Butcher explores the themes of ‘darkness’ in a number of ways in pages 92-9, in order to communicate to the reader the mysteriousness, lack of visibility and moral threat of the Congo.
The first sentence in the second paragraph gives the reader the impression that the house is ancient and depressing. This can be seen when it says ‘sinister’ ‘dark’ ‘volcanic’ ‘formidable iron gate’. The use of semantic field (lexical field) to describe the house sets the initial idea to the readers as it creates thoughts about why Tim Butcher would describe the house with these words. The use of semantic field also gives the reader the impression that the house is being described with different words but related with the same meanings. The description of the house can also be seen as describing words. The word ‘’sinister’’ gives the reader the impression that the house being described is threatening or portending evil or can also be seen as ominous. This helps the reader picture an evil based house. Also, the use of the adjective ‘’ formidable’’ gives the reader the impression that Butcher is trying to edify them that the house is causing fear and intimidating. ‘’ black man dozing’’ ‘’ dusty sitting room’’ The use of stereotypical prejudice gives the reader the impression that Tim Butcher develop this stereotype from the word ‘’black man dozing’’ and ‘’dusty sitting room’ which gives the reader the impression that Tim Butcher is unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information he would need to make fair judgments about the ‘’black man dozing’’ and the ‘’dusty sitting room’’. Also, in the absence of the "total picture’’ this stereotypical prejudice gives the reader ways in many cases they can "fill in the blanks." Also, Tim Butcher gives the reader the impression that society back in 1482 often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these stereotypes often lead to