Heart Of Darkness
In it is the white invaders for instance, who are, almost without exception, embodiments of blindness, selfishness, and cruelty; and even in the cognitive domain, where such positive phrases as "to enlighten," for instance, are conventionally opposed to negative ones such as "to be in the dark," the traditional expectations are reversed. In Kurtz's painting, as we have seen, "the effect of the torch light on the face was sinister" (Watt 332). Ian Watt, author of "Impressionism and Symbolism in ," discusses about the destruction set upon the Congo by Europeans. The destruction set upon the Congo by Europeans led to the cry of Kurtz's last words, "The horror! The horror!" The horror in ...
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an orator, writer, poet, musician, artist, politician, ivory producer, and chief agent of the ivory company's Inner Station. yet, he was also a "hollow man," a man without basic integrity or any sense of social responsibility. "Kurtz issues the feeble cry, 'The horror! The horror!' and the man of vision, of poetry, the 'emissary of pity, and science, and progress' is gone. The jungle closes' round" (Labrasca 290). Kurtz being cut off from civilization reveals his dark side. Once he entered within his "" he was shielded from the light. Kurtz turned into a thief, murderer, raider, persecutor, and to climax all of his other shady practices, he allows himself to be worshipped as a god. E. N. Dorall, author of "Conrad and Coppola: Different Centers of Darkness," explains Kurtz's loss of his identity. Daring to face the consequences of his nature, he loses his identity; unable to be totally beast and never able to be fully human, he alternates between trying to return to the jungle and ...
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to last for a long time" (Dorall 309). The conditions described in reflect the horror of Kurtz's words: the chain gangs, the grove of death, the payment in brass rods, the cannibalism and the human skulls on the fence posts. Africans bound with thongs that contracted in the rain and cut to the bone, had their swollen hands beaten with rifle butts until they fell off. Chained slaves were forced to drink the white man's defecation, hands and feet were chopped off for their rings, men were lined up behind each other and shot with one cartridge, wounded prisoners were eaten by maggots till they died and were then thrown to starving dogs or devoured by cannibal tribes (Meyers 100). The ...
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Heart Of Darkness. (2006, May 4). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness/45402
"Heart Of Darkness." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 4 May. 2006. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness/45402>
"Heart Of Darkness." Essayworld.com. May 4, 2006. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness/45402.
"Heart Of Darkness." Essayworld.com. May 4, 2006. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness/45402.
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