Question

Essay help:
Please check my analysis for my homework essay on "Heart of Darkness"
Essay in comments.

Answer 1

Prompt: Select two contrasting locations in "Heart of Darkness" and discuss how the contrast between these two places serves to reinforce themes and ideas within the novel as a whole.

Answer 2

Essay:

Joseph Conrad’s “Hear of Darkness” is similar to a story of adventure. This story begins in an English ship, where a group of men is aboard, and this ship is sitting on Thames (a river connected to the sea). One of the men appears to be Marlow, a quiet character. While he is speaking about his journey up the river Congo, he (as the narrator observes), was telling the others about different places. He was contrasting them, Europe and Africa being an obvious contrast. I have chosen the contrasting locations: the civilization (where Marlow begins his journey) and savagery/ barbarism of the wild at the continent of Africa. Marlow is brought up to believe certain things about colonialist, but his views change as he experiences the effects of colonialist. He (Marlow) possesses negative views regarding colonialism – this appears to be formed through his experiences, and of course, his relationship to Kurtz.
The story has a big focus, which mainly closes in on shipmates in “Heart of Darkness” and on the colonization aspect. According to the story, the colonization affects Africa and a contrast between the peaceful European setting and the disarray of the African atmosphere, which is described by Marlow later in the story. In the European setting, Conrad’s description of Thames River is giving readers a glimpse into his imagery. Conrad’s imagery within “Heart of Darkness,” is supreme. The image is projected as Marlow views the Thames as “nearly calm” and that he believes that sails on his boat will not “flutter” until “tide subsides.” Marlow and the group of men on an English ship were waiting for the wind to pick up. While they were waiting, Marlow begins to speak about “some of the darkest places on earth,” Europe being one of them. Soon, he tells the other men of his personal experience in Africa. This has led him to the decision of becoming a fresh water sailor.

Answer 3

Nice job!

Answer 4

" According to the story, the colonization affects Africa and a contrast between the peaceful European setting and the disarray of the African atmosphere, which is described by Marlow later in the story."

Not sure if it's just me, but I find this sentence too vague.

Some suggestions/advice:
~In literary analysis, it is still a must to follow the basic structure of writing-intro, body and conclusion. But I understand that this is a rough draft so it's okay (:

~ It's better to write in 3rd person because using "I" (1st person) is too informal for this kind of paper.

~ I'm not sure about the format you're supposed to follow, but in my school we usually use present tense when analyzing a literature. The point is, always use one tense for the entire paper-don't switch them around. For example, the mistake that I always do is when I use past tense at the beginning, I always change to present tense in the middle or at the end of the paper.

~The most important thing is to avoid summarizing what happened in the story because there's a probability that you'll get off track with the topic that you're supposed to be doing.

That's all. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Thank you :)