What is Marlow’s purpose in telling this story to the others? What might he hope to gain?

Question

Heart of Darkness

What is Marlow’s purpose in telling this story to the others? What might he hope to gain?

I have to have all 12 of these answered by tomorrow, but i never read the book, i just transferred into the class yesterday.. help!

there’s not just one right answer.

1.What is Marlow’s purpose in telling this story to the others? What might he hope to gain?

2.What are the consequences of Marlow’s insatiable curiosity? About the jungle? About Kurtz?

3.What is the nature of madness in Heart of Darkness? What brings it on? Is it something that every man can fall into or is it simply the environment that instigates it?

4.What is the nature of obsession and ambition? What are some specific examples of certain characters being obsessed with something or having too much ambition? What consequences does it have?

5.Is Chinua Achebe correct in accusing Heart of Darkness of being a racist novel? Does the book present a simple and degrading view of the native Africans? Or are the views of race more complex?

6.How does Conrad depict Africans as different from Europeans? Does this characterization degrade them?

7.How does Conrad complicate the idea of colonization being "good"? What kind of negative effects does it have on both white men and the black men of Africa? Who suffers more?

8.What is Kurtz passing judgment upon when he voices his famous last words: "The horror! The horror!"?

9.Much of our information of Kurtz comes secondhand or through the grapevine. How does that affect our vision of him when we finally see him in person? Does Kurtz live up to our expectations?

10.Consider the accountant, the manager, and the brickmaker – all puppets of the Company. What negative concepts or themes might each one represent? How are they different from one another?

11.What is the effect of the narrative being told by Marlow first-hand? What is the effect of having this narration as a frame story told by the nameless narrator?

12.What’s going on with the names, here? The only names we get are "Marlow" and "Kurtz." Everyone else is defined by their occupation, a physical description, or their relation to a named character. Does this demean their importance? Does it level the statuses of white and black individuals?

Asked by kaitlyn s #195715 on 8/15/2011 5:01 PM

Last updated by Malaika M #1261866 on 1/4/2023 5:59 PM

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Answered by Aslan on 8/15/2011 5:16 PM

Hi, it's a pretty interesting book. I think that you will have to submit your questions separately to get many responses. Those are allot of questions for one submission. In any case, to your first question. Marlow is telling this story as more of a chronicle of imperial rule at the time. I know that the British were not alone in exploiting colonies that they had taken. It was very much a European story of cruelty and complete disregard for indigenous peoples of the country. Marlow's metaphor is that the heart of darkness is not necessarily lie in the depths of the "savages" in the Congo but rather in the hearts of the white men who exploit it. The book is also a chronicle of the authentic. This place was something that very few westerners had seen or heard about before. Take a look at some of the previous questions in GradeSaver and you might also find some detail.

Answered by Malaika M #1261866 on 1/4/2023 5:59 PM

What’s going on with the names, here? The only names we get are "Marlow" and "Kurtz." Everyone else is defined by their occupation, a physical description, or their relation to a named character. Does this demean their importance? Does it level the statuses of white and black individuals?

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What’s going on with the names, here? The only names we get are "Marlow" and "Kurtz." Everyone else is defined by their occupation, a physical description, or their relation to a named character. Does this demean their importance? Does it level the statuses of white and black individuals?

Answers 2

Source(s)

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