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How Does Heart Of Darkness Affect Joseph Conrad's Life

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Soon after the last pages are turned and the small novel, The Heart of Darkness, comes to an end, the reader is left with a profound opinion and judgement of one of Joseph Conrad’s most famous and most analyzed pieces of literature along with an an assumption of Conrad’s own life and personality. The unforgettable tale of The Heart of Darkness has impacted its audiences for years. With that in mind, Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness undoubtedly merits a thorough evaluation on many key features from an investigation on Conrad’s life and how if affected the story to the author’s use of abundant characterization and themes. As the first topic of discussion, according to a biography source on Joseph Conrad, “[He] was born Józef Teodor Konrad …show more content…

The way he strategically created each fictional character is absolutely impressive. For instance, the main character and protagonist, Marlow, is a seaman who has traveled the world with open eyes and a hopeful heart. Marlow is dynamic due to the changes in his view of life.As a child he dreamed of exploring the places on the map that no one had ever stepped foot on. He was honest and optimistic; although, instead of his adventures proving the uplifting qualities of exploring, he learned of the evil darkness in every man’s heart. This new discovery changed his perspective entirely, he even left his honesty behind when he lied to Marlow’s fiancee about his last words. However, Kurtz was more of a round character compared to Marlow’s evolving nature. Kurtz is quite possibly the most interesting character in The Heart of Darkness. Somewhere along the way of his travels to Africa he stopped fighting for the goo and let the bad consume his thoughts and actions. He left civilization and took control of the natives, treating them like slaves. Up into his last words, he admitted the monster that he was. These characters affected the lives of those around them more than they realized and truly completed this story with

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When Marlow returns from the Congo he, just as Kurtz and Russian, is no longer the same man. Marlow returning to Europe to see just how ignorant the people there are, not knowing anything past their, “insignificant and silly dreams” (Conrad 70). He believing that he is no longer like them, no longer being like them since being in the Congo and seeing just what it had become at the hands of European Imperialism. Though Marlow is no different than those he is looking down upon, his ignorance coming from keeping others

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Major Works Data Sheet – Do not copy from a website – that is plagiarism! Use citations as appropriate. Title of Book: Heart of Darkness Author: Joseph Conrad

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Ignorance of another's personal values or situation results in an impassable schism between the two parties. People fail to understand each other, and as such, they regard each other in lower lights. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad, through Marlow, writes his novella through a lense of ignorance and the perspective of the typical white person of the time in order to relate his story to the reader. Marlow and the accountant are contrasted with Kurtz to display the effects of evil on an individual.

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The novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad proves that historian Will Durant was correct when he said that, “One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.” Conrad makes this clear when his main narrator, Marlow, provides commentary about the grotesque action of his colleagues, and the necessity to keep silent in certain situations. As he narrates Heart of Darkness, Marlow makes statements that question how noble his mission is. These statements seem to communicate that nothing is often a good thing to do, especially when it comes to the topic of imperialism.

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In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz gains money and status through his immense ivory imports, thus ensuring he remains a dominant figure in Congo. As Marlow describes his journey, he frequently cites Kurtz as having “no restraint,” detailing Kurtz’s collection of heads on sticks surrounding his living quarters. The repetition of this phrase exhibits that Kurtz is revered and feared among Marlow’s fellow explorers, thus held on a pedestal due to his existing wealth. This fascination with Kurtz inhibits Marlow’s journey for self-discover throughout the Congo as he spends much of the novel searching for Kurtz in pursuit of his own self-actualization, thus avoids true internal

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Hunt Hawkins presents the controversy that Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness, encounters, as its contents portray Africans as dehumanizing, savage, and uncivilized beings. In order to provide a sufficient amount of information with regards to the controversy, Hawkins introduces the analysis of distinct scholars to describe racism, imperialism, and human nature. As a result, an analysis of the characters are provided to the audience and allow an individual to understand why Conrad decided to write Heart of Darkness the way he did. Thus, during this process, Hawkins describes the manifestation of the darkness that eventually consumes Kurtz.

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In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the main character, Charles Marlow, goes to the Congo to work for a Belgian company, inventively name The Company. The Company operates trade along the river, with Marlow being the riverboat captain. Throughout his journey, Marlow learns about Kurtz, a greedy ivory trader who was employed by the Company and also learns about greed has changed Kurtz into somewhat of a demigod. Rumors float around in the book. Who is Kurtz?

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The quote “The inner truth is hidden—luckily, luckily” from Heart of Darkness shows why everyone in As I Lay Dying was so afraid of talking to Darl. Darl has the uncanny ability to discover everyone’s dark secrets and how they think if he is around them. People do not want their “inner truths” becoming public knowledge, so they avoid him and call him “queer” (24), “the one folks talk about” (113), and that “he just thinks by himself too much” (71). Darl’s ability to know everyone’s thoughts could come from serving “in France at the war” (254) where he got “a little spy-glass” (254), which is a small handheld telescope, and it could symbolize his new ability to see into people and know their thoughts.

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In Joseph Conrad’s short story “Heart of Darkness,” the reader is transported to many places throughout Europe and Africa. These places all have symbolic meaning in their appearance. They reveal much of the stories theme in their appearance and show the darkness’s affect. Many of the appearances are similar in that they all contain some darkness. The darkness hides things from observation and represents the savagery that Marlow sees.

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Conrad conveys man’s realization of futility against the constant exposure to drastic and fierce elements of nature. “Well, you may guess I watched the fog for the signs of lifting as a cat watches a mouse; but for anything else our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool It felt like it, too -- choking, warm, stifling” (). The cotton infers the scenery to be dense with the white fog which Marlow travels in throughout the novel. The fog here represents the ostentation of imperialism, which obscures reality in the name of justice.

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Kurtz, allowing readers to see the overall madness recurring. Conrad uses specific diction to force readers to imagine the madness that must be going through Mr.Kurtz mind because of his geographical surroundings. Furthermore, Marlow disturbingly states “the air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine... deserted, into the gloom.”

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Everyone has their own opinions of which cultures are civilized and which are savage. A culture which is civilized is one where morals are set in place and and there is intellectual advancement. Civilized cultures follow a set a moral given to them usually by a government. A savage culture is where there are no morals in place. The people part of this culture do not follow any morals only hoping to survive, with no government intact.

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Kurtz to Marlow, the Manager makes sure that Marlow has not misunderstood him, stating, “I wouldn't like him to get the false idea of my disposition [...]" which indicates that the Manager fears Mr. Kurtz (41). Conrad uses other characters to allude to Mr. Kurtz’s attributes in such an extravagant way that Marlow claims "he [Mr. Kurtz] was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name anymore than you do," but even though Marlow thinks of Mr. Kurtz as an idea, his reputation continues to pique Marlow's interest and curiosity (42). After being attacked by the natives, Marlow assumed that Mr. Kurtz might have been attacked and died as well, which caused him great disappointment because he was excited or obsessed with meeting Mr. Kurtz. The last person that alludes to Mr. Kurtz's character before Marlow meets Mr. Kurtz is the Russian trader.

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Dark as an adjective is a describing word. When adding a few more letters, the word dark can be turned into darkness. According to the online dictionary, the first definition of darkness is the partial or total absence of light. The dictionaries second definition for the word dark is wickedness or evil. Throughout Heart of Darkness the word darkness has been read, shown and thought of in different ways that have impacted the readers view of the novel.

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The lights from the city reflected the Thames River because London is described as being light, the light symbolizes Conrad’s view of civilization. According to Conrad civilization is where evil is present but ignored. The light is the knowledge that is gained through exploring. Conrad uses Africa and the Congo River to represent the evil that waits in the unknown. The darkness is said to be full of savages and cannibals it is further emphasized as being the uncivilized part of the world where people eat people and the savages wait in the trees and in the darkness.

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