Heart of Darkness

Thesis: How does Joseph Conrad convey the darkness he is referring to in the novel Heart of Darkness?

Conrad constantly is referring to things on the continent of Africa as dark. He also uses symbolism to show us this darkness, he does this through the black wool that the women he first meets when he goes to his interview for this new job.  It is very ironic that at the start of this journey he ends up going on for this new job he sees this black dark wool.  This could be a symbol of what the whole trip will be like, dark.  As Marlow arrives in Africa he again sees objects that he sees as dark.  He arrives to his first stop where he will be assigned a boat and set out on his first mission he sees a dark forest full of dying African slaves.  They have been worked to death, not only is the dark forest a symbol of the darkness but the fact that they have been worked to death is dark in itself.  “Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire.”(Conrad, 67)  This sacred fire that is talked about in this quote is referring to the fire that is in hell.  The way that these people act is quit hellish if I must say so myself.  When doing a trade of two chickens with a group of natives from the land on of these men started to beat their chief and was killed.  I don’t find the death of him hellish I find that him coming back and beating this man was.  Most of their actions are very hellish and they do not even realize.  This is probably due to their different way of life. Conrad does a good job with the repetitiveness of the word darkness throughout this novel helping him convey the title, this land has become a heart of darkness.

Thesis for Rufus at the Door

I am going to compare three short story's from the book Rufus at the Door.  These three stories are Rufus at the Door, The Life and Death of Delano Klein, and Dodgers Return, I will show how each of these stories uses some sort of Marxism and I will analyze the author, Jon Hassler's, purpose in using this literary lens.  In the short story, Rufus at the Door, the author uses Marxism by showing how people are not accepted into their community if they are not normal like the rest. They are rather shunned away into an insane asylum.  The Life and Death of Delano Klein shows us Marxism through the main character Delano.  He is a character that was never accepted for who he was throughout life, he was very reserved and kept to himself.  In his society many people created many relationships with others while he did not, they thought that this was out of the ordinary and so did his parents causing him to not be accepted into this society as others were.  The short story Dodgers Return shows how a boy who was not accepted into his social group uses people to climb that ladder in society that he was at the bottom of and works his way to the top of his social class.

Thesis:  Through the short stories Rufus at the Door, The Life and Death of Delano Klein, and Dodgers Return, Jon Hassler shows us Marxism by the way that each of the characters in these stories fit into their societies.

Fogarty.Anna.Rufus at the Door

In the short story Rufus at the Door the author, Jon Hassler uses postcolonialism to portray how this community and time setting degrades anyone who is not, what they consider, normal by locking them up in an asylum. When the narrators class goes to Rochester their teachers, especially Miss Sylvestri, portray this literary lense very well.  Miss Sylvestri constantly is referring to the people that live in the insane asylum as morons, imbeciles, idiots, and many other names that are very degrading.  “Mr. Lance drove the bus and Miss Sylvestri stood at his shoulder and delivered an unnecessary lecture about how lucky we were to have been spared from craziness and retardation.” (Hassler, 22) This quote is a prime example of how the teachers from the narrator's school, along with the rest of the community treat all of the people who have mental disorders.  Most people in this era thought that if you had anything wrong with you that you needed to be put in a mental hospital.  In this story the students even refer to a character, Henry Ahman who has epilepsy, as a moron.  This goes to show how horrible and degrading the community treats those who they classify as mentally challenged. Rufus and his mother had been one of the only ones in the society that were an exception to thinking that anyone who had a problem had to be kept in the insane asylum. The narrator was the other, he thought that Miss Sylvestri’s speech was “unnecessary.”  Even Rufus’s own family conformed to this degrading way of life that the rest of the community had on those they didn’t think were “normal” and ended up sending Rufus to the asylum.  Throughout this short story Miss Sylvestri and the rest of the community refer to those who live in the insane asylum as morons, imbeciles, idiots, and a lot of other degrading names and references.  By degrading all people who have any sort of problem at all, the community in this short story portrays a sense of postcolonialism.

Review of my short essay Rufus at the Door. To the introduction of this short essay I added in how the author uses postcolonialism, and I used the literary term time setting. Both of these things were suggested by my peers and I think they helped to strengthen my essay. I also added how not only Rufus and his mother are an exception to the community, but also the narrator. I also added the narrators view of how Miss Syilvestri's speech she gave the class was unnecessary.