Independent Novel Study- Theme
Theme: is the central topic or dilema in the story.
The theme directly involves the main character.
The story of the Garden of Evil relates to Heart of Darkness in the way
that the themes are similar. For example the evil that lies within us.
Yes I believe that the statement “Evil is Inherent in the Hearts of
Men” is true. Everybody has evil in them although a restriction would have
to be put on the statement to say that evil is inherent in men but it is
the power to overcome the evil.
The Quest Myth is about an adventure where the adventurer has something
he is looking for or something he has to do that he has not done yet maybe
to prove himself.
2. Heart of Darkness is a very good example of a Quest story. Marlowe is
risking life and limb inorder to fufill his adventure of meeting the
infamous Mr.Kurtz. Along Marlowe’s journey he meets bands of cannibles that
are ever posing a threat to his life. At the end of Heart of Darkness the
story becomes a Quest of the self. Marlowe is searching deep within himself
to comprehend what he is seeing with Mr.Kurtz and within himself he has to
conquor the evil that could take him over. It is a Quest for Marlowe to
search for his self being.
Independent Novel Study-Style
1. Irony-Occurs when a set of circumstances turn out very differently from
what was expected..
Foreshadowing-Gives the reader a hint to what will happen later in the
story.
Flashback-When they look bac at what they have done before.
Point of View-The point the story is told from.
Imagery-When a sentence or passage gives a good picture as to what is
going on.
Archetype-Struggle, Mans struggle for inner innocence.
Allegory-A story that has a main theme and a hidden moral.
Satire-To make fun of a situation.
Diction-refers to style of writing.
1. Throughout the story you thought Marlowe would find Kurtz and he would
be the intelligent person he thought he was. Then near the end people start
to say that Kurtz is a mad man which is foreshadowing to the end of the
story.
2. The River was the path of his Quest.
Light represents Marlowes inner self and darkness represents the evil
that is in Kurtz.
Kurtz is representing Marlowe’s Quest.
Ivory represents greed. Which causes the evil.
Rusting equipment represents the type of weather Marlowe is having and the time he has spent on his journey.
Marlowe’s Boat represents his passion for adventure.
3. The point of view in Heart Of Darkness is told from a first person
narrative.
4. The atmosphere is very suspenceful. Not knowing what is going to happen
next.
5. Heart of Darkness is an Allegory of an archetypal story because it
shows that you can’t judge people by their reputation only and it also has
the hidden moral of Marlowe’s struggle for inner innocence.
6. Conrad’s diction can be very confusing at times. Conrad seems jump from
back and forth in time. His imagery in the novel however is very good for
example “of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the
droop of heavy and motionless foliage.” (Conrad 62).
Indepndent Novel Study-Character
1. Marlow seems to have a calm, cool temperment. I though he workerd very
well as the narrator of the story. Although the jumping from past and
present made it difficult to sustain a clear image. Other than that the
accounts of what happened are usualy best told by the person involved. For
example the story would lack a lot of detail had it been told by Kurtz or
the Swedish Captain.
2. Kurtz is introduced as a super human being who everyone looks up to
because of his supirior math skills and he is very articulate. He excites
our interest because everybody talks so high of him we want to explore our
image of him.
3. Marlow said Kurtz was “Hollow to the Core” because he did not have
anytime for people who were into slacking on the job and holding little
regard for the company. Everything was strictly by the book with Kurtz. The
statement is true because at the end of the story kutrz does turn out not
to have a heart or soul of goodness.
4. Kurtz was a truely remarkable man because of the way he could change
himself from the evil being to such a good guy to people who had never met
him.
5. Marlow had a lot of compassion for Kurtz’s fiancee. She was a sweet
innocent girl who did not deserve to have her feelings crushed by what
Marlow could have told her. Marlow could have told her what a truely evil
man Kurtz was , how much greed he had and such but he decide it would be
best for her if he lied.
Independent Novel Study-Style
1. The structure of the piece is Marlow meeting Kurtz. It is organized from
Marlow knowing really little about Kurtz to the end when Marlow knows more
than he wanted. The tone of the piece is very suspenceful. Certain parts of
the diction are good, the jumping in and out of past and present make it
confusing. The central idea is Marlow’s Quest to meet Kurtz.
2. The impact is felt mostly at the end of the story. The sentences and
words were chosen very carefully that make for a definite reponse which is
similar amongst readers.
3. The author certainly does rely on his use of imagery to fill in a lot of
pieces. Which is good because his imagery is clever and is useful. The
author is probably a very visual person. He probably had a verl clear
vision of exactly how the story was to go in his mind.
4. The time of the story was late 1800’s. There are numerous passages
describing the cannibles along the shores Marlow wassteaming past. The
world was very different back then. The importance maintaing purity and
defeating the harmful affects of evil were an every day ritual. This story
reveals a lot about human nature.
Symbolism is the use of one object to represent another object or suggest
another object or idea. The symbol can also have more than one meaning.
Independent Novel Study- Value
Clarification
1. This novel changed my way of think by myself realizing that just because
I find it easy to maintain somewhat of a pure life other people have more
of a struggle which in this day could branch off and cause numerous social
problems which go unseen as what has caused them.
2. “This book made me intrigued”
3. Marlow changed somewhat during the novel . He became skeptical of things
towards the end of the story. Different opinions were hampering Marlow’s
fair judgement.
4. He met a person at a station that had a totally different opinion of
Kurtz that Marlow had never thought of before. He dealt with it with a
skeptical view.
5. Kurtz was definitely the villian in the story. I do not think he was
punished but he got what he deserved. It was not as if Marlow had killed
him for what he had done.
6. If I had to choose one friend from the novel I would choose the Swedish
captain of the steamer. I feel we would both hae a lot in common. We both
love the pilotage of boats through water and the marine way of life.
Heart of Darkness Vocabulary
Pg.
57 Ominous-1st paragraph 2nd last sentence
The high stillness confronted these two figures with its ominous patience.
57 Sagacious-2nd sentence
His sagacious relative lifted his head.
56 Indignation-5th last sentence
here he got choked by excessive indignation.
95 Vivaciously-2nd paragraph 10th line
Then vivaciously, My faith, your pilot house wants a clean up!
109 Appariton-last line 2nd paragraph
And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous
apparition of a woman.
98 Unscathed-3rd last line
Glamour urged him on, glamour kept him unscathed.
76 expounded-13th line
I expounded, was from our proximity to a great human passion let loose.
67 languidly-3rd paragraph 3rd line
the stern-wheel flopped languidly,
66 repulsive-9th line
with illustrative diagrams and repulsive tables of figures,
61 begrimed-10th line
crept the little begrimed steamboat,
61 ponderous-6th line
reverberating in hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern-wheel.
52 sordid-2nd paragraph 4th line
Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers:
90 serene-10th line
Like a flash of lightening in a serene sky.
91 profundity-15th line
And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when he recieved his
hurt remains to this day in my memory.
87 prodigious-10th line
It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst
into a prodigious peal of laughter
86 disinterred-11th line
You should have heard the disinterred body of Mr.Kurtz saying,
81 evanescent-2nd paragraph 11th line
leaping, gliding, distinct, incomplete, evanescent.
80 fusillade-14th line
A fusillade burst out under my feet.
78 forbearing-2nd paragraph
One of my hungry and forbearing friends sound in the bows just below me.
64 intrepidity-13th line
He squinted at the steam gaugeand at the water gauge with an evident
efffort of intrepidity.
