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JOSEPH CONRAD 1857-1924 - Coggle Diagram
JOSEPH CONRAD 1857-1924
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HEART OF DARKNESS (1902)
THE STORY:Heart of Darkness:The novella begins with a group of passengers aboard a boat floating on the River Thames. One of them, Charlie Marlow, relates to his fellow seafarers an experience of his that took place on another river altogether—the Congo River in Africa. ( as an ivory transporter down the Congo). Through his journey, Marlow develops an intense interest in investigating Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, and Marlow is shocked upon seeing what the European traders have done to the natives.
The closer he gets to Kurtz, the more he is afraid. then he met a russian sailor who tells him that Kurtz has became like a god to the natives ( marlow finds the riverbank lined with rows of several human heads, human sacrifice, which tells him that Kurtz has lost his mind and has gone beyond the limits of civilisation
kurtz, weakened by his illness, dies on the retourn journey. his last words are " the horror, the horror" ( he saw the heart of darkness).
when Marlow meets Kurtz's fiancee in Belgium, he decided to tell her that the last word he spoke before he died was her name
interpretations
stereotypical presentation of indigenous people, BUT also DENUNCIATION of the mechanisms of empire ( " the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience". he challenges many conventions of imperialistic travel
Marlow is ambivalent and problematic: his journey into the DARKNESS OF HUMAN NATURE and into human consciousness
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