Foreshadowing In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness
In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” the author describes the story told by Marlow on the journey through the Congo river to meet a man named Kurtz is highly revered in these interior parts of Africa and considered a god. He uses very descriptive detail and and many literary devices such as metaphors, symbols, irony, and foreshadowing to show the widespread brutality and darkness that takes place within these people in these rural parts of Africa. Starting with the title itself, “Heart of Darkness,” Joseph Conrad uses it as a metaphor to compare the evil inherent in Kurtz and other men that they embody. When Kurtz dies, there are flies all around his dead body, the flies being symbols of death and corruption, which are appropriate to associate
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When Marlow comes to find out that the trade company hasn’t heard from Kurtz in a long time but knows he is still alive because the ivory shipments are continuously still being made out of the inner station. This is an example of foreshadowing because normally the first thing people would do is establish communication with the people that he works with, but Kurtz was disconnected from civilization and had no interest in changing his ways. This was a sign of weird things happenings and darker things to come in the near future. Another example is that of the satisfaction the company has when they continuously get their shipments of ivory, regardless of how they got it, they are still satisfied. No one is even worried when the communication stops from the Inner station and as long as they still get their shipments, no one really seems to be extremely worried about it. This foreshadows that human life and the way things are taking place down there really aren’t of much concern to the company as long as they keep getting their ivory. Conrad also uses the two women knitting as a foreshadowing for Marlow’s horrific journey into the the interior. He also uses foreshadowing with the title itself, at first many thinking it just meant to refer to the dark jungle that the leaves even seemed black, also referring to the darkness along the Congo river where the sun did not reach the densely shaded areas, but once Marlow got to the lower station and saw the treatment of the workers by the the white guards and started to show that the darkness referring to the jungle was nothing compared to what Marlow and his crew were about to see on the rest of their journey to bring back
When Marlow comes to find out that the trade company hasn’t heard from Kurtz in a long time but knows he is still alive because the ivory shipments are continuously still being made out of the inner station. This is an example of foreshadowing because normally the first thing people would do is establish communication with the people that he works with, but Kurtz was disconnected from civilization and had no interest in changing his ways. This was a sign of weird things happenings and darker things to come in the near future. Another example is that of the satisfaction the company has when they continuously get their shipments of ivory, regardless of how they got it, they are still satisfied. No one is even worried when the communication stops from the Inner station and as long as they still get their shipments, no one really seems to be extremely worried about it. This foreshadows that human life and the way things are taking place down there really aren’t of much concern to the company as long as they keep getting their ivory. Conrad also uses the two women knitting as a foreshadowing for Marlow’s horrific journey into the the interior. He also uses foreshadowing with the title itself, at first many thinking it just meant to refer to the dark jungle that the leaves even seemed black, also referring to the darkness along the Congo river where the sun did not reach the densely shaded areas, but once Marlow got to the lower station and saw the treatment of the workers by the the white guards and started to show that the darkness referring to the jungle was nothing compared to what Marlow and his crew were about to see on the rest of their journey to bring back