He speaks of what culture of people brought civilization or light to Europe, as he describes it, "Light came out of this river -. ... The light has been unable to penetrate the darkness. ... When Marlow first enters the Congo it is not that dense with forest. ... Once Marlow is aboard the ship and on his passage down the river the forest becomes more and more impenetrable. The river is dark brown and just barely flowing, the forest becomes so thick right before they reach the inner station that the men aboard the steamer could not even see the savages that would soon ambush their boat. ...

• Word Count: 4389
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: High School

It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me - and into my thoughts. ... And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light."" ... He recognizes the Europeans' tendency for self-deception and reduces this event from the Europeans' image of an intense battle to a futile firing of "tiny projectiles- into an empty forest. ... However, trying to avoid this shocking sight, he stumbles onto one much worse: "Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitud...

• Word Count: 4081
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

Heart of Darkness opens on a boat called "Nellie." Marlow and his shipmates, including the narrator whose descriptions of the scene fill the few breaks in Marlow's stories, loll on the deck waiting for the tides of the Thames River to change. To entertain his compatriots, Marlow begins to talk about his philosophies on colonization, his personal history, and his voyage up the Congo River into the heart of Africa. Like many storytellers, Marlow speaks in a stream of consciousness, skipping forward and backward in time without warning. The reader is left to infer from symboli...

• Word Count: 4309
• Approx Pages: 17
• Grade Level: High School