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Theme of Conrad's The Secret Sharer
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“He had turned about meantime; and we, the two strangers in the ship, faced each other in identical attitudes.” (9) The captain, narrator and main character in the story of the Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad feels isolated and alone on his new ship and crew. He has a surprise visitor that turns out to be a fugitive, Leggett, from the ship Sephora. Leggett and the captain have an immediate connection from the first meeting on the ship. The captain finds an alliance with Leggett because he feels he shares the same human experiences as Leggett. They are both young, held similar posts, are both segregated from their respective crews, they both save the ships during a time of crisis and both men moved on to newly found destinies. I believe Conrad wants the reader to conclude that taking risks of this kind repeat in human experiences to develop self- actualization. The captain risks harboring a fugitive and risks possible destruction of his ship. The captain hides Leggett because he connects to him through similar experiences in life. “He appealed to me as if our experiences...
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.
What is the important message, or theme, in this book? Why do you think the author felt this message was important? Support your answer with three specific quotes or pieces of evidence from the text.
The first character that we are introduced to is R. Walton. He is on a ship with many deck hands and crewmembers, but in his letter to Margaret, his sister, he states, "I have no friend. Even when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain to me dejection." Although Walton has a boat full of men, he still feels lonely and friendless, and wishes he had a male companion to sympathize with him. Perhaps the reason that he feels this way is that he is looking for a different type of friend than what these tough sailors can offer. "I spoke of my (Walton) desire of finding a friend, of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my lot."
In the analyses of both Trilling and Achebe, the merit of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is contemplated intricately. Unlike the accusatory criticism of Achebe’s essay which considers the novella an incompetent and offensive gesture that is unfit for canonical recognition, Trilling’s analysis wrests the various themes and implications of the story, greatly rendering the ambivalent dispositions of the characters and emphasizing the historic relevance and transcendence of the content. Subjective and insightful, Trilling’s knowledge of the subject and its legacy further justifies Conrad’s novella’s rightful location in the canon.
Throughout its entirety, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness utilizes many contrasts and paradoxes in an attempt to teach readers about the complexities of both human nature and the world. Some are more easily distinguishable, such as the comparison between civilized and uncivilized people, and some are more difficult to identify, like the usage of vagueness and clarity to contrast each other. One of the most prominent inversions contradicts the typical views of light and dark. While typically light is imagined to expose the truth and darkness to conceal it, Conrad creates a paradox in which darkness displays the truth and light blinds us from it.
The child’s game had ended. After I nearly ran Kurtz over, we stood facing each other. He was unsteady on his feet, swaying like the trees that surrounded us. What stood before me was a ghost. Each layer of him had been carved away by the jungle, until nothing remained. Despite this, his strength still exceeded that of my own. With the tribal fires burning so close, one shout from him would unleash his natives on me. But in that same realization, I felt my own strength kindle inside me. I could just as easily muffle his command and overtake him. The scene flashed past my eyes as though I was remembering not imagining. The stick that lay two feet from me was beating down on the ghost, as my bloodied hand strangled his cries. My mind abruptly reeled backwards as I realized what unspeakable dark thoughts I had let in. Kurtz seemed to understand where my mind had wandered; it was as though the jungle’s wind has whispered my internal struggles to him. His face twisted into a smile. He seemed to gloat and enjoy standing by to watch my soul begin to destroy itself.
...Conclusion, the Captain identifies with Leggatt because they both have similar physical characteristic traits, and Leggatt psychologically completes the Captain. The Captain and Leggatt both share similar feelings, and come from the same social class. The two are almost identical in looks, close in age, and isolated on their ships. Leggatt gives the Captain characteristic traits that the Captain needs. Decisiveness and confidence is what the Captain lacked. Now with the help of Leggatt, the Captain gained these traits that were needed in order to succeed as a captain.
Without personal access to authors, readers are left to themselves to interpret literature. This can become challenging with more difficult texts, such as Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Fortunately, literary audiences are not abandoned to flounder in pieces such as this; active readers may look through many different lenses to see possible meanings in a work. For example, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness may be deciphered with a post-colonial, feminist, or archetypal mindset, or analyzed with Freudian psycho-analytic theory. The latter two would effectively reveal the greater roles of Kurtz and Marlow as the id and the ego, respectively, and offer the opportunity to draw a conclusion about the work as a whole.
Literature is never interpreted in exactly the same way by two different readers. A prime example of a work of literature that is very ambiguous is Joseph Conrad's, "Heart of Darkness". The Ambiguities that exist in this book are Marlow's relationship to colonialism, Marlow's changing feelings toward Kurtz, and Marlow's lie to the Intended at the end of the story.
The famed nurses study from Harvard found “Not having a close friend is as detrimental to your health as smoking.” Lennie and George’s friendship is necessary to keep the better for each other. Throughout the story, Lennie and George need each other and look out for one another no matter what. Lennie and George’s friendship and journey throughout the story symbolizes the struggles to achieve the American dream. Steinbeck, in the story Of Mice and Men, combines characterization and symbolism to prove friends do whats best for eachother.
In his somewhat famous criticism of Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe questions whether a “novel which celebrate this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race can be called a great work of art” (Achebe, 344). The Weavers, Heart of Darkness, and The Woman Warrior are all written works of art that critics, such as Achebe, would condemn for their dehumanization of particular groups. However, these critics overlook what makes these writings true art: their ability to have a positive impact. Works containing dehumanization do not celebrate this treatment of people; they point out flaws in society, creating awareness and the potential for change.
Early English novelists depicted a very general reality; that is, what many observed to be "real" is what found its way into the narratives. For example, several novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries emphasize, or entirely revolve around, the idea of social status. Samuel Richardson's Pamela addresses a servant's dilemma between her morals and low social position; the hero of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones must also confront his "low birth." Jane Austen famously portrayed class struggles in nearly every one of her novels. These texts all represented the world at its face; the actions of the characters spoke for their "reality," and the narrator was simply the descriptor of these events. The novels conformed to a very narrow world-view, limited by popular thought. True, there was much to explore within this confinement, as shown by the range of commentary in the texts. Still, as stories they could only offer what society observed: a kind of reality by consensus. As Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness demonstrates, modernism rejected the aims and methods of realism, and claimed the inner self represented the real more closely than the public world. Furthermore, realism appeared to represent the world wholly and concisely. Conrad's novel rejects this, and instead exposes the failure of language to describe a complete reality. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow himself is incomplete, and so is his narrative. He is forced into imprecise language, resigned to using negative modifiers and repeating inexact words. He struggles to tell his story satisfactorily, and by his own admission, his telling is deficient. The limitation of language, then, becomes the focus of t...
Modernism began as a movement in that late 19th, early 20th centuries. Artists started to feel restricted by the styles and conventions of the Renaissance period. Thusly came the dawn of Modernism in many different forms, ranging from Impressionism to Cubism.
In studying Joseph Conrad's, The Heart of Darkness, many critics dwell on the issue of heroism. Who is the hero, Marlow or Kurtz? It is clear that both Marlow and Kurtz are the protagonists of the story; however, protagonist and hero are not always synonymous. Marlow is the hero in the traditional sense of the word, while Kurtz is the more modern hero, often referred to as the anti-hero.
I will choose Conrad’s father, Calvin. Although I am a female, I think that he is the one of the characters who in this book can connect to me the most. As I know that he always care about his son, Conrad even he lost an elder son already. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with Conrad. He doesn’t know how he can really help Conrad either. All in his mind is that his son is not okay but he never tell. So he asked Conrad to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger. It maybe a way that can help his son but not perfect. At least he tried. I appreciate it because I know that it is not easy to communicate to a person who has a very large generation gap even he or she is important to you. For me, I don’t even know which way to talk with my parents is the most suitable too. They always have a different point of view that I don’t agree with. For example, my mom always tell what she is angry for. No matter it is my business or not. when every time she complains, I will give her response or advice. But she thinks that I am challenging her… So I started to be a “listener”. I only listen what she is complaining and shut my mouth. The relationship between us seems good when I start to shut