The setting, symbols, and the characters each contain light and dark images create the center theme of the novel. ... The river is the first of these symbols to appear in the story. ... Right away as the reader is able to visualize both settings of each river, they are able to decipher Conrad's metaphor of civilization, representing goodness and light and the uncivilized representing evil and darkness. ... The literal journey into the jungle is a metaphor, or a symbol, for the journey into the uncharted human soul. ...

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

Kurtz resembles the archetypal "evil genius": the highly gifted but ultimately degenerate individual whose fall is the stuff of legend. ... Kurtz can be criticized in the same terms that Heart of Darkness is sometimes criticized: style entirely overrules substance, providing a justification for amorality and evil. ... His perverse honesty leads to his downfall, as his success threatens to expose the evil practices behind European activity in Africa. ...

• Word Count: 3088
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

At the same time, it also reinforces the theme of the story, that because man is evil inside, he cannot help but release that evil. ... By using its name as the title of the book, the author clarifies that the story is more about the inner evil of mankind than about the boys themselves. ... Golding uses the Lord of the Flies to symbolize the theme of man's inner evil. ... It is therefore not the same Satan, who tempted Christ, but rather a much more primitive, vile form of evil found inside all humans. (Dick, Bernard F. page 28) This is Golding's goal, to present mankind's evil ...

• Word Count: 4223
• Approx Pages: 17
• 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

Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, is a complex narrative that challenges the reader on several levels. On one level, this book can be read as a story about Charlie Marlow's (the novel's protagonist) journey to discover his inner self, or as a commentary on human identity in general. To become fully...

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