Heart Of Darkness Essay Research Paper The

Heart Of Darkness Essay, Research Paper

The imagery of dark and light is never clearly defined but the linkage between the two in this novel is obviously clear. Light indicates self-knowledge, civilization and enlightenment. The darkness is in the title and also the major theme of this book. Darkness represents wilderness, evil and greed. Conrad tells us about the nature of the human?s heart and how it turns from good to bad. Since this novel leans toward the dark more than light, the dark will be our focus of attention.

Conrad leaves the meaning of this darkness hazy on purpose. In clearer terms, you can?t easily reduce the meaning to a couple of sentences. He (Conrad) hints at and suggests the meaning which was meant for the ?civilized? back home (and us) to figure out on their own. This quality I think was meant to make this event (colonization of the Congo) linger in the readers mind and make them feel the creepiness of the whole ordeal.

One might think that darkness in this novel refers to the Congo, the African people who live there, how they lived in ignorance, behaved savagely and brutally. This all might be true and to a certain degree should be true. So far darkness is used as a symbol of ignorance and primitiveness. Darkness could be clearer to us if we looked at it from a different angle.