Heart of Darkness

After experiencing the violence of war, it is difficult for a soldier to readjust back into society causing alienation and a strain to return home both physically and emotionally. In Hemingway’s short story, “Soldier’s Home” the main character Harold Krebs lies, is incapable of love and he struggles to readapt to his family and community. Krebs is a different person than before the war and eventually accepts the idea that he can never really go home. Hemingway illustrates the…

essay “Heart of Darkness and Racism”, he suggests that Joseph Conrad attacks the colonization of Africa through racism in his novel Heart of Darkness. While most critical essays regarding race generally focus on whether or not Conrad is a racist, like Chinua Achebe’s “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, Hawkins neither agrees nor disagrees, stating that racism shouldn’t be the main focus when reading the novel. Instead, he claims that Conrad’s purpose for writing Heart of…

the dark, missing a part of her family. However, the light found within the darkness serves as hope for finding family, portraying that in life, there is an inherent balance…

Experiment, enduring such distress can dissect the mind, causing an individual to hallucinate and even endure physical demands. An unfamiliar tedious journey can invoke psychological stresses worrying about potential dangers that lie ahead. In the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the narrator experiences psychological stresses throughout his journey travelling through the Congo River. In order to portray the difficulties the narrator endures, the author…

overtook the minds of the most powerful nations in the world in the late 19th and 20th centuries and is still present today. At the very heart of the principle, imperialism is racist. It is the belief that all white men are morally obligated to “help” (or rule) all non-white people groups of the Earth. At the time of the publication of Joseph Conrad’s book “Heart of Darkness,” “The White Man’s Burden” had just been released and Europe was entirely consumed with the “scramble for Africa.” It is…

everyone’s death—Ivan had to travel through the dark pit to find salvation. Everyone will travel this path, but in order to see the light at the bottom of their black sack, they must open their hearts to God and turn to Him. Christ said, “’I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’”(John…

Macbeth;The Portrayal of Darkness and Intrigue Macbeth is a play that follows the major themes of intrigue, darkness and the supernatural. Following the exploits of a famed general whom is kind at heart, yet as events turn tragic and corruption and Darkness start to take over, it leads Macbeth the protagonist to his downfall and causes for a total change in character, as he gets a grip of power and immense wealth. Darkness is a central motif in Macbeth and outlines and foreshadows several…

The novels Heart of Darkness and Slaughterhouse Five may at first appear to have no similarities, but with further observation, it can be seen they share some similar aspects. Although the concept of fate and free will appear in both Heart of Darkness and Slaughterhouse Five, Conrad uses it in such a way where it is questionable that Marlow’s descent into madness in the heart of darkness could have been avoided, whereas Vonnegut claims there is no such thing as free will and Billy Pilgrim’s…

Darkness the Vampire’s Double: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla Darkness in Le Fanu's Carmilla serves as its own monster since it is a representation of negativity, mystery, and fear. Darkness like the vampire creates an unsettling sensation for the narrative because it allows the uncanny to manifest and generate feelings of uncertainty and terror. For the main protagonist Laura, the overwhelming experience of darkness places the character in a state of distress which creates problems for…

Throughout the tale told within Albert Camus’s The Stranger, there is a reoccurring theme of darkness versus illumination within every chapter. The motif is indicative of Meursault’s character as a person. The ways that dark and light respectively affect Meursault speak for his personality where the words do not explicitly say them. The theme of contrasting light and dark being as prevalent as it is entails that the motif was meant to be noticed -- and is occasionally difficult for a reader to…