Heart of Darkness Group

Question:

anime-fushigi
anime-fushigi
Student

What is the relevance of juxtaposing the rotting technology and the verdant jungle in "Heart of Darkness"?

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Posted by anime-fushigi on Sunday April 12, 2009 at 6:32 PM and tagged with heart of darkness, jungle, juxtaposing, relevance, technology.

Answers:


  1. ms-mcgregor Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Conrad is trying to show the effect the jungle has on men. The technology on which the Europeans depend so much becomes useless and eventually rots away in the hot, humid jungle environment. The same thing can be said of Kurtz and other colonials who come and try to "civilize" the inhabitants of the African jungle. Their values and usual behavior is useless in this new environment and eventually those value and more behavior "rots" both the Europeans and their technology.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/darkness

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    Posted by ms-mcgregor on Sunday April 12, 2009 at 6:42 PM

  2. loriwatson98
    loriwatson98

    I think technology and "society" are used as symbols for the aspects of our persona that are useful, good and visible.  They have their purpose, but need to be taken care of and protected against the constant encroachment of the darker side of us; the jungle. 

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    Posted by loriwatson98 on Wednesday April 29, 2009 at 5:18 PM