- What is the nature of madness in Heart of Darkness? What brings it on? Is it something that every man can fall into or is it simply the environment that instigates it?
- What is the nature of obsession and ambition? What are some specific examples of certain characters (try to avoid the obvious) being obsessed with something or having too much ambition? What consequences does it have?
- How does Conrad complicate the idea of colonization being "good"? What kind of negative effects does it have on both white men and the black men of Africa? Who suffers more?
- Much of our information of Kurtz comes secondhand or through rumors from others. How does that affect our vision of him when we finally see him in person? Does Kurtz live up to our expectations?
- Describe the use of "darkness" both in the book's title and as a symbol throughout the text. What does darkness represent? Is its meaning constant or does it change?
3 Comments
lizet Antonio
8/25/2016 11:36:32 pm
1. In the story Heart of Darkness the nature of madness is introduced when Marlow gets the job as captain and has a quest, to go find Mr. Kurtz and talk to him, as Marlow and some pilgrims go throughout the journey up to the Congo River in Central African he starts to notice something quite strange, through every stations he passes Marlow sees many Africans enslaved by the whites. In the story I found out that even though Marlow has seen madness throughout his journey the most interesting was Mr. Kurtz because he is not physically ill but mentally ill. Mr. Kurtz was once a noble conqueror but as I kept reading Mr. Kurtz becomes insane because of greed and the fact that he thought he can pick up an African village and rule it. In our days we don't fall into these kind of plots because we are now modernized, we learned that slavery was never a good moral because it doesn’t treat those who are mistreated as equal, but for the greed part it can come up to someone because greed is something powerful that can’t be controlled. For example when people have money and power they believe they can control the less which causes them to think they are better than everyone. The main concept is that it can not every men cannot relate to this because few can be Marlow and other can be Mr. Kurtz but many will be the less referring to the slaves.
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Juan Figueroa
8/26/2016 09:39:59 pm
1. In "The Heart of Darkness," madness is created by the character's true personality. In the book, refined Europeans are introduced to Africa's primitive and wild environment. Such drastic changes in habitat can cause someone to go mad. Madness is within everyone, it becomes apparent when the facade created by each individual, in order to fit better into society, crumbles. The environment someone is in plays a vital part in revealing the madness the lies within each person.
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Rodolfo Valencia
8/26/2016 11:39:23 pm
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