The book's two centers are two dark hearts that fascinate Marlow. ... In Conrad's world, all Kurtz can do is respond to the winds of darkness by being blown over. ... And as much as Kurtz provides the example of the zealot undone by his own energy, the ideas he serves is equally dark-hearted as Conrad shows it. ... As much as Joseph Conrad shows that the darkness responsible for Kurtz's moral disintegration lies in the largely mute Congo itself, he places as much of that shadowy essence in Kurtz and the imperialism he represents. ... Kurtz and imperialism itself all have hearts ...

• Word Count: 1126
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

By using the major themes of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad as inspiration, Francis Ford Coppola created an honest portrayal of one of the most controversial periods of time in America's history: the Vietnam war. ... Heart of Darkness more accurately acted as a template for any story involving humans behaving at a basic level. ... The success of Francis Ford Coppola in imitating Heart of Darkness is seen in the manipulation of two unique periods of time in world history. ... The film Apocalypse Now emulated the truly horrendous and thought provoking themes of Conrad's Heart of...

• Word Count: 913
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Heart of Darkness vs. Apocalypse Now Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now Joseph Conrad once wrote, "the individual consciousness was destined to be in total contradiction to its physical and moral environment" (Conrad-1897); the validity of his statement is reflected in the physiological and psychological changes that the characters in both his Heart of Darkness and Coppola's Apocalypse Now undergo as they travel up their respective rivers, the Congo and the Nung. Each journey up the tropical river is symbolic of a voyage of discovery into the dark heart of man, and an encount...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Coppola created this film with "ambitious effort to show Vietnam as America's Heart of Darkness, with Joseph Conrad's story providing the narrative skeleton" "(Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 1-1) and many themes, meanings, and entire scenes from the movie do in fact come directly from Conrad's book. Aside from the adaptation of Heart of Darkness's story into the film Apocalypse Now illustrates the hardships of war in nearly every aspect of a soldiers life. ... Ford's use of imagery, darkness, and slow and long cross dissolves also create vivid realizations of the ...

• Word Count: 1876
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Viet Cong appear as a mass of barbarians running through the dark, trying to overrun the fort, who get exterminated by electrified fences. ... The central plot, based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, is fictional and far-fetched. ...

• Word Count: 3681
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate