Major Term Paper.

  After several weeks of reading, researching, thinking, and writing, I finally handed in the English major term paper on Heart of Darkness; 2200 words that I surprisingly enjoyed much while writing it. I am in fact very proud of the effort and ideas that I put on this literary essay. Hopefully what I learned through this helps me during the university years. The following is the introductory paragraph that includes my unique thesis and brief directional statement:  

  Our experiences shape our view towards society and other human beings. Without any kind of new enlightenment, for example through learning or travelling, we are likely to be cloaked in an old paradigm and judge others based on stereotypes. However, if we are open to new experiences, we can see the reality behind the illusion. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, goes through a new experience; the journey along the Congo river in Africa which is the frontier of European colonialism. He changes his perception of the Europeans’ devotion to colonization of the continent of Africa. Conrad uses Marlow’s growing disillusionment with colonialism and its representative characters to illustrate the theme that encountering reality can change our perception. Marlow’s personal discovery of the inhumanity of the European colonists, unexpected civilization amongst the native Africans, and downfall of the colonial hope, represented by the idealistic figure, Kurtz, shows the contrast between the European view of colonialism in the 19th century and the actual reality in the colonial states of Africa.