Heart Of Darkness Research Paper

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Men! The only animal in the world to fear” (Lawerance). This quote demonstrates that man should only fear the animal inside itself. Furthermore, when one becomes so encompassed in darkness, sin, and animal like behavior, the man gets trapped and loses sight of the truth.This statement can be notably seen in Joseph Conrad’s book, Heart of Darkness. Namely, it seems all men that left civilization for the Congo had lost all reason, restraint, and their conscience. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses the literary elements of character development, symbolism, and characterization to demonstrate the theme that when humans are surrounded by darkness, it can be difficult for them to see the truth. The literary element of character development shows the drastic change main character,Marlow, endures s he gets deeper into the jungle. To begin with, Marlow was instantly shocked at the horrors he sees when he enter the jungle. For example, when he saw the Europeans shooting the “criminals for almost no reason he was disgusted(Conrad). In time, as Marlow begins to journey further into the jungle his good nature begins to slip away. When his helms men is shot, and the blood gets on his shoes instantly he …show more content…

Kurtz is an animal. Marlow is able to realize this when he finds out Kurtz has no restraint(Conrad). This causes Marlow to realize that the darkness had eaten away Kurtz’s humanity. Kurtz has been in the “heart of darkness” for so long, he does not even remember what truth looks like. Therefore, all Kurtz can think of is ivory, and being worshiped by the natives. It is so extreme he is willing to do anything to get it, even kill his so called “friend”(Conrad). This causes Kurtz to be the definition of darkness. He is evil to the core, and far from humanity. Due to Kurtz being in the heart of the jungle for so long, he loses sight of all truth, and becomes

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