Conrad drew attention to the last pages of ”Heart of Darkness” in his letter of 31 May 1902 to William Blackwood, in which he says that ”the interview of the man and the girl locks in—as it were—the whole 30000 words of narrative description into one suggestive view of a whole phase of life, and…
Tag: Novels
Heart of Darkness – Analysis
Many of Conrad’s stories take place primarily in the all-male environment of the sailing ship, or other all-male social or work settings. Yet, the female characters in “Heart of Darkness” play an important role in the central themes and symbolism of the story. Female characters here include: Marlow’s aunt, who helps him to get the…
Heart of Darkness – Setting
Apocalypse Now The 1978 film Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is based on Conrad’s story ”Heart of Darkness.” While Conrad’s story is set in the Congo in the 1890s, and is a commentary on imperialism in the form of Belgian colonization, Coppola’s film is set during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and…
Heart of Darkness – Narrator – Imagery
Narrator Narrative technique is an important element of Conrad’s literary style. This story is structured as an “embedded narrative.” This means that the central story, narrated by the fictional character Charlie Marlow, is “embedded” in a “frame” narrative, whereby the ”frame” narrator introduces Marlow’s character, and presents the central story as a direct quotation from…
Heart of Darkness – Themes
Civilization and the Primitive The central theme around which this story revolves is civilization versus wilderness. The symbolism that represents this theme is the opposition of light versus darkness. As in much of European art and literature, the imagery of ‘ ‘light” is associated with Western culture, civilization, knowledge, and the conscious mind. The imagery…
Heart of Darkness – Characters
The Harlequin Russian Soldier The Harlequin Russian soldier greets Marlow upon his arrival at Kurtz’s compound. A Westerner, he seems half-crazed and maniacally obsessed with the worship of Kurtz as an exceptional being. Kurtz Kurtz is a Company employee of “unsound methods,” whom Marlow has been charged with retrieving from the depths of the Congo….
Heart of Darkness – Summary
“Heart of Darkness” begins with the “frame” narrator’s description of a group of men relaxing on a private yacht one evening. One of the men, Charlie Marlow, a sailor, commences to tell his friends a tale of one of his adventures as the captain of a steamboat going down the Congo River. The rest of…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Analysis – Essay
The ‘‘true’’ identity of the narrator of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the novel to understand. The novel depicts two personalities: the now-dead Phaedrus and the lonely, empty man who remained after undergoing shock therapy. The actual storyteller, it may be argued, is neither…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Setting
Conservative Reactions to Communist Fears in the 1950s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was published in 1974, but it takes place in two different time periods. The Phaedrus phase of the narrator’s life occurs in the 1950s. The real-life motorcycle trip Pirsig writes about in the novel took place in 1968, several years…
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Literary Devices
First-Person Narrative Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is written as a first-person narrative describing the cross-country motorcycle trip of the narrator and his companions. The unnamed narrator refers to himself as ‘‘I.’’ The sections of the book in which the account of the narrator’s travels with his son are being directly related are…