Congo Free State, By Joseph Conrad

1. Author's Background and Purpose

A. The author wrote this particular story to share and describe his experiences that happened in in Belgium's "Congo Free State" in 1890. Joseph Conrad was born in Ukraine in 1857. His parents were of the Polish noble class. After his parents died he moved to Poland to live with his uncle. From there he moved to Marseilles, France to start a career as a mariner. Conrad slowly built himself up and soon became a British citizen. He traveled all around the world for twenty years as a seaman where he collected knowledge and experiences for his books.

B. The events or circumstances in the author's life that influenced him in writing this story was his health issues that he experienced from his trip to Belgium's

Joseph Conrad, the author, was born in Ukraine on December 3, 1857. Conrad moved to Poland to live with his uncle after his parents passed away. He later moved to France to become a seaman. Conrad began to write stories after his twenty years on the sea. He wrote his stories in English prose style and had traditional firmness and courage. Conrad affected many authors during the time, such as Ford Madox Ford and Virginia Woolf. Conrad was from polish descent, but later in his life became a British citizen. He got many styles of writing from his father when he was young. Conrad's father shared many stories such as Shakespeare with him.

3. The novel's setting is the Thames River in London. The narrator of the novel is someone who is on board the ship listening to Marlow tell the story of the Congo. The time of day is dusk, so it's getting late when Marlow tells the story. The atmosphere in this novel is gloomy and dark. It shows how many black men from the Congo died because of the white's harsh behaviors. Joseph Conrad portrayed this atmosphere in many words such as dusk, misty, and

A conflict is any struggle between an opposing force. The conflict in the Heart of Darkness is the search for Mr. Kurtz and the evil against men. The conflict affects the novel by Marlow's remorse for the death of his boat steerer. His boat steerer is a slave but Marlow has grown close to him. After this major part, Marlow shows skepticism of slaves and realizes they are humans too. The conflict shows the shift of evil in the novel and Marlow's change of heart. Without this conversion Marlow may never have met Mr. Kurtz. Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. In the beginning of the story, Marlow begins to tell the story of his trip to the Congo when it becomes dark outside. The darkness of the sky foreshadows the darkness of the Marlow's story. For example, the darkness and evil shown towards the black natives. The workers for the company enslave the black workers and treat them terribly. The total effect towards the novel of this foreshadowing is that the black natives aided in leading the way to find Kurtz. Also Marlow's guilt for their harsh treatment changes his heart of darkness to a caring one for his crew and ends up finding Mr. Kurtz. Point of view is the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters. The novel is told in first person by a member aboard Marlow's boat.