Heart of Darkness Darkened my World
Although a novel filled with extensive figurative language and impressive control of language, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad bored me. Marlow, a well-traveled seaman who narrates his story in the Congo, is a man I simply could not relate to, which inhibited me from truly appreciating his story. To put it simply, I just didn’t like it. The narrative style bored me and Marlow’s story itself was not exciting. I don't particularly enjoy history, which may be an influence on my opinion of the novel.
In order to properly enjoy a literary work such as Heart of Darkness, I believe you must be interested in some aspect of the characters lives or setting. Having never sailed or even showed interest in the …show more content…
Personally, the first person view of this novel made it hard to follow. I had trouble keeping track of the setting and characters. Each scene was dragged out my Marlow, filled with intricate details that distracted from the story. The details, good in moderation, only led me down individual paths. When I reached the end of one path, I was forced to begin a new one and interpret the individual meaning of each path. The writing was beautiful, but the details of this story were far to intricate fro this simple story. Especially in the beginning, when we begin to learn about Marlow. Furthermore, the narrative overall seams forced and unnatural. Marlow is telling a dark and twisted story, yet his language seems too euphonious for the occasion. Marlow’s storytelling could be great, but I just could not connect with …show more content…
occurring on page 44, it reads as follows: “The mind of man is capable of anything- because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear? sorrow, devotion, valour, rage- who can tell?” Is the mind of man truly capable of all? Sadly, we know all too well that is is very capable of all things evil- murder, rape, terrorism. But, have we ever seen true altruism in humans? Does altruism even exist in humans? Personally, I think it does, but many others would disagree. Whatever selfless act you are doing, it will always benefit you in some way. I’m not sure how, but I do disagree with this. I hope to experience this kind of selflessness in my life sometime. Furthermore, if we begin to speak about the presence of emotion in man and how this connects with the capabilities of man, a deeper subject matter is revealed. This traces back to the concept of both spiritus mundi and institutional nests. Spiritus mundi (the worlds mind) is a collection of all events in history that adds to every humans experiences (especially authors). Meanwhile, our institutional nests are a product our upbringing and experiences in our lifetime that add to our view of the world. The combination of these things is what defines things like our emotions. Therefore, the idea the Conrad suggests here about the inability to identify certain emotions is quite profound. AS you
Although a novel filled with extensive figurative language and impressive control of language, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad bored me. Marlow, a well-traveled seaman who narrates his story in the Congo, is a man I simply could not relate to, which inhibited me from truly appreciating his story. To put it simply, I just didn’t like it. The narrative style bored me and Marlow’s story itself was not exciting. I don't particularly enjoy history, which may be an influence on my opinion of the novel.
In order to properly enjoy a literary work such as Heart of Darkness, I believe you must be interested in some aspect of the characters lives or setting. Having never sailed or even showed interest in the …show more content…
Personally, the first person view of this novel made it hard to follow. I had trouble keeping track of the setting and characters. Each scene was dragged out my Marlow, filled with intricate details that distracted from the story. The details, good in moderation, only led me down individual paths. When I reached the end of one path, I was forced to begin a new one and interpret the individual meaning of each path. The writing was beautiful, but the details of this story were far to intricate fro this simple story. Especially in the beginning, when we begin to learn about Marlow. Furthermore, the narrative overall seams forced and unnatural. Marlow is telling a dark and twisted story, yet his language seems too euphonious for the occasion. Marlow’s storytelling could be great, but I just could not connect with …show more content…
occurring on page 44, it reads as follows: “The mind of man is capable of anything- because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear? sorrow, devotion, valour, rage- who can tell?” Is the mind of man truly capable of all? Sadly, we know all too well that is is very capable of all things evil- murder, rape, terrorism. But, have we ever seen true altruism in humans? Does altruism even exist in humans? Personally, I think it does, but many others would disagree. Whatever selfless act you are doing, it will always benefit you in some way. I’m not sure how, but I do disagree with this. I hope to experience this kind of selflessness in my life sometime. Furthermore, if we begin to speak about the presence of emotion in man and how this connects with the capabilities of man, a deeper subject matter is revealed. This traces back to the concept of both spiritus mundi and institutional nests. Spiritus mundi (the worlds mind) is a collection of all events in history that adds to every humans experiences (especially authors). Meanwhile, our institutional nests are a product our upbringing and experiences in our lifetime that add to our view of the world. The combination of these things is what defines things like our emotions. Therefore, the idea the Conrad suggests here about the inability to identify certain emotions is quite profound. AS you