Some of the symbols that make this story come alive are: the presence of fog, the painting that Kurtz painted of the blindfolded girl, the mysterious and evil jungle itself, the rushing waters of the Thames and Congo river, and most importantly the darkness. In most stories and novels black is the symbolic color of death or sadness, loneliness or greed, but the color that represents those words in Heart of Darkness is white. The fog in this novel is in a sense evil and indecipherable. ... It represents the ignorance of man. ... Darkness is death, loneliness, sickness, curiosity, and evil...

• Word Count: 923
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

This theme is very much reflected by the books" setting, plot structure and characterization, we all have the potential to be evil because evil exists within all of us. It shows how individuals can slowly deteriorate because of the evil lying within themselves. The evil of these books is the evil created by one's self and thrusted upon one's self. ... (Wilde 107) Dorian's lifestyle can be paralleled to the Congo in that it is similarly used to represent the absence of restraint and order. ... The evil that lies within all of us has a third and final way of showing itself. ...

• Word Count: 1170
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Throughout the novel, the darkness is a metaphor for evil, hatred, and fear as well as wild, elemental power. ... He is able to overcome his darkness, representing fear and hatred of the natives, by coming to understand the cannibals. ... Every little aspect of Kurtz is "consumed- by the evil, including his blood, tissues, cells, and flesh. ... The wilderness has taken charge now and evil has given it its human qualities. ... This darkness is evil, hatred, and fear or wild, elemental power. ...

• Word Count: 770
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The boys fall from innocence represents the loss of innocence of all mankind that Golding saw during the war. ... 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. ... 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 in its primal form, in existence even befo...

• Word Count: 4223
• Approx Pages: 17
• Grade Level: High School

Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Jung's Shadow Jung considered that an archetype that embodies the most archaic and obscure part of the human psychism and which represents the lowest part of the personality is the Shadow. ... The Shadow is the dark side of the ego that stores all the evil we are capable of. ... His transformation into the absolute evil, his decay into the evil within himself killed him. ... At the base, Marlow and Kurtz are one and the same being, but they represent the opposite ends of it. ... This is also the opposition between good and evil, the civilized and...

• Word Count: 1032
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Another important aspect of the paragraph is the use of the word, "knight- representing nobility accomplished during the flicker of civilization. ... The second river is the Congo River, which represents the ill of the uncivilized. 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. ... This represents a time lapse that occurred while Marlow was going back into his mind and even farther within himself to remember the darkne...

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

At the beginning of the story one feels that the jungle is evil and the civilized Europeans, represented by the Company, are more in tune to the right way a descent life should be lived. ... Surely the Company is wholly evil, but what virtues can be found in the sinister jungle? ... This novel is perhaps the best depiction of good and evil I have ever read. In the end, one feels evil lies more in our joke of civilization than in the unhindered jungle. ... Any evil the lion commits is part of its nature. ...

• Word Count: 1567
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

This once again proves just how dark and evil the Congo is. ... " As a fourth point of similarity, the evil nature of mankind was very well emphasized in the book as well as the movie. ... In the book, the evilness of mankind is more so seen through Kurtz and his behavior. ... By the same token, in "Apocalypse Now" Kurtz is the main character that displays the evilness of mankind, except that since the storyline takes place in Vietnam we are able to see how evil our society is as a whole, for example in the movie Kurtz says to his men: "Kill without feeling or passion, wi...

• Word Count: 2231
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Without a protective civilized society, Kurtz represents what every man will become if left to his own desires. ... Darkness is related to savagery and Marlow represents the civilized soul, which has not been drawn by a dark force. ... These stations represent symbolic stages in Marlow's journey of self-discovery. ... Marlow's trip from Europe to the outer then the central station already tests his capacity to differentiate between good and evil. ... The "hollow man," whose evil is the evil of vacancy will succumb. ...

• Word Count: 2429
• Approx Pages: 10
• 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

Kurtz may have been a civilized and brilliant man outside the jungle, but once descended into savagery, all his enlightenment turned into evil. ... "I had been represented to the wife of the high dignitary, and goodness know to how many more people besides, as an exceptional and gifted creature - a piece of good fortune for the Company - a man you don't get hold of every day. ...

• Word Count: 2335
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• 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 aware individuals, our identity must be open to all forms of alteration, even if this deviates from our social conditioning. The journey that Marlow embarks upon after he was charmed by the snake' is psychological as well as physical. On his voyage up the Congo River, Marlow is...

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