( 25 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 2 2009
I had trouble understanding the purpose and fanfare of Conrad's dual works until I realized he was making a political and social statement. With this in mind, Conrad writes a masterful work on the corruption of the human soul by the greed of colonization. This work is beneficial to English teachers as well as history teachers as it presents the darkness of greed in a relevant setting. The Secret Sharer on the other hand is less influential. I found it intriguing and well written, but not the triumph Heart of Darkness is. While this is based on a true story, it is less interesting than giants of today. The historical context makes this book valuable. When Conrad first wrote and published this work, it was on the cutting edge of literature, but today is would be considered boring.
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Posted: Feb 24 2009
Though Joseph Conrad's famous novella, Heart of Darkness, can teach us much about human nature, it can also very easily put us to sleep. The powerful characters and their intriguing motives Conrad expresses in his novella opened our eyes to the extreme lengths people will go to in order to climb the social ladder ultimately becoming "top dog". It also exposed us to the harsh and often over-looked world of African racism in its rawest and truest form. This concept was quite new to us considering all we have previously been taught about racism was the overexposed aspect of racism in United States history. If only Conrad had made his writing as exciting and interesting as the in-depth themes he conveyed in Heart of Darkness, perhaps more readers would discover it in all its glory.
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Posted: Feb 24 2009
A short novella describing the adventures of a crew aboard a French steamer on the Belgian Congo in Africa in the late nineteenth century, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness weaves an intricate and at times, depressing tale of the inner struggle within humans. Like many of those who have posted before me, I believe that Heart of Darkness depicts the affects of the environment on one's psyche. The characters within the novella become corrupt and emotionally disturbed due to the nature of their surroundings. Africa, itself, is described as "barren" and "devoid of life." The tone of the story as well as the descriptions of the setting are very bleak and mysterious. This "corrupt" African environment and the journey on the steamer affect the characters in various ways.
