Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is a influential, but debatable literary work. There is a certain maturity level needed in order to fully analyze and understand the messages conveyed. College students, in particular, would benefit from studying Heart of Darkness because of the incorporation of advanced literary techniques, and the maturity needed to fully comprehend the story.
There is a great amount of symbolic and allegorical meaning behind the explicit text. Throughout the entirety of the book, the contrast between dark and light are noted. Along with that, there are many different meanings that can be interpreted from the explicit text. For example, on page 67 of Heart of Darkness, Marlow states “It was paddled by black fellows. You …show more content…
For instance, when Charles Marlow makes the physical move from Europe to Africa, his emotional state of mind is ignorant, curious, and naive. This represents youth and the emotions typically evoked in this particular stage of life. From a younger audience, there is often more difficulty understanding the emotional and the possible philosophical meaning behind the text. This is because of a different level of maturity and introspective understanding. College students often have more life experiences than high school students. With more life experiences, there is more understanding of the internal and external world. Due to the significant amount of symbolic and allegorical incorporation, it creates a more advanced understanding of the book and the message being conveyed. Therefore, it is more beneficial for college level students to analyze and study Heart of Darkness.
Articles that respond to Heart of Darkness, are necessary when studying and understanding the story. No matter if the article is criticizing or praising Heart of Darkness, and its message, these opinions can help shape the reader 's personal opinion. Caryl Phillips article Out of Africa take a different perspective than Chinua Achebe’s article "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad 's 'Heart of Darkness.’” Nevertheless, both bring new perspectives to those analyzing the implicit messages portrayed in Heart of Darkness. …show more content…
There needs to be some sense of emotional maturity in order to fully understand the messages portrayed by Conrad. When Marlow travels deeper into the Congo, he is making psychological growth, because he is being exposed to the harsh realities of the world, and the corruption of his society. He goes from being ignorant, to the corruption and brutality of the European society, to sheltering others from knowing what he knows about the world at the end of the story. As stated in a aforementioned paragraph, with every physical step there is a psychological step. Conrad does not explicitly say the psychological growth Marlow made. This is something that the reader has to interpret and analyze based on Marlow’s feelings, actions and symbols. Typically, with older people there is a better introspective understanding, but also a better understanding of other people’s feelings. Older students typically have a better ability to understand others emotions besides their own. This is especially useful in Heart of Darkness because there is a lot of interpretation needed in order to understand the physical and psychological growth Marlow has made from beginning to end.
The complexity of Heart of Darkness creates ambiguity and obscurity. The use of symbols and allegories creates varying interpretations, and because of the varying interpretations, people create different perspectives of the
There is a great amount of symbolic and allegorical meaning behind the explicit text. Throughout the entirety of the book, the contrast between dark and light are noted. Along with that, there are many different meanings that can be interpreted from the explicit text. For example, on page 67 of Heart of Darkness, Marlow states “It was paddled by black fellows. You …show more content…
For instance, when Charles Marlow makes the physical move from Europe to Africa, his emotional state of mind is ignorant, curious, and naive. This represents youth and the emotions typically evoked in this particular stage of life. From a younger audience, there is often more difficulty understanding the emotional and the possible philosophical meaning behind the text. This is because of a different level of maturity and introspective understanding. College students often have more life experiences than high school students. With more life experiences, there is more understanding of the internal and external world. Due to the significant amount of symbolic and allegorical incorporation, it creates a more advanced understanding of the book and the message being conveyed. Therefore, it is more beneficial for college level students to analyze and study Heart of Darkness.
Articles that respond to Heart of Darkness, are necessary when studying and understanding the story. No matter if the article is criticizing or praising Heart of Darkness, and its message, these opinions can help shape the reader 's personal opinion. Caryl Phillips article Out of Africa take a different perspective than Chinua Achebe’s article "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad 's 'Heart of Darkness.’” Nevertheless, both bring new perspectives to those analyzing the implicit messages portrayed in Heart of Darkness. …show more content…
There needs to be some sense of emotional maturity in order to fully understand the messages portrayed by Conrad. When Marlow travels deeper into the Congo, he is making psychological growth, because he is being exposed to the harsh realities of the world, and the corruption of his society. He goes from being ignorant, to the corruption and brutality of the European society, to sheltering others from knowing what he knows about the world at the end of the story. As stated in a aforementioned paragraph, with every physical step there is a psychological step. Conrad does not explicitly say the psychological growth Marlow made. This is something that the reader has to interpret and analyze based on Marlow’s feelings, actions and symbols. Typically, with older people there is a better introspective understanding, but also a better understanding of other people’s feelings. Older students typically have a better ability to understand others emotions besides their own. This is especially useful in Heart of Darkness because there is a lot of interpretation needed in order to understand the physical and psychological growth Marlow has made from beginning to end.
The complexity of Heart of Darkness creates ambiguity and obscurity. The use of symbols and allegories creates varying interpretations, and because of the varying interpretations, people create different perspectives of the