Nomination in Heart of Darkness By Megan Ryan, Elizabeth Schlesinger, and Amy Torbert

People The Narrator –“–“He was silent for a long time.” The “Intended” –“–“They – the women – are out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own less ours gets worse. You should have heard the disinterred body of Mr. Kurtz, “My Intended.” The Manager –“–“It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence that barren darkness of his heart.”

The “Heart of Darkness” p. 9 and 10 “This has been one of the dark places on earth” p. 12 “The Continent” p. 34 “Anything can be done in this country” p. 37 “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” Reflection – Everything about the place in Marlow’s recollection is sinister and dark, literally. The place is described by colors: those of the people and the surroundings. The profound darkness of the place contrasts starkly with the fires that blaze in the forests, symbolic of the life within the void. The place is never named specifically perhaps because imperialism ran rampant all over the world, and similar conditions could have existed anywhere. Also, this lack of specificity allows the reader to connect personally with the experience of the characters, by not specifically tying the events to one place or set of people

Jump Between Decades P. 11: “I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to be personally…” “Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps.” “True, by this time it [the place Marlow wanted to visit] was not a blank space any more…” P : “’he was very little more than a voice…’ he was silent for a long time. ‘I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie…’”

Marlow’s Reaction to the Jungle P. 37: “trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up height, and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream…” –Through Marlow’s vivid descriptions of the jungle and the surrounding area, one can not only picture the jungle but because Marlow describes the feelings that it creates in people, one can place themselves right in the jungle, reacting to things through their own imagination.

The Nature of Ceremonies p. 56 “He came to them with thunder and lightning.” p. 58 “I do not want to know anything of the ceremonies when approaching Mr. Kurtz.” p. 59 “…as if the forest that had ejected these beings so suddenly had drawn them in again as the breath is drawn in a long aspiration.” p. 68 “The horror! The horror!” Kurtz is referred to by name many times by those who do not know him, but his nearest contacts refer to him mythically. First, the Bacchus reference ties to his thundering entrance into the Congo. The people of the forest also emerge and withdraw to the beat of the ceremonial drum, aligned to Kurtz’s last breaths and the beat of Marlow's heart.

Reflections Conrad uses this method in order to allow the reader to use their imagination, developing the characters based upon the reader’s own perception and not the perception of the author

Bibliography Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Norton Critical Editions; New York, New York Weiss, James. Monarch Critical Notes on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Simon & Schuster, Inc.; New York, New York