..I know, just know, that you're excited, too.
1. Choose a complex and important character who might - on the basis of the character's actions alone - be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain how and why the full presentation of the character makes us act more sympathetically than we otherwise might.
2. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "literature is the question minus the answer." Write an essay in which you analyze a central question which Heart of Darkness raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how Conrad's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.
3. The structure of the novella Heart of Darkness raises questions about the location and meaning of "the heart of darkness." Marlow draws nearer to the heart of darkness as he moves deeper into the African jungle, yet he also draws nearer to Kurtz at the same time. Finally, as we realize in the end, the plot of the novel brings us full circle back to England, to the illusions of Kurtz's intended, which Marlow is unwilling to disturb with the horrible truth. Make an argument: what is the true heart of darkness?
4. The topic of your choice! Run it by me by e-mail, first.
1. Choose a complex and important character who might - on the basis of the character's actions alone - be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain how and why the full presentation of the character makes us act more sympathetically than we otherwise might.
2. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "literature is the question minus the answer." Write an essay in which you analyze a central question which Heart of Darkness raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how Conrad's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.
3. The structure of the novella Heart of Darkness raises questions about the location and meaning of "the heart of darkness." Marlow draws nearer to the heart of darkness as he moves deeper into the African jungle, yet he also draws nearer to Kurtz at the same time. Finally, as we realize in the end, the plot of the novel brings us full circle back to England, to the illusions of Kurtz's intended, which Marlow is unwilling to disturb with the horrible truth. Make an argument: what is the true heart of darkness?
4. The topic of your choice! Run it by me by e-mail, first.
