Heart Of Darkness Modernism Analysis

Modernism gave rise in the nineteenth century and went through the twentieth century. Modernism is classified as a philosophical movement to modify the old traditional beliefs with modern society. Modern literary writers often represent the world as a fragmented and chaotic place that has lost the faith the previous generations once had. Two such modern authors are Leo Tolstoy who wrote The Death of Ivan Ilych and Joseph Conrad who wrote Heart of Darkness. It may seem that these two novels have a lot of differences, but they are more similar than some would think. The Death of Ivan Ilych and Heart of Darkness may have differences, but they have more similarities. Notably the most profound similarity between Heart of Darkness and The Death of Ivan Ilych is that they both criticize the society the novels take place. In the Heart of Darkness, when Marlow goes to the Congo he witness’s horrible scenes not only from the natives that live there, but from the white men who work for the same company. He witness’s starving people and how poorly they are treated. “It was …show more content…
In The Heart of Darkness, the main focus of the characters greed is ivory. “The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it” (The Heart of Darkness). The greed was especially high it Kurtz. He was so obsessed with ivory and paranoid that the manager was going to steal it. The greed of the men reflected their meaningless value of their society driven by greed. In The Death of Ivan Ilych, when Ivan’s friends are informed of his death, everyone of them thinks of the possible promotion they could be getting out of his death. They feel no true emotions regarding his death and only show up to his funeral because it is the “kosher” thing to do in their society, not because they have any true need to pay their