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Heart Of Darkness
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Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness In the classic novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad takes us on a journey into the soul of man. When the character of Marlow travels into the jungle of Africa to find Kurtz, he realizes that he is in a place where the rules of society no longer constrain human nature, and the frightening truths about human beings can be observed first hand. Marlow finds that human nature is something terrible and unlimited by observing the effects of such freedom on Kurtz. He also discovers that human nature is able to be altered (subject to the constraints placed on it by the environment), and that it is able to be either good or evil. The temptation of evil, existing the most in an environment lacking any rules, creates a turmoil in the human soul, as it struggles between its conscience and its tendencies towards evil. Kurtz confides in Marlow near the end of the book, and from him Marlow learns about human nature as he examines Kurtz's destroyed soul. Marlow says, "By being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and....it had gone mad" (p.150). Marlow observes how Kurtz struggles with himself, and the horrors of the wilderness that he had given in to. When Marlow arrives at Kurtz's station, he finds that Kurtz participates in horrible ceremonies, like one in which he beheaded natives and placed their heads on fence posts as symbols. Marlow believes that the wilderness "whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, thing...
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