Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness was my least favorite of the three books. It was a slow read for me, and much of it took rereading and analyzing to understand the full context. I think it holds an important message, but maybe one that was more relevant during the peak of imperialism.

For Heart of Darkness I used the "text to world"/"creating trails" style of annotating because the concept was hard to grasp, and when I would read back through the chapter and annotate, "creating trails" helped me see the progress of the story and the message it was trying to get across. But I also used the "reading to writing"/"learning to write" style because I loved the subtle humor and sarcasm Conrad used to incorporate comedic breaks into a serious subject, and i would love to be able to do the same.

I also loved Conrad's use of symbolism in the title, referring not only to the Congolese jungle, but also to the deark heart of the Company and the way imperialism treated natives when claiming to be "civilizing" them. Heart of Darkness seemed to almost be hypocritical in the way that it chastised racism and imperialism, but also seemed to treat the natives and non-whites more like objects or livestock than humans, by referring to them as "machinery" or "savages," and assuming that their mental capacity was that of an immoral child's.

It was fascinating to read about imperialism through writing from a time when it was thought to be just. However, it was less interesting to me than the other two books we read because it had much less application to my life and the currect society we live in.