... the dark nature of the story. It forces the reader to see that the darkness is inside them, too. The story itself is a parody of the classic British children's story Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne. In this story, three boys, Ralph, Jack, and Peterkin, find themselves marooned on an island. ... All of this is later contradicted by what Marlow sees upon his meeting with Kurtz. Rather than a noble mind, Marlow is confronted with a human head "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-. The destruction of the illusions that various people had for Kurtz symbolize the absence of those charac...

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