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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that examines Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In the spring of 1899, when Joseph Conrad's slim novel Heart of Darkness was first published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine, the author had no way of predicting that his story would remain both provocative and controversial over the next century (Mitchell 20). Conrad's novel raised questions in the minds of Europeans about the rationalization behind imperialism. While Darkness is a work of fiction, it reflects unpleasant truths, horrible truths, that so-called civilized people do not like to acknowledge (Mitchell 20). This fact is alluded to by the narrator of the story, Marlow, when he describes Kurtz as "hollow at the core" (Conrad 133). Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khconmol.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
of predicting that his story would remain both provocative and controversial over the next century (Mitchell 20). Conrads novel raised questions in the minds of Europeans about the rationalization behind
imperialism. While Darkness is a work of fiction, it reflects unpleasant truths, horrible truths, that so-called civilized people do not like to acknowledge (Mitchell 20). This fact is alluded to
by the narrator of the story, Marlow, when he describes Kurtz as "hollow at the core" (Conrad 133). The plot of the novel revolves around Kurtz, a company agent
who sent up the Congo to procure ivory. Prior to coming to Africa, Kurtz is portrayed as an extremely educated, talented man, who has a humanitarian vision of bringing European
civilization to the African savages. However, rather than Kurtz changing the jungle, he finds that the jungle changes him. In the jungle, away from all civilized boundaries, there is nothing
to restrict Kurtzs behavior. No European neighbors to pass judgement, no courts to uphold a system of justice. Kurtz establishes a jungle kingdom and his unrestrained power brings out the
darkness impulses in his psyche. Marlow is charged with the assignment of traveling upriver to find Kurtz and bring him back to civilization, as awful rumors have finally reached
the ears of company officials. Marlow accepts this mission, travels upriver, and confronts the horror that Kurtz has become. In other words, Marlow "witnesses firsthand how unchecked ambition can utterly
destroy a man is, at bottom, very much like himself: intelligent, civilized, progressive, European" (Thompson 27). Throughout the novel, Conrad makes it clear that Kurtz was not inherently evil prior
to coming to Africa, but was rather an ordinary person, much like Marlow. However, Kurtzs nineteenth century notions of European superiority did not prepare him either emotionally or psychologically
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