ever going to come [up the river]" to take that permission away (Zimbardo 2008).

In this, the system itself becomes the mechanism through which Kurtz becomes corrupt. Conrad hints at the moral rot spreading beneath the Company's apparently well-ordered surface operations throughout Heart of Darkness. The doctor impassively tests his "theories" about those going upriver rather than attempting to dissuade them from the journey;…

Heart of Darkness
In Conrad's Heart of Darkness the author reveals the theme of mans natural inclination toward savagery by using diction and imagery. The author's descriptive detail paints a picture of an unfriendly and dangerous environment populated by uncivilized natives as the party makes its way into the interior of Africa on the Congo River. Throughout the second part of this story Conrad is developing the theme of civilization being left behind as the Jungle grows dark and the party is attacked by native Africans. The men are entering a new world where the rules of the society they know do not apply and the dark side of human nature is being revealed.

Marlow describes the strange world of plants, animals, and silence they encounter as they go up river in these terms, "It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at…

Africa suffers from both political instability and economic devastation that has been at least partially brought upon it by European imposition. Europe created nation-states based upon arbitrary combinations of tribes, and undid ancient methods of farming and tribal ways to create markets for European goods. Colonialism never created a sustainable economic system for the good of Africans. Culturally, the fusion of Christianity and European mores and Africa's tribes has created more discord than harmony.
Perhaps the saddest legacy of Africa is its invisibility -- the narrative voice of Heart of Darkness ends with Marlow telling a lie, just as the American media seldom shines a searing light upon the injustices in Rwanda and Darfur until it is too late. Today, America's Marlows still show more interest in 'our name' -- the implications of African policy for the West, such as the current AIDS epidemic in the region. Africa still suffers…

This is because Conrad's vivid descriptions of the wild African jungles and meadows made it known that much of Africa remained untouched by human hands. The second term to be added is the adjective rich; even though this may be contradictory to the term poverty mentioned earlier, it is actually used here to mean the untapped and abundant natural resources that the continent possesses. These resources, one of which is ivory as mentioned in the novel, have largely remained out of reach of humans for a long time. This is why it can be said that Africa is rich (in resources).
From the novel "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, I found that I would have to add and change a few more terms. The first term I would include is the adjective complex. This term would be used to replace the term I used earlier in describing Africa, which…

There is more going on between Marlow and Kurtz because of Marlow's desire to know Kurtz. There is a curiosity there that allows Marlow to be open to Kurtz on some level. He is fascinated by his success and searches him out. He may begin his journey as a man looking for another man but Gillon maintains that Marlow's search represents a "search for truth" (Gillon). This search reveals the depth of the evil he discovers. John Jervis aggress with this notion, adding that the novel explores darkness. He states that "Africa is dark even in the sunlight; but the darkness is the darkness of the primeval, not the darkness of evil" (Jervis 68). He also explains that Africa, in all her splendor, is "voiceless" (68) and beyond good or evil. Africa "just is" (68), according to Jervis and she "may even have been the instrument of Kurtz's downfall; but…

It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity -- like yours -- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar." (onrad 105).
This indicates a gradual shift of viewpoint from the Western, or civilized, to the uncivilized. In this, Marlow's viewpoint shift foreshadows his meeting with Kurtz. The latter is iconic of the completion of this viewpoint. The reader is therefore prepared for an increased contact with darkness as Marlow travels deeper into the physical darkness of Africa towards the ultimate heart of the matter personified in Kurtz. The decay of Kurtz's station indicates not only his absence, but also his lingering influence during the time when he was present at the station. It is central to the novel to note that the barbarian nature of the…

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad [...] roll of women in this novella. How are they represented? What sort of comments are made about women "in general"? Women in "Heart of Darkness" play an important and distinctive role in the tale. They represent civilization, and the lack of it far away in the jungles of Africa, where the "darkness" lies in wait for every man.
WOMEN IN HEART OF DARKNESS

Women in the novel "The Heart of Darkness" seem to fill a very small role, but in actuality, the women in the novel serve quite a vital purpose. At first, "The Intended" seems enigmatic and stereotypical of women at the turn of the 20th century. She is "out of it," and the men believe she should remain so. "Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it -- completely. They -- the women I mean --…

Conrad explores the vileness of imperialism in a cloak of goodwill with various approaches to the way in which Europeans and Africans are viewed in this novel.
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad which has a strong autobiographical tone and discusses the dark side of imperialism with an underlying irony. Heart of Darkness was based on Conrad's journey to the elgian Congo in 1890 where the Africans were being exploited by the rich and powerful; it rummages into complex themes of how darkness and evil are so closely intertwined with imperialism (Arslanoglu). However, we cannot consider this novel an autobiographical account; rather, it raises and discusses the issue of good and evil in mankind.

Along other various themes in the novel, the underlying and strong theme is that of colonialism. How humans can so mercilessly make other people their slaves just because they have a different…

They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" (Conrad). These men were literally being worked to death to create a railroad that would only benefit the Europeans trying to bring goods to the coast to ship back to Europe. The Europeans did not care about the blacks and their culture, their families, and their way of life. They just saw them as something in the way of progress, like the jungle. Again, this shows the theme of the heart of darkness, and that heart is the evil and greed in the hearts of men who will treat people that way.
Conrad also shows how the natives' culture was changing because of the European influences and forced work and relocation. He writes, "On some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums,…

Kurtz is driven to madness by the imperialistic attitudes of those around him, and his own greed for money via the ivory trade. He spends his life in the jungle, searching for ivory and coming to know the natives, who think he is a white God. He represents the very worst of imperialism, because he comes to know and understand the natives, and still he takes advantage of them. He loves their hero worship, and he trades for ivory with them, but he is still using them and leaving them with little or nothing in return, just as the Belgians leave the Congo when they have taken all they can get from the country and the people.
The novel also illustrates how jaded the Europeans are, and how they take the natives for granted, seeing them as little more than animals or "things" to serve them. This is illustrated when…

He makes the reader aware of these great changes by showing the wild backcountry, how the natives live, and how they are reacting to the Belgians in their midst. The backcountry Marlow travels through is sinister, and the natives become more sinister as well. These natives represent the evil they are fighting against and graphically illustrate what it has done to their culture. They have become violent and frightening because of the violence and fear tactics that have been used against them.
In addition, Kurtz goes mad at his outpost in the jungle, and his madness is a result of the imperialistic attitudes of the Europeans. A companion of Kurtz says of him, "You don't know how such a life tries a man like Kurtz'" (Conrad 54). He spends years wandering in the jungle, trading for ivory, and learning about the natives and their customs, and he comes to be…

Heart Darkness
The Postcolonial Landscape in Heart of Darkness

Published in 1899, the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is to this date described as an absolutely critical text in expanding the scholarly discourse on colonialism and its inherently related forces of racism, exploitation and ethnocentrism. By its intent, one finds a text that delivers an unflinching portrayal of the clearly abusive, unethical and racially-justified atrocities fueled by both the greed of imperialism and the sense of ethnic superiority shared by European opportunities in the postcolonial landscape of the African continent. The discussion hereafter will deal with these themes as they permeate the text by Joseph Conrad. But the discussion must also consider the reality that the text by Conrad is itself produced by a European writing just as the era of colonial expansion was drawing to a close. Though the author would write the text based on his…

Heart of Darkness advances and withdraws as in a succession of long dark waves borne by an incoming tide. The waves encroach fairly evenly on the shore, and presently a few more feet of sand have been won. But an occasional wave thrusts up unexpectedly, much further than the others; even as far, say, as Kurtz and his Inner Station"- Albert J. Guerard."
In Conrad's Heart of Darkness Marlow, the chief character, represent the absoluteness of Imperialism. Marlow as a character recognizes the evil that contrary Imperialism has caused and concludes it is truly needless. hen Marlow states, "I had got a heavenly mission to civilize you," he deliberates his moral intent to aid the Africans advance and headway. In addition, when he says, "I was an impostor," Marlow identifies the actuality that he is an intruder into a foreign land, yet he sticks to his virtuous values.

Marlow notice…

Heart of Darkness century has passed since the publication of Heart of Darkness and the verdict still remains out on Joseph Conrad's overall thoughts on imperialism and its associated problem of racism. Many critics believe that Conrad wrote his book to adamantly rally against expansionism and the evils it brought. Other literary professionals question the vagueness and inconsistencies within the book and wonder about the strength of Conrad's beliefs or even if he was as imperialistic and racist as his fellowmen. Was he supporter of colonialism and a racist as some critiques report? Perhaps, he was he actually trying to criticize colonialism, but did not come across strong enough because he was a product of his times or was playing to a certain audience?
In 1899, when Heart of Darkness was first published, both Europe and America were well on their way to building empires in other parts of the…

Heart of Darkness
Betrayal is an important theme in Joseph Conrad's the Heart of Darkness, and it is one of the most important themes in the book. Both Marlow and Kurtz betray each other, and show the consequences of betrayal on each other.

Betrayal is a regular theme in Conrad's writing, as this critic says: "Conrad's thematics of coercion, isolation, and betrayal; the complicated relations among author, narrator, and character" (Wollaeger xiv). Betrayal causes anger, disappointment, and misunderstanding, and Kurtz' betrayal of himself, and the natives create all of these things.

Kurtz betrayed the other white men in the Congo when he disappeared and lived with the natives. He betrayed Marlow when he was not the man Marlow thought he was, and Marlow betrayed him when he realized that to take Kurtz' side, or the side of the manager against Kurtz, was really to betray his own dreams and illusions.…

Too, though, Africa is not only dark and mysterious, it is a lonely place for a westerner. The climate is far from comforting, the mode of transportation strange and unwieldy, and certainly, the lack of stability in government and economics both made it easy for many British to become wealthy, as well as to hoard resentment towards such a place. If we also think of the insects, constantly buzzing, spreading infection, we essentially have Mother Nature, at least in the geographic biography, also acting as an agent of contagion and mistrust -- perhaps even the contagion causing even more blatant sexism?

Others have suggested that the women in Heart of Darkness clearly represent death and this idea of contagion. We can look at Kurtz's African mistress as she embodies the "dead" African landscape. In fact, as we meet her, Marlow notes:

And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon…

Anticolonialism in Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness offers a complex look at the effects of colonialism and imperialism in the nineteenth century, such that different scholars have alternately interpreted its message to be one of either pro- or anti- colonialism and imperialism, with either side of the debate finding ample evidence within the text to supports its conclusions. However, by examining critical work surrounding the text, as well as the novella itself, it will become clear that Conrad's novella make a complex, but ultimately discoverable, argument against colonialism and imperialism through Marlow's experiences in the Congo, even if those experiences are mediated through the language and belief systems underlying nineteenth century imperialism and colonialism.

Before exploring the text of Heart of Darkness in greater detail, it will be useful to examine both critical texts surrounding race and imperialism at the time of the novella's writing as…

(Sharrett Christopher)
Joseph Conrad makes it possible for his readers to see how human nature changes when it is presented with the concept of the other. hile the European model of civilization had been related to mercy, compassion, and goodwill towards others, matters proved to be otherwise at the moment when Conrad's European characters encountered the African population. hite people had apparently lost any sense of civilization, solely expressing their desire to dominate, exploit, torture, and dehumanize the black people that they had come across.

People are generally inclined to consider differences in race and species to be related to the concept of the other. From the early ages, mankind has been against differences of every kind, virtually expressing their desire to impose their power over the entities that had been different. There is much controversy around the colonization era, as most people in the present condemn the methods used…

3. After finishing the book? Why? After finishing the book I am not sure whether Conrad was saying that Marlow is going to become exactly the same as Kurtz or if he is wise enough now to know that he could become like Kurtz if he isn't careful in the jungle. However, at the end of the story Conrad says something about the men looking out over the Thames into an immense darkness, which makes me think that Conrad is implying that this kind of horror can take place anywhere because it is the darkness that is in all men and not in just an "uncivilized" place. Conrad seems to be saying that the uncivilized place resides inside of men and though their outwardly appearance may be well-kempt (like the accountant at the beginning of the story), this is just a nice facade for what is truly going on. However,…

Breaking on through to the Other Side and Passing Judgment in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now Redux: A River Journey to Hell and Back The river journeys in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Copolla’s Apocalypse Now Redux are journeys into Hell—journeys that provide revelations on the horror of the modern world. Marlowe and Willard represent two different takeaways from these journeys, however. Marlowe’s journey is up the Congo; Willard’s is up a fictional river into Cambodia. Both are looking for Kurtz, and for both Conrad and Coppola the jungle rivers serve as opportunities to reflect on the madness at the heart of modernity as it dares to dance with untamed wilderness without moral protection. Even Dante had the help of Virgil as the poet descended into Hell. In the river journeys in these two works, there is no moral guide, no moral protection, no moral mooring. Marlowe himself becomes…

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Joseph Conrads novella Heart of Darkness is a fictionalized account of real-life historical events that took place during the colonial era in Africa. The novel centers on the protagonist Charles Marlow, known throughout the book as Marlow. As Marlow travels deeper and deeper down the river on a mission for the Company, he becomes increasingly horrified and shocked by what he sees. Having witnessed first hand the insane cruelty of colonial oppression, Marlow completely reconsiders his own role in the world. Through Heart of Darkness, Conrad conveys anti-colonial sentiments, showing how racism and exploitation are detrimental to all human societies.
Topics
Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness is one of the most important works of literature you will be asked to encounter in your academic career. Because of this, you may need some tips on how to write about Heart of Darkness. At first, writing about famous novels like…

Heart of Darkness
It was written by Joseph Conrad. The story is set in London, but there is a large part of it that happened in Congo. The writer went to Congo in the year 1980, on June 12. The inspiration for his writing may have been derived from what Conrad experienced in Congo. At that time, Britain had the most influence and power in the world. The Britain Empire stretched throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. Joseph Conrad was born in 1857, in Ukraine. His original name was Jozef Konrad Teodor Korzeniowski. As the writer, Conrad was a foreigner who was looking out. He was neither of African nor British origin; hence he was an appropriate party for writing a story about Congo and Britain. After all, he had insight regarding both countries (Svensson).

Summary

According to Svensson, the novella clearly portrays the Imperialism of Europeans. The novella talks about…

Behavior of Two Main Characters From Two Different Books
There are both similarities and differences between the protagonists of the Novels 'Lord of the Flies" (Golding) and "Heart of Darkness" (Conrad). In each case we have the supposedly 'civilized' individual(s) degenerating into savagery. As well, other characters are involved and highly influenced by the protagonist(s). This report discusses these two books and what can be observed from comparing works of essentially different world perspectives -- one was published in 1902 and the other in 1954 -- and wholly different environments and situations. Just as a simple example, there were no airplanes in the time of Conrad's protagonist, vs. An airplane crash setting up the whole scenario for Golding's characters. This report analyses the character Kurtz from 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad, comparing him to Jack, a character in William Golding's famed novel 'Lord of the Flies'.

'Heart of Darkness',…

For example he often found himself wondering whether the Africans could not be considered humans equal to the whites since they experienced human emotions and issues too. At one point in the story, Marlow was surprised and curious as to why the cannibals accompanying him on the trip to see Kurtz never considered devouring him and the white pilgrims since they outnumbered the whites. This situation, as well as others throughout the story, often led him towards thinking deeply about these matters. Based on the novella, it is possible to describe Marlow in a few sentences. Basically, he could be described as a wandering seaman who loved to travel for its own sake and who often found himself thinking deeply about the peoples and places he visited. He was also an avid storyteller, who was able to vividly describe Africa's environment and peoples to a great extent.

Horror, the Horror:
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness vs. Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now

I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther -- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

The director Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam epic entitled Apocalypse Now makes a direct analogy in its symbolism as well as its plot structure with Joseph Conrad's famous 1899 novella about colonialism in the Belgian Congo entitled Heart of Darkness. This is most notable in the character played by Marlon Brando: Colonel Kurtz, who is named after Conrad's Kurtz, an important figure in a fictional ivory trading company in the Congo. Both works present white men that have, for…

" In more general terms, Conrad uses Marlow to give his tale, neither the full close of the plot of earlier fiction, nor James' more limited completeness in the formal structure, but a radical and continuing exposure to the incompleteness of experience and the impossibility of fully understanding it." (Watt, 1978)
The strength of subjectivity as far as perception was concerned is another modern theme. It is safe to state that Conrad managed to prove the profound importance of the subjective dimension in a very complex manner. The stream of consciousness and first person technique which he applied had as a result a process through which the reader completely identified with the inner life of the character.

Naturally all certainty and objectivity is lost in the process and not only does the reader not know where he is going, but he embraces the upcoming transformations as exciting surprises. From this…

Diasporic Identities: In Othello and Heart of Darkness
The issue of Diaspora is often associated with only a single culture, that of the Jews who were challenged by the secular and Islamic leaders of their "homeland" to flee for their lives and believe that they are in constant wandering upon the earth. Yet the concept of Diaspora is much broader than that, as individuals and groups often feel disconnected from their homeland both figuratively and really in literature and life. In the two works, Shakespeare's Othello and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness one can clearly see the literary expression of diasporic identities. This work will argue that each of these works, Othello and Heart of Darkness demonstrates the reality of the challenges one faces when one uproots him or herself from the origin culture and begins to wander the earth without a home and the feeling of security that the…

Here again, Conrad's latent racism is apparent.
The following passage also establishes Conrad's inherent racism: "I let him run on, this papier-mache' Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my forefinger through him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe." (Conrad, 42) First, the narrator "lets" him run on, implying that the had a position of power over him: He was in a place where he could either "let" him run on or stop him from doing so. This immediately implies superiority.

Second, by using the condescending term, "Mephistopheles," Conrad contrasts the qualities of the black man with Mephistopheles'. Here again, in using caustic wit, Conrad betrays his own racism.

Finally, of course, Conrad depicts the "nigger" as being empty inside in that the narrator could poke his forefinger through his very frame and find nothing but loose dirt. Here,…

Paradox of Imperialism as Presented in Heart of Darkness
Beginning in the 1500's, European countries explored the world and claimed large parts of it as their own. This was the beginning of the Age of Exploration, as first the Portuguese and Spanish, then the British, Dutch, French, and other Europeans raced to discover and claim new areas of the world. By the 1800's the Age of Exploration had settled into a system of Imperialism which maintained huge Empires for the economic benefit of the home countries in Europe. While the stated goal of creating such Empires was to bring civilization to uncivilized parts of the world, the need for raw materials combined with a commercial greed created a system that cruelly exploited indigenous peoples and raped whole territories of natural resources. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, paralleled this ultimate paradox of Imperialism by describing how a good man named Kurtz,…

Heart of Darkness
Conrad's themes embrace navigation, humanity and inspection

Descriptiveness, irony and imagery are also on board

The novel brings to light the "reverence and affection" (6)

Of an exalted character linked to the sea, but not a king or a lord

The novel also exposes the bigotry and bias of Marlow's kin

She wanted to "wean those millions from their horrid ways…" she said (9)

The aunt made Marlow "quite uncomfortable" -- her morality clearly wore thin

Later he saw"..black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees" all nearly dead

The sea, the darkness, the river and the mystery

The "foreign shores" and "foreign faces" that also "glide past" (9)

Fully illustrate the effectiveness of the novel's link to history

Because in this novel's time frame, colonialism was in its last gasp

Heart of Darkness explores endless days that seem more like night

It examines timeless concepts of…

Lars
Heart Issues

Lars appears to have strong issues of the heart. He is emotionally closed off and distant at the current time with his fiancee, Jennifer. This may be due to his conservative upbringing. It will be important to find out what type of environment he grew up in and what his role in the family was. His ambivalence about his upcoming marriage and his withdrawal from Jennifer may be due to actual or perceived disapproval from his conservative Lutheran parents about marrying a woman who is divorced. This rift, whether true or not, would cause a great strain for Lars' heart well-being. It may also be Lars' own disapproval of his pending marriage to a divorced woman. If this is the case, he may or may not actively realize it at this time.

Relational Issues

Lars appeared to function with relative ease and comfort in his relationship with…

Because of its strong ethical overtones and themes, Victor Hugo naturally gravitates towards imagery of light and darkness in Les Miserables. Light and darkness symbolize their respective moral poles, the binaries of good and evil, beneficence and maleficence, right and wrong. Drawing attention to ethical polarities helps the reader to better understand and appreciate moral ambiguity. The protagonist Jean Valjean epitomizes moral ambiguity, as the reader follows his journey from sin to salvation. Ultimately, Hugo shows the reader how formal systems of justice and institutions of law and order cannot accurately determine moral polarities; the human heart is far too complex. Using imagery of light and darkness, Hugo shows that most of life manifests in various shades of grey.
The Bishop is the first major symbol of light in Les Miserables, and is an overt representative of religious fortitude and spiritual salvation. “He gazed incessantly beyond this world through these…

Knowledge and the ability to learn, to think, and to analyze are terrible gifts, this interpretation says, not because they are not useful or powerful but because their power is both so capable of destruction and so limited in comparison with the giver/creator of this knowledge and ability.
The clear religious elements of "The Tyger" also have bearing on this message of true knowledge and its fearsome un-attainability. The querying voice of the speaker and the progression of the poem creates something of a narrative quest for knowledge, and "natural imagery" in Blake's work "invariably serves a prophetic purpose," according to one scholar (Altizer, p. 31). In this instance, however, what the tiger (an unusual yet strong natural image) prophesizes is only the terror and the futility of advancing further in the quest to understand the tiger's maker, i.e. God. The continued bafflement of the speaker and the awe (in…

Privacy" Does Not Love an explores darkness lurking beneath dom
James Adcox's novel Love Does Not is many things; a dystopian fantasy, a biting satire, a tale about the perversity of love. Yet it is also a scathing social commentary about the state of privacy in the world today -- and in America in particular -- in the wake of the burgeoning ar on Terror. Beneath the undercurrent of sex, intrigue, and murder, lies a pervasive sense of espionage and an abandonment of the right of individuals to enjoy basic civil liberties such as privacy. hen interpreted with this perspective, the novel is one in which characters and scenes are carefully constructed to illustrate the gradual eroding of the very laws that were initially formed to guarantee autonomy and an egalitarian, republican state as envisioned by the Founding Fathers. There are a number of salient similarities between these characters and…

plea to the hearts and minds of people who are being knowledgeable of the distinctive qualities and assert from the Episcopal Church. The charm from the Church tends to be realized all over our land. Its extensiveness of empathy for every situations of people, the highly convincing perspective regarding the joys of life, the liberty from peculiarity of practice and faith, have unveil the Episcopal Church to the awareness of a lot of people whose religious association have been interfered with or destabilized. e always come across some evident problem, Steve Klein (2007), which makes a lot of people not to join the Episcopal Church. The Church tends to be rather odd, or cold, or complex. It tends not to fulfill the condition that training which is done earlier results to majority anticipation in a church. The services are somehow rigid and obscure; the ways are complex; it has strange…

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Specifically it will discuss the self-discovery Marlow encounters on his journey through Africa. Marlow's journey from England to Africa and back to Europe is a journey of self-discovery and adventure. He encounters greed, savagery, and indifference along his journey, and he encounters prejudice, imperialism, and a new understanding of himself along the way, as well. In the end, he recognizes he is a changed man who no longer sees the world or himself in the same way.
Throughout the book, Marlow recognizes, as he looks back on his experiences, that he was on a journey of self-discovery on his trip to Africa. Literary critic Harold Bloom notes, "But Marlow reiterates often enough that he is recounting a spiritual voyage of self-discovery. He remarks casually but crucially that he did not know himself before setting out, and that he likes work for the chance it…

Thus, as Kurtz approached his death, he came upon the realization of this possibility -- a possibility that came true upon his 'defeat' (death). This realization was embodied in his exclamation, "The horror! The horror!" As he neared his death. Explicit violence was, evidently, just a "mask" that colonizers used to cover up their fears of the potential power and control of the natives over them (colonizers).
In the same vein, violence was also portrayed in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," although this was expressed implicitly through the inherent tendency of Africans to view women as the weaker and inferior sex. Okonkwo's behavior towards his wives and daughters showed this animosity between sexes in African culture. However, it was also implicitly shown in the novel how, despite their apparent submissiveness, the women in Okonkwo's life and in the Mbanta tribe showed strength of character and control over males more than the…

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Ivan Ilych and Marlow share much in common in terms of their dutiful service to an external bureaucracy, feeling stymied by that bureaucracy, and desiring deeper more meaningful spiritual experiences. At the same time, though, Ilych remains far more traditional than Marlow, whose open-mindedness earns him Kurtz's trust. Ilych is open-minded in terms of his willingness to see through superficiality and social facades, but he rarely sees beyond the mundane until the illness sets in. In fact, Ilych remains completely caught up in the rat race that defines ussian government work to the extent that promotions and salary raises make him "completely happy." Marlow, on the other hand, stares death in the face each day. He also encounters the faces of African people who shock him out of his mundane existence: "I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had…

Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness refers to a common European name for Africa, the 'dark continent.' The continent was dark because of the skin of the people who lived there -- but also because it was assumed to be immoral, dark, and clouded in nature. To Europeans it was a cipher, and thus Conrad's decision to call his book Heart of Darkness also refers to the unknowing view of the colonists. Although Marlowe's view of the Africans he meets is troubling and often racist in nature, Conrad's title alerts the reader to the fact that Marlowe's view is inherently biased and subjective. The inability of people in the book to see one another clearly in a cross-cultural fashion is manifest in the African submission to Kurtz but also in Marlowe's disgust with Africa. Africa is impenetrable to the Europeans, and Europe is impenetrable and dark to Africans. The heart…

British Imperialism Be Explained?
In the colonial period, Africa became the land of opportunity for Europeans who exploited the people and resources for profit. When Europeans went to Africa, home of black skinned people, they looked at the land as available to use as they wished. They never considered that this land belonged to its original inhabitants. Neither did they consider themselves thieves. They did not bother to think of black natives as human beings, but rather sought every way possible to use them to make money. Rather than openly admit their mercenary motives, whites assumed an attitude of superiority and declared that they were acting out of generosity to bring civilization and Christianity to primitive peoples. The thesis of this essay is that the colonial period in Africa was characterized by the arrogance of whites and atrocities committed against blacks. The focus will be on the British Empire and…

If they can change the fundamental beliefs of the tribe, then they can control the natives more easily: "The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. e were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Achebe 152). Confronted with change, individual members of Ibo society react differently. Those who stand to gain from change -- the outcasts, the oppressed -- welcome it. Those who have risen to positions of authority by following the old way -- Okonkwo, for example -- resist change. The battle between the old and the new is highlighted by the arrival of Christian missionaries and colonial authority. Okonkwo and Obierika recognize that many of their clansmen…

Brook Thomas: Preserving and Keeping Order by Killing Time in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"
Brook Thomas is fairly more complex in redefining lies in Preserving and Keeping Order by Killing Time in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'," even though he himself does it in a paragraph. Thomas aims on leading his readers from a restatement of the hatred of lies that Marlow had to an affirmation that Marlow trounces that hatred and accepts the condition that produces lies.

hile defining the process, Thomas redefines both the issues: "lies" and the reason for Marlow's hatred of them. He writes early in the paragraph: "So long as truth cannot fully be represented, lies become part of the truth of the world." (250)

Evidently, Thomas initially uses truth to denote "internal reality"; that which Marlow is concerned with, and which cannot be fully represented by anyone. Thereafter, he redefines it in his…

Everywhere there is the drumbeat of the natives, and the ominous reminder of the presence of untamed native life. Blackness is the dominant image of the Congo in Heart of Darkness -- whirls of black limbs, the black water -- all of which suggest that the environment is anathema and destructive to white civilization, as manifest in the persona of Kurtz. The natural beauty of the land, its colors, and the nuances of local cultures of tribes that would be perceptible to an Africa blur into a singular image of darkness in Conrad's prose.
Q4. Some critics argue that you can only fully understand a piece of literature if you understand the historical events that were ongoing when it was being written. Others argue that each piece of literature is independent of its historical context and you should not have to look for information outside the text to understand it.…

In the 20th century, both of these tactics were utilized to successfully gain independence for a number of countries. (Conrad 83 -- 149) (Hochschild 101 -- 164) (Gainty)
However, Africans also helped European efforts. This was accomplished by many individuals becoming actively involved in: the political, economic and military structure. Over the course of time, these activities divided entire nations against one another. Once this took place, is when the European powers were able to exercise greater amounts of control over its colonies. (Conrad 83 -- 149) (Hochschild 101 -- 164) (Gainty)

hat was the impact of European colonialism (overseas acquisition up to approximately the mid-1700s) and imperialism (overseas acquisition from the mid-1700s) in Africa?

The impact European colonialism was to exercise direct control over entire regions. This was a part of an effort to increase their access to natural resources. Moreover, many of these colonies were established based upon…

There is the feeling that Rushdie is toying with the concept of freedom of speech in this story as well as destroying the concept of the East as mysterious. Rushdie uses English to tell his story, but he incorporates the Indian oral tradition without any kind of chronological structure to the story. He deconstruct the binary opposition of East and est. He himself is between the Orient and the Occident and he chooses to use both structures, combining Britain and India (Buran 10).
The factors of race and gender complicate the relations of class in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, ole Soyinka's "Telephone Conversation," and Jean Rhys "Let Them Call It Jazz" in various ways. In Heart of Darkness, the story is centered on the typical male experience, which tends to alienate the female reader from the very "mannish" story. There is some speculation that Marlow and Kurtz's sexist views…

In the future, this helps to give everyone a greater appreciation for the emotions and challenges that were endured. (Henry, n.d., pp. 522- 535) (Legett, n.d., pp. 802 -- 818) (Gray, n.d., pp. 678 -- 697)
In the Victorian Period, there is focus on showing the impact of the industrial revolution on society. In the poem Dover Beach, there is discussion about how this is creating vast disparities. Evidence of this can be seen with the passage that says, "Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! For the world, which seems. To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful) so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; and we are here as on a darkling plain. Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night." (Arnold, n.d.) This…

Philosophical and Literary epresentation of Capitalism
Progress & Technology in Capitalism

John Steinbeck wrote the social The Grapes of Wrath during the interwar years, just after the Great Depression harrowingly illustrated the power of unchecked capitalism. His novel takes the position that revolutionary change is needed, is inevitable, and that a just and non-exploitive society can only come about when capitalism is eliminated. Steinbeck is reported to have made clear his intentions as he prepared to write The Grapes of Wrath. In his words, "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this" [the Great Depression and its widely destructive effects]." Steinbeck's collectivist-leaning voice at the time of his writing The Grapes of Wrath would become so altered over the course of three decades that it hardly seemed to belong to this writer who created on the very edge of moral fervor.…

The central focus of the book is the search for self and identity and an attempt to answer the question of what happens when men leave the protective normative and restraining influence of society. The central figure of Kurtz is a man who has broken free of the constraints of a sick society. However the novel also questions whether Kurtz too has become evil and lost his own sense of direction. The question is posed questions whether the human "heart of darkness" is not the real problem. If one interprets the book from this perspective, as a work that states that human nature or the human heart is essentially flawed, then one could conclude that Heart of Darkness is in fact more gloomy or pessimistic then the Wasteland.
The Heart of Darkness is a complex work that can be interpreted on many different levels: psychological, sociological, ethical and political. The…

European entry into Africa is associated with explorers and missionaries. These were people that aimed to improve Africa and the Native groups living in it. However, the reason that the missionaries and explorers set foot as the first group in Africa was to introduce the very deceitful idea that Europe was interested in making life better for these people who knew nothing of civilization. The politics that later set in from the late eighteenth century going forward, clearly expose the foundations of genocide in this continent that was before that full of culture and life. Of importance to note is that the extermination policy first affected the Africans and other Peoples inferior to Europe. However, this same ideology that made Europe bask in the pride of its superiority later culminated to their own Holocaust. Lindqvist powerfully reckons with the past and offers enormous contribution to colonial African Literature as well…

Exhaustion" demonstrates an interest in the subject of how different media might affect the meaning of art. Barth's general remarks at the opening of "The Literature of Exhaustion" indicate a sort of ambivalence about what he terms "intermedia' arts" (65). He seems to approve of "their tendency to eliminate…the most traditional notion of the artist…one endowed with uncommon talent, who has moreover developed and disciplined that endowment into virtuosity" (65). Yet in terms of aesthetic theory this is not altogether different from a normative 19th century or modernist conception of the artist's role: one thinks of such famous aesthetic pronouncements as Flaubert declaring that the artist must be like God, "everywhere present and nowhere visible," or Wilde's dictum that "to reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim," or James Joyce's God-like artist "invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails." It could be argued that this main…

Post Colonial Literature
Historical literature is filled with examples of pre- and post-colonialist paradigms. Within each of these models, however, there is a certain part of a larger story that can only be told in the larger view of the historical process. One of the grand themes that help us wade through that process is that of the dehumanization of the individual. For whatever psychotically reasons, humans seem to have the need to change others into less than human in order to subjugate them economically, intellectually, or culturally. We might even think of the process of imperialism as practiced by the European powers as dehumanization of culture and society; begun at the micro level and then evolving into the macro. This dehumanization was particularly exemplified by the manner in which indigenous cultures were decimated, how families were torn apart and scattered all over the Empire, and the manner in which…

Joseph Conrad and His Influence on British Literary History
Joseph Conrad was born in the Polish-dominated side of Ukraine in the year 1857, and was originally known as Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski. He was at sea for twenty years, after which he became an author. He wrote in English, which was the language he learnt third. hat he went through while in Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, along with all the reading and the knowledge he had about Europe were the bases for his writing. He was listed as the top British author of the 20th Century (Larabee).

He was well-known as a sophisticated and subtle observer of the physical world and the behavior of humans. Conrad was also a renowned literary artist. He had many writings including memoirs, novels and short stories, which are still widely read and studied today. For example, his 1899 story, Heart of…

Imperialist Tendencies in Conrad
Thematically, there are a number of different issues that Joseph Conrad explores in his novel The Heart of Darkness. However, one can argue that the one that has the most relevance in contemporary times is the author's critique of imperialism. This interpretation of the novel (as a critique of imperialism) is apropos in contemporary times for the simple fact that one can posit the notion that the efforts of the United States in the Middle East are little more than updated forays into imperialism. Conrad, however, portrays imperialism from the vantage point of European powers and their initial forays to subject the continent of Africa. Through his skillful manipulation of characters such as Marlow, Kurtz, and the manager of the Belgium company whose interests these characters represent, Conrad is able to demonstrate that the aspirations of imperialism actually veil some of the more base, lower urges…

Literacy Short Assgts
READING. Fadi Awwad

My Reading Engagement Journal for Chapter 3

I already knew about the need for sensitivity to cultural differences in the classroom because I was raised in a devout Muslim home (that was also an American home), and the years corresponding to my own secondary education were years in American life where a kind of noxious Islamophobia very frequently poisoned public discourse. I am grateful to the extent that I had teachers who were able to rise above the level of Fox News idiocy.

I want to know more about the use of graphic novels in teaching content area literacy, as described by Vacca and Mraz on pages 79-80, because I happen to be a fan of a particular graphic novel, Palestine by Joe Sacco, which describes the artist's experiences staying on the Gaza Strip in 1991-1992. If graphic novels are an easier way to…

Mulligan keenly notices features of Stephen's obsession when he mockingly calls him "O, shade of Kinch the elder! Japhet in search of father!" Partially, his argument for Shakespeare's autobiographical tendencies is seeded by his own frustration in his search for paternal links.
Out of this, Stephen's rejection of the Irish renaissance is significant because he wishes to judge himself against the backdrop of classical standards. "In our case, Stephen has 'entered into a competition' with Shakespeare by making himself a companion to the model of Shakespeare and placing himself, as much as he can by means of lecturing, next to the model of Shakespeare." So the contention that Shakespeare's plays are autobiographical, by being a particularly unique argument, if successful, would forever attach the name Dedalus to Shakespeare -- thus, his intellectual roots would be fundamentally defined to the external world. Notably, this would remain true regardless of Stephen's recognition…

.. have played a large role in defining how Americans interpret citizenship education, the hallmark of social studies, and in informing notions of what is educationally worthwhile as related to citizenships. Ideological difference has, of course been a recurring theme in textbook censorship battles and curriculum dis8utes over the course of this history " Curriculum is described by Croc o as being "an educational tradition providing 'culturally constituted tools for understanding and reforming the world'. (Crocco, 2003-2004)
IV. Vinz: Competing Versions of How to Educate for Cultural Understanding

The work of Ruth Vinz entitled: "Learning the lues: Transcending Essentialist Readings of Cultural Texts" states: "The history of multicultural curricula is a story of competing versions of how to educate for cultural understanding." Vinz notes that instability of meaning and interpretation are only one difficulty that is inherent in attempting to understand different cultures within the society or the educational institution…

Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot was first published in Poems: 1909-1925 and contains many overlapping themes that were also seen in many of his other works. Moreover, "The Hollow Men" is reflective of the overarching themes that were seen in orld ar I poetry and may also provide an introspective look into Eliot's emotional and psychological state at the time. In "The Hollow Men," Eliot uses allusions, imagery, and an overall theme of despair and isolation.
"The Hollow Men" makes references to at least two outside works or events, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In addition to being referenced in the five parts of Eliot's poem, these two allusions are also referenced in the poem's epigraph as Eliot writes "Mistah Kurtz -- he dead" and "A penny for the Old Guy" (lines-epigraph). In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz realized, upon his deathbed, the extent of…