Week 2
Heart of Darkness

While reading Heart of Darkness I gathered quite the collection of mixed feelings. As far as the story line goes, this book sucked. Never has 133 pages been that painful to read. However the literary devices used in the novel were fantastic. There was a lot of great symbolism and meaning behind even the smallest things. But seriously, would I have killed Joseph Conrad to make this novel even a little bit interesting?

                Rather than spending my time and space in this paper trash talking Conrad and his lack of creative talent, I might as well talk about what he did well, his literary devices. Throughout the novella, the main theme is darkness. Even from page one, the concept of darkness is there. He uses the fact that while he tells the story it is twilight on the Thames to represent the coming darkness of the story. Furthermore, as the story goes on and becomes darker, so do the surroundings of the Thames.

                Another great analogy he uses of darkness is when he talks about how even England was one of the “dark places of the earth”. Of course he is talking about it being once uncivilized. But much like Africa, it was civilized, it just wasn’t modernized. Therefore the big bad rulers of the world came and shed some light on it with some good ole fashion murder and slavery. It’s kind of like a fraternity at a college, first you have to get treated like crap, but if you’re good enough, you get to be one of the cool kids eventually. It’s a viscous cycle; first Rome did it to Britain, now Britain is doing it to Africa. All in the name of “bettering the world”, which is usually code for “let’s go make money off the wazoo by taking control of the people who can’t stand up against us”.

                 Over all, was this novella fun to read? No, not at all. But was it worth it to read? Yes, very much so. This book is a right of passage, it takes a while to get through, but once you do you will have gained the world. Because anyone who realizes what happened to Kurtz has the upper hand in their own life and has a better chance of making sure they don’t go down the same path. So in conclusion, nice job Conrad, you created a masterpiece.