... and every aspect of the setting can be paralleled to darkness and unknown aspects of one's own self. This aspect provides for the metaphorical ways of interpreting the novel. The novel opens on the deck of a large sailing vessel called the Nellie. As the reader is introduced to each character onboard the ship the sun is continuing its decent and shortly all will be exposed to the utter darkness ... brought upon with the approach of night. Marlow then begins the journey, which will ... bring the reader into the far reaches of the African Congo. This beginning scene is the first use of t...

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

... a nuclear war and has unraveled all around them. Golding uses the boys to create a microcosm by which he traces the evil in society back to the flaws of the individual characters. Conrad uses a similar technique in developing his characters into archetypes of mankind. Kurtz, although not a physical character throughout much of the book, is developed as an unrivaled success. To his cousin he is a wonderful ... musician; to his intended he was full of "his promises, and of all his greatness, of his generous mind, of his noble heart - Still to the journalist he is a politician and a leader...

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

... 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 confronted with culture clash, wilderness, disease, insanity and death and returns to Europe a cha...

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