Of Darkness Essay, Research Paper
novels. Throughout Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness the importance of restraint
is greatly stressed. This being the restraint to remain human and maintain sanity. In Heart
of Darkness, Marlow was able to remain his restriant despite how difficult it was for him.
He was always surrounded by cannibals and constant chaos. On the other hand, Kurtz
was unable to keep his restriant, as a result he lost his humanity and sanity, and eventually
died because of it. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph is able to restrain restrain, and he therefore
remains human. He found it difficult though, because there was only one other person
who was able to do the same- Piggy. Ralph was determined to maintain order, and he was
very alone because of it. Jack on the other hand, gave in to the temptationof simply
hunting and playing, and lost his humanity in the process. He became a savage – not a
human being, but a savage with a painted body and strange barbaric ways. In contrast, the
cannibals in Heart of Darkness, (who are starving) could have easily had many satisfying
meals. After all, they outnumbered the whites thirty to five, but they still had necessary
restraint to refrain from savagely feasting on some of the easily accessible seamen.
Towards the end of the novel, Marlow becomes becomes very close to losing his sanity,
but also has the necessary restraint to maintain it. He confuses the beat
to man’s primative side) with his own heartbeat, but is still able to restrain from slipping
over the edge as Kurt did. Ralph in Lord of the Flies is constantly faced with temptation
to join Jack and all of the other boys, especially when Piggy dies and he is all alone. This
makes it even more difficult to restrain from giving in to Jack and his animalistic tribe.
Therefore, it is evident how important restrain is in these two novels. The ability to do so
may be the difference between life and death, and the one who can restrain himself teh
most is the one who prevails in the end.
In conclusion, it is evident that the authors of these two novels wrote about their
own life experiences because they were able to draw emotion form things that actually
haopened to them. Also, through Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness, Golding and
Conrad were able to express the isolation that some of the characters were forced to
endure, and the importance of restraint in dealing with one’s humanity. These compelling
novels leave the reader with two possible questions. Would I be able to cope with the
intense isolation? And, do I have the necessary restriant to maintain the humanity which
so many people take for granted? finally, the reader would be left with a better
understanding of the darkness, which Golding and Conrad believed, each and every one of
us possess somewhere, deep down inside.