Explore how the theme of darkness is presented in The Heart Of Darkness and Blood River Tim Butcher’s ‘Blood River’ which detailed Butcher’s struggle through the Congo and Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’, a fictional novella both explore the theme of darkness. However, due to the lapse of one hundred years in the printing of the two texts, the theme has been presented differently. Blood River- classed as a travelogue- is a first person account of Butcher’s everyday experiences as he travels through the Congo following Henry Morton Stanley’s footsteps, the ‘world’s best-known journalist’. On the other hand, Heart of Darkness is a Modernist novella which is a frame narrative that exposes the realities of brutal European colonialism that jarred with the predominant prevailing belief of the righteousness of imperialism. Heart of Darkness’s frame narrative begins on a Thames river boat with an unknown narrator.
Furthermore, motivations of benevolence and malevolence are often inextricably linked, identical even. This philosophy of dark absurdity prevalent to the human condition pervaded Conrad’s time and even his writing. The style and outlook owed itself partially to the era of the composition; Conrad published the majority of his literature during the years 1880-1920 (Matin xix). These were troubled times that brought to light the awesome imperialism and greed of West Europe. Prominently, King Leopold II of Belgium usurped the Congo territory in which he wreaked horrible atrocities (Gondola).
However, the inequality between the two cultures actually reveals the horrific impact of European imperialism throughout Africa. In one passage, Conrad employs many techniques to convey his beliefs on imperialism, which he continues to use throughout the novel. Conrad focuses on a native helper who Marlow encounters in the Outer Station. Because of the intense labor and working conditions, the native is close to death. Thus, he crawls under the trees to die; Marlow comes across the helper during his last moments alive.
Kurtz Analysis – Heart of Darkness The character of Mr. Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness is one made up of symbols and curiosity. The central idea of this novel, “darkness is the true nature of our world,” reaches deep into the veins of the story. This type of darkness will break humans, as it did to Kurtz. Through Marlow’s narration, we can see how Kurtz, who came to Africa full of hopes, deteriorated physically and eventually, spiritually. Kurtz, an ivory trader, was sent by a Belgian company into the heart of the Congo.
Introduction Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most prolific symbolists in American literature, and a study of his symbols is necessary to understanding his novels. Generally speaking, a symbol is something used to stand for something else. In literature, a symbol is most often a concrete object used to represent an idea more abstract and broader in scope and meaning — often a moral, religious, or philosophical concept or value. Symbols can range from the most obvious substitution of one thing for another, to creations as massive, complex, and perplexing as Melville's white whale in Moby Dick. An allegory in literature is a story where characters, objects, and events have a hidden meaning and are used to present some universal lesson.
Should our intellectual reason be the answers to our imaginative thoughts and desires, or should it be a harmony of reason and moral sense? After the Civil War the greatest nation on earth had more opportunities and more freedom “On the other hand, there was dissatisfaction with problems caused by the industrialization and urbanization, as well. These developments during the Revolution, an artistic, literary and intellectual movement gained strength, which is called Romanticism with Dark Romanticism being one of its subgenres.” (Dincer, 218) Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator’s psychological disorder and sense of guilt serves to display the Dark Romanticism within the short story in which shows the human impulse towards irrationality and contrast the Rationalist belief of intellectual reason. The following paper describes the Romantic Movement towards the irrational thought of the human mind and how this ideology was influenced by the Rationalist Movement who believed that logical reasoning was the answer to understanding the human race. Then it shows how Edgar Allan Poe uses gruesome imagery and literary devices to portray the views of Dark Romanticism in his short story the “Tell-Tale Heart”.
In the attempt to capture truth in writing, writers and readers alike are cognisant of the artifice that occurs in the process of writing. This oxymoron; that truth and authenticity can result from artifice is the basis of the conflict that occurs between concepts of reality, truth and literary realism. The nature of fiction itself presents tension between truth and artifice: writers abide by the facets of literary realism, which has a “fidelity to the truth” (M.H. Abrams), and must create artifices to deliver meaning and create truth, utilising techniques of fiction such as metaphor, figures, imagery and dialogue which aren’t necessarily true. In order to create a sense of authenticity, Nam Le abides by verisimilitude in his short stories “Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” and “Tehran Calling” in his collection The Boat.
Matthew Arnold’s statement about literature being “a criticism of life” is accurately depicted in some works of literature like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Cyrano de Bergerac. These novels reflect situations and problems that occur in the world today. Mildred D. Taylor shows examples of segregation, racism, mistreatment, and discrimination through her novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. This book showed some bad morals that the world had and still has to this very day. In Cyrano de Bergerac it shows real life situations like love, jealousy, pain, anguish, and loss.
Crime and Punishment Characters More often than none readers don’t take into account the fact that the traits of characters are what establish a story. There names, personality, where there from, and other things all are influential to the course the book takes. Dostoevsky takes into account all these things in Crime and Punishment to create a story with many themes through out the course of the reading. Not only do his characters have personality traits that give clues but the names themselves of the characters give further meaning to themselves and the story. He also provides each character with some symbolic meaning and a major function in the novel for which is given to the reader to understand more about each character.
Realism and Romanticism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.” This quote by Mark Twain exposes some of Twain's viewpoints about literature. By Twain stating that fiction needs to be credible, he is undoubtedly sharing his partiality to Realism over Romanticism. According to Dictionary.com, his preferred literary style exposes everyday life in a clear and realistic way, a style known as Realism. In contrast, Romanticism emphasizes inspiration, subjectivity, emotion, and nature's importance. Surprisingly, even though Twain obviously prefers Realism, there are numerous aspects of Romanticism throughout Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.