Heart of Darkness A Character’s Walk to a Station

This passage, told from the viewpoint of a character, describes said character’s walk to a station. On the way, he encounters a group of dying black people, overworked and starved, as well as a spotless white man. The passage is mainly concerned with giving thorough descriptions of each, and thus establishing a direct contrast between the two appearances. This passage is told from a first-person point of view, and the narrator is clearly a figure involved in the story. In fact, at least in this passage, the speaker is the central character, recounting his story to the reader. The passage is written in past tense, which further adds to the impression that the story is being directly recounted to the reader by one of the characters, who has†¦show more content†¦The narrator speaks of him as a â€Å"vision† and â€Å"miracle†, and he seems rather unreal to the reader as well. This man also seems to bring up the theme of how important it is to â€Å"[keep] up [one’s] appearance.† – to the reader today, this mention almost brings up a feeling of bitter humor, as it seems like a ridiculous concept to walk around in a â€Å"high starched collar† when a few steps away dozens of people are dying. This may convey some of the colonial attitudes of the time. As the passage is told from the point of view of a person in the story, the reader also gets conveyed much of the narrator’s opinions. One thing that is very noticeable is that while the narrator is â€Å"horror-struck† at the sight of the dying people, he never once adopts a tone of pity or evokes a feeling of sympathy – he simply moves on – as if the spectacle, while terrifying, were something natural, and normal. This demonstrates the attitude of the times to the reader – the narrator instead respects the white man with the flawless appearance: â€Å"I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair.† The author not only appeals to the reader’s sense of color, but also to that of hearing. Upon entering the forest, the speaker hears â€Å"an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise† – again, the author has used a series of adjectives to provide aShow MoreRelatedWilliam Conrad s Heart Of Darkness And Lord Jim, And The Importance Of Being Earnest1763 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"To Live is to Be†: Existentialism in Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, and The Importance of Being Earnest During the modernist era of literature; a recurrent theme was prevalent in their works of art. The idea of existentialism revolving around the notion that you first experience life before you can begin to exist and understand yourself. This ideology stemmed from the main fear of the era; the end of the century. The fear of the unknown; the fear of what was to come in the following century (if itRead MoreModernism And Existentialism1814 Words   |  8 Pageswhile you might have certain values in life there are moments that will either solidify them or change them. Therefore, experiences rather than internalized beliefs are what makes a person who they are. For example, in the works of Conrad; Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, and Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, all the characters struggle with a certain perception of themselves. They all have internalized ideas of who they want to be or rather who they think they are but through the novels