Stupid paper. *hates* *kicks things* *sulks*

[elsajeni]

Okay, so, is this a paper about Heart of Darkness?

Thesis:

As Marlow makes the physical journey from Europe to the depths of the African jungle, he also makes the psychological journey from reality to the same madness as Kurtz.


Subtopics:

1. Conrad’s use of vocabulary, details, and setting to establish a detachment from reality.

2. Kurtz's madness itself, and Marlow’s connection to Kurtz.

3. The permanent changes the journey makes in Marlow, except that this subtopic sucks and I hate it, but I can't think of anything better. Can anyone else? Please?

Comments

[gold-tree.livejournal.com]

you could randomly throw in the whole 'what is reality' and 'what is madness' question... or just overall address the significance of the psychological transformation for those of us observing it.

sorry i'm not more helpful.

[crazybassguy.livejournal.com]

You could always discuss the parallels that exist between Heart of Darkness and Dante's Inferno. They exuist in the style that I like to refer to as "punch-you-in-the-face symbolism".

'Couse, this all hinges on whether you've read Dante or not :-P

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

I have, theoretically, read the Inferno. "Theoretically" being the key word there, because my English teacher assigned each student a particular canto to present to the rest of the class, so no one actually needed to read more than their one lonely canto. Mine was the one with the demon-farts, and that's about all I remember from the entire thing.

[gold-tree.livejournal.com]

demon-farts?

[kspunkyz.livejournal.com]

is it exactly that marlow suffers the same madness? i mean, marlow's epiphany, his realization about mankind, allows him to connect with kurtz and understand kurtz's madness, but it doesn't really drive marlow to madness as it does kurtz, right? that's why it's not completely hopeless, because marlow is able to cope with the knowledge in a way that kurtz was unable. it's been a while since i read it, though.

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

I've fixed it now, so that it's aimed more where I meant it to be, which is actually at the connection/understanding that you mentioned. Thanks.

[sharpobjects.livejournal.com]

Why exactly is it that the insane Kurtz has to be shown in the jungle? It's not enough that that was what Conrad knew about out of experience. Why does this guy flip out here instead of, say, Australia or Finnland? How is the environment integral to all this?