What does Africa represent in Heart of Darkness?

What does Africa represent in Heart of Darkness?

Throughout Heart of Darkness Conrad uses images of darkness to represent Africa. Darkness is everything that is unknown, primitive, evil, and impenetrable. To Conrad, Africa is the very representation of darkness.

Why was Okonkwo banished from his village?

Because the accidental killing of a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess, Okonkwo and his family must be exiled from Umuofia for seven years. The family moves to Okonkwo’s mother’s native village, Mbanta. He gives Okonkwo a plot of land on which to farm and build a compound for his family.

Where does Heart of Darkness take place?

Congo Free State

Why is Congo called the Heart of Darkness?

Joseph Conrad’s most read novella Heart of Darkness has double meaning in its title. One dictionary meaning is that the title refers to the interior of the Africa called Congo. Another hidden meaning is, the title stands for the darkness or the primitiveness that every person possesses in his or her mind and heart.

Did Okonkwo kill his son?

Okonkwo participates in the ceremony for sacrificing the boy after being strongly discouraged, and he delivers the death blow because he is “afraid of being thought weak.” At a deep, emotional level, Okonkwo kills a boy who “could hardly imagine that Okonkwo was not his real father” — someone whom Okonkwo truly loves …

Why did Kurtz die?

While he used to worry about the best ways to bring (as his painting demonstrates) the “light” of civilization to the Congo, he dies as a man believing that the Company should simply “Exterminate all the brutes!”

What is the moral of Heart of Darkness?

The novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has a strong theme of morality. Conrad’s goal using morality is moral confusion. The main character Charlie Marlow sets out on a journey with the European Ivory Trade to Africa. During this journey he discovers a dark dilemma of moral ethics.

How are things fall apart and Heart of Darkness similar?

Things Fall Apart works like a historical novel (Lukacs), with its sights on the cultural revolution in the offing, and represents character in letting the sequence unfold. In The Heart of Darkness, on the other hand, narrative attention is focused more on the characters themselves, observing, commenting, assessing.

What does Kurtz symbolize in Heart of Darkness?

Kurtz, one of the leading characters, the other being Marlow, the narrator of the soty, represents many symbols in the novel. Firstly, he symbolizes the greed and the commercial mentality of the white people of the western countries. Secondly, he symbolizes the white man’s love of power.