...truculent behaviour in almost all people groups. From the earliest ages of the hunter-gatherer society to the pinnacle of modern civilisation, humans have possessed the same primal instincts to subdue and subjugate. Authors such as William Golding and Joseph Conrad have recognised this basic nature of humanity and portrayed it in their novels Lord of the Flies (Golding) and Heart of Darkness (Conrad). These novels exemplify the methods by which humans have placed checks upon their savage nature, checks which prove to be diaphanous when challenged by true hardships. In both of these stories, the authors attempt to demonstrate the savage nature of the human spirit by utilising symbolism and irony. Both Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness are intensely allegorical novels and emphasise the use of symbols. However, these symbols are not merely the characters, but also include their actions and the settings of the stories. For example, the characters of Kurtz and Jack are symbols for the ancestral instincts of humankind. Though they are two separate characters, they are both symbols for the same idea. They are contrasted with Marlow and Ralph, who are also separate apparitions of the same philosophy. Kurtz, the quintessential ivory hunter from Heart of Darkness, is consumed by the desire for ivory and allows his primal nature to dictate his actions. He even goes so far as to proclaim himself a god and order the natives to attack his fellow Europeans. “He informed me...
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...Good or Evil? The Fight For Dominance The fierce battle between the lightness and darkness of man’s heart has coexisted since the earliest of times. William Golding’s award-winning novel, Lord of the Flies, is one that captures this very judgment. A group of young British schoolboys who were once innocent and pure of heart are quickly devoured by the dark powers of destruction, savagery, and murder. However, even with these destructive powers at hand, the young schoolboys along with their distant memories of being in a civilized society, fight in an epic battle to try and prevent the full outbreak of evil. Golding illustrates the never-ending combat of “good” and “evil”, amidst the young schoolboys and the Beast; Ralph, the democratic leader, contrary to Jack, who favoured dictatorship; and the strength of civilization versus the forces of human nature. First and foremost, the story displays the constant conflicts between the innocence of the British schoolboys and the dark nature of what they come to know as the Beast. An example of this is when the twins Sam and Eric encounter the Beast in Chapter Six: "Beast From Air." In the beginning of the chapter, Sam and Eric, who were on duty to watch the fire, falls asleep as a dead parachutist falls from the war in the adult world and lands on the island. When they awake from their sleep, they noticed a “figure that hung with dangling limbs” (103) and mistake it as the Beast. Sam describes to Ralph that the Beast was ‘“furry”’...
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...Millions of years ago, our ancestors were hunting for food, murdering people, and running around in the wild to survive before making many civilizations like the ones we currently have. Even though we have societies, many humans possess primitive instincts that cannot suppressed for long. After a plane crashes on an undiscovered island, a group of British schoolboys were stranded and attempted to make a civilization. However, as terror, sin, and evil reigns and authority collapses, the darkness of a man’s heart is inescapable. Humans are naturally inclined to be savages. Jack demonstrates that humans are naturally savage because he is bloodthirsty and power-hungry. “Kill the beast! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!” (Golding 76)...
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...Karen Conner Professor Pridgeon English 252H Spring 1993 Semester Film Production: Final Project After the astounding success of my last film endeavor [final project for ENG 251H], Townies, my production company, Gateway Productions, has con¬tracted me for a new endeavor, this time for an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. The company says that I may have full creative license in this one so, as Orson Welles did in his film Citizen Kane, I intend to oversee all aspects of the process. In selecting my staff, I have decided to keep some of the old faces from the previous film. My friend Julie Weaver will once more be at my side. As you recall, I chose her previously because she is not only a good art director but a talented illustrator as well. Her ability to do on-the-spot sketches of ideas saved me a great amount of time and money on the last project. I have also decided to keep Brightwood as cinematographer and Wise as sound director, again for the same reason for which I chose them last time, because they would make good contributions to the creative aspect of the process, and I felt that these two could best translate my ideas to film. Another old face will be Joyce Nevelson, my editor. I chose her last time because she was well-known in the industry and had won many rewards, proving her talent. Changes I have made will be in the writing, sound, and music departments. I have chosen Paul Gainritch to write my screen¬play. He is...
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...he titled it Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness begins on a ship on the Thames River with the protagonist, Charlie Marlow, and a few of his crewmembers. Marlow describes his one trip to Africa and his experiences to the crew. Along the way, Marlow learns of a man named Kurtz who is stationed at an inner station along the Congo River. Kurtz is often described as remarkable and this piques Marlow’s attention. Marlow becomes consumed with the idea of Kurtz and does all that he can to find and talk to this man. Marlow travels by steamboat to the third station, moving deeper and deeper in the dense jungle. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad’s...
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...Although the content within Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is universally commended for its deep thematic concepts and skillful literary techniques, there has been a spirited argument over whether the novel is itself a discriminatory work. Due to the many contradicting aspects of racism during the 17th century and the limited information known about the personality of Conrad, the question of racism versus realism is too complex to give a definitive answer. One of the passages that appears to be intuitively racist is included in Part I: “All their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily up-hill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference...
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...The Incandescent Darkness Within Africa Imperialism in Africa was a dark time to say the least. Many novels are set within this time period in history due to its polemic. Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness are both set in the era of imperialism; they are constantly read together in order to obtain two different perspectives on imperialism within Africa. Reading the novels one after the other is a practical way to understand the messages each author is trying to convey to their readers. They both complement and enhance each other. Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness are two novels from which lucid similarities and differences can be found through the sense of community, the depiction of the Africans, and the vitalness of language found within both. The sense of community is a very important aspect throughout both novels. When the white missionaries start to appear in Things Fall Apart, the Ibo people are confused and reluctant to change. In the village of Mbanta, the first white missionary and his followers start talking about their god and how the gods of the Ibo people cannot harm anyone; a lot of the people listening to these men considered them mad and some of them began to go away (Achebe 146). It is human nature to resist change and hold on to what a person is accustomed to and already knows. The Ibo people were no exception. On the other hand, in Heart of Darkness, the white imperialists felt united only through race. Marlow leaves the first station he goes...
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...Tragedy, an obstacle most people must face during their lifetime, may make it hard to make the right decisions when experiencing such a horrible occurrence. Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees delved deep into the core of such choices. The internal and external struggles that both characters face creates the mold for the theme, and their actions fill the empty spaces. Though the author expressed the theme through the development of multiple characters, Lily and T. Ray clearly display her vision of conflict, human condition, and the light and dark sides of an individual locked away in their hearts. Sue Monk Kidd expresses the ongoing external conflict shared between Lily and T. Ray as the death of Deborah. Although the two...
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...David Santamaria Ms. Pasonelli AP English 7 November 2015 Light vs Darkness: The Irony within Heart of Darkness Through history there has always been a battle between good and evil, light and dark, the innocent and the guilty. Many times authors, spanning over a wide range of genres have embedded this battle into their stories. Joseph Conrad, did just that in his creation of Heart of Darkness. Amongst the deep jungles of the Congo River, Conrad places Marlow into a world where darkness dominates everyday life. Marlow throughout the story is seen to have pure intentions and can be seen as a symbol of light, whereas Kurtz who has been amongst the heart of the Congo for various years, can be seen as the embodiment of darkness. Now, the distinction of light and dark, good and evil, innocent and guilty, is not only represented between Marlow and Kurtz, but also by Kurtz’s intended and his mistress of the darkness from Africa. Conrad in the depiction of these characters uses irony to show that light is representative of ignorance and naivety whereas darkness is the embodiment of the truth and experience. To be naïve is to show lack of experience. This trait lies at the heart of every man and woman as well as boy and girl. Naivety goes hand in hand with ignorance and can often be seen as an embodiment of innocence as well as purity, which are representative of light. Marlow within Heart of Darkness, ultimately proves to be naïve as well as ignorant throughout various times...
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...Flies: A Psychological Study of the Nature of Humans William Golding once said, “What a man does defiles him, not what is done by others.” The phrase is approached so easily with his novel, Lord of the Flies (September 17, 1954), to depict the darkness of the natural man. The twentieth-century British writer in his novel argues the savagery of true mankind through a prose involving a band of young British schoolboys who are stranded on an empty island after a plane crash. He generalizes the human race by first developing the boys as helpless as they try to create a form of democracy with Ralph being the leader (and protagonist), then by creating opposition to the governmental tradition through Jack and his followers who separate...
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...Dudley 1 Dominiq Dudley Mrs. Skelton AP Literature & Composition 18 March 2011 Conrad vs. Achebe In Heart of Darkness, Conrad’s misunderstanding of the Ibo Culture is symbolized by his misrepresentation of the language. Though Conrad views the language as babbling and grunting, Achebe points out that they are still humans; though others might not understand it, their language and culture is something that is understood to each other. Achebe’s response to Conrad begins with language to prove that the Ibo people have their own culture. Throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad shows that he doesn’t understand the Ibo language, and culture; and he doesn’t intend to. When Conrad wrote in the voices of the Africans, he portrayed them as elementary instead of intelligent. “In place of speech they made “a violent babble of sounds;” they “exchanged short grunting phrases,” even among themselves” (An Image of Africa 255.)Instead of trying to understand the Africans and their culture, he showed his own image of them and what they sound like to him. Throughout the book Conrad showed examples of his simple mindedness towards the Africans. “Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining clamour, modulated in savage discords, filled our ears…” (2.13) Dudley 2 This showed Conrad’s inability to understand. The men that we around didn’t understand the cries of the natives...
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...The Darkness of Colonialism “A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps.” (Conrad, page 70) What links does man go to achieve the riches they desire? The human urge to dominate those weaker and foreign is unnerving. Colonialism of the 19th century did just that and Africa was the front runner of being colonized. Some would argue that inside every human soul, lays a savage, evil side that remains hidden and repressed by society. During times of seclusion from culture, or when cultures collide, this evil side emerges. History is full of examples of heinous acts that have occurred when cultures collide; from the Holocaust to slavery. During these times, a person may discover more about their true self. In grade school, we learned about the Pilgrims colonizing the new lands of the Americans. We are told how wonderful it was and we now have a special holiday to give thanks. As we dig deeper into the history books, we learn about the horrific atrocities committed on the Native American Indians, the so-called Savages of these new lands. The white man was the destruction of these natives in the New World. We colonized these savages, “helped them,” in other words, forced them to forget their own identity and beliefs and become like “us.” This is the same thing the Europeans did to the Africans of...
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...colonialism. Imperialism connects Walcotts poems, Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and Friel’s ‘Translations’. All three texts contain binary opposites connoting culture, which is exactly what Walcott’s “The Gorilla wrestles with the superman” represents. The ‘gorilla’ represents the black native man; strong, natural and powerful which ‘wrestles’ with the superman, in this case British colonists. The image of the ‘gorilla’ representing the black man suggests a hint of racism - gorillas are primitive and often untameable. However the image of ‘superman’ is also not all-powerful, the idea of a superman is unrealistic. This image is a binary opposite, although these two representatives are both mighty in their own right, they possess very few similarities - natural versus supernatural. Walcott struggles with his own culture, his recurrent themes focus on dichotomy of Caribbean and Western civilisation. These seemingly opposing backgrounds cause a cross-cultural identity issue. Walcott’s split ethnicity connotes a ‘wrestle’ and struggle within himself. The effects of colonisation is a theme that can be explored within ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ‘Translations’. In both texts there is a ‘wrestle’ between the colonised and colonists despite containing opposite settings. Colonisation dehumanises the colonised and colonists themselves, to a varying extent, yet there is evidence of this in a three texts. In Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’, Kurtz the protagonist was notoriously known for his vicious...
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...possibly happen on an island when humans and boys in particular are marooned there? You may consider setting, characterization, themes and/or symbolism you must incorporate quotes from the text to support your analysis. William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies shortly after the end of WWII. The novel's plot, in which a group of English boys end up stranded on a deserted island struggle to develop their own society, is a social and political thought-experiment using fiction. The story focuses on their attempts at civilization, devolution into savagery and violence puts the relationship between human nature and society under literary observation. Golding uses several allusions to human evolution, such as when the boys discover fire, craft tools, and form political and social systems in a process that recalled theories of the development of early man. Golding's hypothesis about humanity is pessimistic, that is, there are anarchic and brutal instincts in human nature. He displays this throughout his conveying of the setting, characterization, themes, and symbolism. The novel takes place on an un-known inhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, Immediately in the novel Golding reveals the instinct of the restricted human savagery in the boys in regard to the setting. “Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and open space of the scar” Page 10. Golding shows the destructive powers of humans already, for the boys have just reached...
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...the message that the Africans are savages and that Africa itself is a place of no order and no civilization. To begin, on page 17 of Heart of Darkness, Conrad has his protagonist Marlow describe the Africans in many inhumane ways. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth in all attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation One of these creatures rose to his hands and knees and went off on all fours towards the river to drink.” After calling the African people creatures and shadows of disease and starvation, it was apparent that Conrad definitely did not think of the Africans as human beings. This portrayal shows the natives as "shadows" and unearthly "creatures," not as dying and sick men. The men are not other human beings, but in fact incoherent shapes with no humanizing characteristic to classify one man from another, which furthermore makes the indigenous Africans people into animals. Although the story has many different statements such as the one above, due to the time period of this story, I do not believe that it can be seen as racist. In our time, statements such as these would be seen as complete and utter racism and totally unacceptable. However, at the time of when Heart of Darkness was written, things like these were not only said, but also widely accepted. For this reason, I believe that now obviously this would be...
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