Free Essays on Darkness to Get Inspired & Learn by Example

The story Heart of Darkness portrays a narrator Marlowe, who tells about his journey into the heart of equatorial Africa. The goal of this trip is to reach the European commercial station company and pick up the goods accumulated there, namely ivory. Marlow tells about his journey to Africa, where he saw a cruel Kurtz, who mined ivory in the colonies. His narrative story describes how Europeans penetrate deep into the Congo on a boat; it is a journey to the "heart of darkness", like the road to hell. Marlow sympathetically portrays the plight of blacks who die of Continue reading...

Many of the greatest works of Victorian literature take a critical or satirical stance on the orthodoxy and imperialism inherent to English culture in the 1800s; from a class or gender perspective, Victorian English culture can be seen as restrictive, oppressive and dangerous to other cultures it interacts with and dominates. This is particularly true in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, as they both illustrate and condemn the reductive, limiting and patronizing attitudes the English have toward the Other. While Dracula himself is the personification of the Eastern European Other who may seek Continue reading...

Outlines

Object permanence refers to the presence of objects even when someone is unable to observe that object. This concept has been found to be among the important concepts in developmental psychology.
Researchers have reported that objects may remain in the mind of infants even after their disappearance from the eyes. However, disappearance method such as sending the object behind another object that hides it, or sending the object in the darkness, or fading the object, plays an important role in object permanence.

Studies are also showing that attention has an important role to the increased feelings of object permanence in infants.

Object permanence is the concept of the presence of objects even in the absence of their observation Continue reading...

The reign of evil in the form of imperialism, greed or lust for power and the prevailing moral and spiritual corruption in human society is the central theme of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He uses very strong symbolism to impress upon his reader the gravity of the situation. To portray the evil, the whole novel is filled with darkness. Nothing describes evil better than the symbolism of darkness. Everything in the book is shrouded in murkiness. All the places in the novel are portrayed as bleak and dull. Darkness consequently appears to work figuratively and existentially as well. Continue reading...

Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is a complex and tragic story about Charles Maslow and his work as an ivory transporter on the Congo River. Though only a short story, it tackles many concepts dealing with illegal and illicit activities. “Heart of Darkness” also attempts to expose the underworld that is living in the dangerous Central African Congo during this time. While the many multifaceted concepts in the short story are relevant, one theme that cries louder than the others is imperialism, its hypocrisy, and the lunacy that it contrives. Essentially, “Heart of Darkness” has a heart in Continue reading...

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness can be grouped along with the classy modernist literature which projects the relevant themes like estrangement, bewilderment, reflective qualm, colonialism and many in the list. Imperialism is nonetheless considered as the main issue of the novel. Although Heart of Darkness can be regarded as one of the first literary texts to offer a critical outlook of European imperial deeds, it was primarily read by critics as controversial. As Paul Poplawski comments, “The novel seems purposely to bring together ‘imperialism’ and ‘meaning’ as subtly interrelated historical issues of the day and it provides a Continue reading...

1. The Heart of Darkness was written by Joseph Conrad a Polish writer in the mid-19th century. The book centers its focus on the treatment of Africans as slaves, having no rights like their European counterparts. The novel was painfully accurate for it corresponds to the real situations of the world during the heights of the colonial powers. For example, ivory trade made the merchants grew rich whilst the constant hunting for elephants made them nearly extinct; another feature of the story is the cruel treatment of the Europeans to the African slaves. Also, Conrad’s accurate portrayal of Continue reading...

‘The Maltese Falcon’ is a typical depiction of genre convention. The story follows the crime and mystery pattern and absorbs the reader into it. The genre convention used in the story complies with the underpinning themes of corruption, deceit, suspense, mystery. The darkness and murky atmosphere created by the author makes all the readers ready for the proceeding story. In the novel ‘The Maltese Falcon’, the author has used genre convention frequently to give the reader the effect of a crime suspense story. The genre conventions used in the story has given the story a real taste of crime Continue reading...

It is the creative genius of a literary artist that makes him or her delve deep into the psyche of the individual. There are many examples of literary works that have embarked upon the journey of exploring the intricacies of emotions and relationships through the literary device of symbolism. Symbolic representation is one of the quintessential ways of portraying an emotion or event in the boundless realm of arts and aesthetics. In the short stories, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, and Raymond Carver’s Popular Mechanics, the avid readers come across a number of such symbols Continue reading...

David Bottom’s poems have always been intriguing and full of insights. His creative use of imagery and symbolism always makes his poems interesting and insightful as well. Though he has written many poems on many issues, his first two collections fit into the tradition of southern poetry. Much of his focus is on the problems of the South, especially in the twentieth century. Such problems include racism, lack of identity, frustration that come about when people live lives that are limited in opportunity and potential and the disappearance of the rural world into suburbia. In his poem “Shooting Continue reading...