heart of darkness ap lit essay prompts

AP English Literature and Composition

Put words under a magnifier, heart of darkness.

Heart of Darkness  by Joseph Conrad 

• A lecture  about Conrad
• Web English Teachers
• Synopsis of the Novella

Key Words: Close reading, Narrative, Narrator, Colonialism, Racism Time Frame: 15 classes (1 pre-reading, 10 lessons, 1 Wrap-up, 3 days of assessment)

Summary of the Unit

In this unit, students will confront the difficult text of Heart of Darkness. They will examine the ways in which the author uses narrators, symbolism, plot, characterization and dialogue to both disguise and reveal the meaning behind the story. Students will use the techniques of close reading to interpret brief passages of text. They will use close readings to make inferences and connections regarding the entire text. In the culminating performance task, students will complete a test based on the structure and context of the AP Exam in order to help them prepare for that test.

Enduring Understanding – Students will understand

• Sometimes it takes one great individual to bring the collective from the darkness to the light.
• Time filters truth and is the judge of history and people. Truth can stand the crucible of time.
• How language has the power to reveal a writer’s deepest thought and emotion.
• How a writer can hide behind his ambiguous language and manipulate his reader to determine what his attitude might be.
• Our history is a composite of human errors and the acknowledge of it will help us move forward.
• Writers create their own unique symbols to express meaning
• How the novel reflects the world as Conrad saw it.
• In Heart of Darkness , Kurtz is depicted as an upstanding European who has been transformed by his time in the jungle—away from his home, away from familiar people and food, and away from any community moral support that might have helped prevent him from becoming such a tyrant. There was nothing and no one, in essence, to keep him on the straight and narrow. Such a situation can change a person fundamentally.

Essential Questions  to be considered:

• Who or what is a ‘Civilized Man’ according to  Heart of Darkness ?
• What does the ‘Darkness’ represent in the  Heart of Darkness ?
• How do the human frailties of the narrator color the reader’s understanding of the text?
• How is the  Heart of Darkness  a critique of colonialism or a racist polemic?
• Why is our history a composite of human errors, intentional or unintentional?
• Why not everyone or nation learns from his or its mistakes?
• What is your impression of these opening pages from Heart of Darkness? Do the Africans seem stereotyped to you? What signs are there that the narrator is sympathetic to them?
• Why do people have different notions of truth and even knowingly turn from it?
• Why is darkness a good metaphor for “lies” or demoralizing act while the light for “truth”?
• Kurtz’s dying words are a cryptic whisper: “The horror, the horror.” What “horror” could Kurtz have been talking about? Is there more than one possibility? Why do you think Conrad made this scene so ambiguous?
• How could a strange environment where you are different from everyone else around you affect you or change you? Would the sitiation pull a person toward base and cruel instincts as Kurtz was? What would you do to cope with those feelings?
• What makes one culture “civilized” and another “savage” in the eyes of the world? Are these distinctions valid? Do you think that the culture you live in is “advanced” or “civilized”? Why?
• How is Conrad’s language in the Heart of Darkness so condensed or even cryptic ? How does such feature enhance or hinder your understanding of the central meaning?
• How is the  Heart of Darkness is strictly a political novella or a story about the human condition? Can a work of fiction be interpreted in different ways? Should readers consider the author’s intent when analyzing a story? Why?
• How is the Heart of Darkness can an incredibly dark and depressing story that paints civilizations in a very negative light? or rather it is quite a positive story?
• How does the  Heart of Darkness  illustrate some critics views that “the darkness of the landscape can lead to the darkness of social corruption”? How can one’s environment affect one’s actions, feelings, and morals? (Have you ever experienced a change in yourself that resulted from a change in your environment?)
• How can we use our understanding of truth , illusions, human errors and other insights to direct our own views and attitude toward the world we live in?
• Kurtz’s dying words are a cryptic whisper: “The horror, the
• horror.” What “horror” could Kurtz have been talking about? Is there more than one possibility? Why do you think Conrad made this scene so ambiguous?
• How is the Heart of Dark ness can an incredibly dark and depressing story that paints civilizations in a very negative light? or rather it is quite a positive story?
• Do you agree some critics’ comments that Marlow’s white lie at the end illustrates “Conrad’s ideas about how we all must be protected from the savagery inside us, just as Marlowe protected Kurtz’s fiancée from the ugly truth about the decline of the man she intended to marry”? Explain your answer.

Students will be able to( skills)-

• Interpret a very difficult text using close reading skills.
• multaneously consider multiple techniques for examining a text to create a nuanced reading of the text.
• Difficult texts need to be examined on multiple levels to achieve an understanding of the author’s intended meaning.
• Different methods of analyzing a text can and should be used to achieve a deeper understanding of the text.
• The  Heart of Darkness  can be read as both racist and anti-racist.
• Skills learned through the  Heart of Darkness  should be applied to other texts as well.

Students will be able to understand (meaning)-

• why good people make detrimental moral mistakes or choose to live in lies or not to see the truth.
• how the novel reflects the world as Conrad saw it.
• why critics have often written about Marlow’s white lie at the end. Some critics say it illustrates Conrad’s ideas about how we all must be protected from the savagery inside us, just as Marlowe protected Kurtz’s fiancée from the ugly truth about the decline of the man she intended to marry.
• Joseph Conrad’s style in  The Heart of Darkness : “Through settings, symbols, and Conrad’s impressionist style, Conrad is able to illustrate the impact of Marlow’s epiphany on his portrayal of humanity and on his responsibilities to mankind. Conrad’s use of a  frame novel  helps to convey the theme of universal darkness.”

Assessment s

Formative Assessment : Journal responses -reflective and dialectical  on truth vs. illusion etc.; learning logs on background information relating to  The Heart of Darkness  FAT -P(  format, audience, topic, purpose )

Other methods of Assessment : journal writing, reading quizzes, observations on small group discussions, creative responses, etc.

African characters rarely speak and have little or no individual identities. Imagine that you are one of the African characters from the novel and now have an opportunity to write a journal entry describing experiences in the novel from his or her perspective. Your journal entries should not be retellings of scenes from the novel. Instead, create scenes that logically might have occurred during the course of the novel but Conrad chose not to depict. Also you can communicate the feelings of the characters you are pretending to be.

• What words Marlow might use in talking to Kurtz’s fiancée.
• What feelings he might have while he talks to her and how he might show or not show those feelings
• How Kurtz’s fiancée might react to what she hears from Marlow
• What might happen between Marlow and Kurtz’s fiancée after he discloses the truth

Summative Assessment

1. There will be three AP style essay assignments: one is to compare the poem Evening Hawk with the themes of the book; the 2nd essay will be an AP style analysis of  a passage, an excerpt from The Heart of Darkness ; the 3rd essay will be an open-ended question AP style essay.

2. GRASP-(S)  To celebrate Joseph Conrad’s 150th year birthday and start a new city wide initiative of Youth Actions, (A)the Atlantic Monthly magazine and the City Council of New York together have called for a writing contest for (R) high school students who are to submit (P) creative works that focus on social corruptions and also bear distinctive Conradian style of writing such as sensory language, symbolic imagery, using symbols as motifs and social corruptions as theme, etc. In your AP English class, your teacher has asked each of you to submit an entry of such work Winners will be invited to(G) present at a City Council meeting on social corruptions and have the privilege of having the writing published in the Atlantic Monthly.

Vocabulary: See Appendix*

Materials : Heart of Darkness texts, post-it, worksheets, essay rubrics, Text-Based Study Questions, vocabulary sheet

• How to analyze a complex text ( http://www.goshen.edu/english/litanalysis-html/ )
• On Literary Criticism ( http://www.textetc.com/criticism.html )
• Notes on Conrad’s style ( http://litstudies.org/APEnglishLit/notesonJCStyle.html )
• A good list of resources you may find helpful:
• http://www.historyteacher.net/GlobalStudies/Africa_Colonialism.htm

Pre-Reading Activity

The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

Objective: Students will be able to conclude that truth is not always right and understand why truth can be biased.

Aim: How do we know what truth is? Why could prevent people from seeing the truth?

1. Do Now: In your journal, define truth and list three reasons why people cannot see the truth.

2. Teaching Point (Acquisition)-

• In what circumstances can people confuse truth(reality) with illusion(shadow)?
• What can shackles symbolize? Cave? Light?
• What are the two possible reactions from (cave) people who will be eventually brought up to the light? What can the world be like to them?

3. Small group discussion (meaning making)-

• Why do some return to the cave?
• What’s the true meaning of the allegory?
• Think of a real life example to illustrate the point.

4. Knowledge transfer (Assessment)- Think of a real life situation where people ( or you) confuse illusion with reality. How to avoid it?

HW#1 Describe an incidence in history when people believed they were doing the right thing ( knew the truth) and later was proven to be totally wrong ( illusion).

Pre-Reading

Prepare for the J igsaw Puzzle-Pre-Reading Activity

Each group will answer selected questions below:

Day 1   Prior Knowledge

Objective : Students will teach each other the necessary background information for the  Heart of Darkness . Students will be able to make suppositions regarding the purpose behind the  Heart of Darkness .

Aim: How can background information enrich our understanding of a text?

Agenda: Do Now: Journal – How do you think a country going through a genocide would look and feel?

Mini-Lesson:

• The importance of understanding a text’s context, i.e.historical backgroud(Acquisition) ( reference fro http://www.textetc.com/criticism.html)
• Historical:  Works are placed in their historical context — to explain not only their allusions and particular use of words, but the conventions and expectations of the times. The approach may be evaluative (i.e. the critic may suggest ways of responding to the poem once the perspective is corrected), or may simply use it as historical data.
• Biographical:  As with the historical approach, a work may be used to illuminate the writer’s psychology, or as biographic data. No less than the correspondence, remembered conversations, choice of reading matter, the poem is analyzed for relevance to its author.
• Sociological: Here the focus is on society as a whole, and critics assess the social factors at work in a poem, which may be everything from the attitudes a writer inherits from his social background to the markets which supported his literary efforts.
• Political: It may be the political movements the author supported which interest the critic, but more commonly the poem is assessed on political lines: how fairly or effectively it promotes political action or attitudes.
• Group Presentations (Meaning-Making): Groups will have 5 minutes to organize their presentations.
• Each group will have 5 minutes in front of the class to present.  Fish bowl  activity. One group presents and the others take notes and listen;
• Wrap up (Assessment) – Now that you have the background information for the  Heart of Darkness , why do you suppose Conrad wrote this book? (5 minutes)

Homework#2: Read pages 719-729. Answer the following questions while reading:

• Who is the narrator of this story? What do we know about him?
• Who is Marlow? What do we know about his ability to tell a story?
• Where is Marlow telling his story?
• Why is Marlow telling his story? How is Marlow telling his story?
• What connections does Marlow make between the ‘Darkness’ and London?
• Keep track of every mention of ‘heart,’ ‘darkness,’ ‘light’ and ‘soul’ either in your notebooks or in the margins of the text. Also consider similar words such as black, white, will, intellect, appetite, etc.

Day 2  (pages 719-729)  Narrative

Objectives: Students will analyze the passage by considering how multiple layers of narrators can complicate the reader’s understanding of the text.

Aim: How does our knowledge of the narrator affect the story he tells?

Do Now:  Take a quick survey of the  map of Africa from 1885-1914 . Make a statement about what the map conveys to you. View the  Congo river map  and raise a question based on what you know about the novella. Post the question and your statement in Turnitin.com

Mini-Lesson: :

• Frame narrator
• In the first few pages of Joseph Conrad’s  Heart of Darkness  we are given an overture of the rest of the work.  The character Marlow describes how England was once “one of the dark places of the earth.”  He continues by imagining how the Romans first came up the Thames and how these “were men enough to face the darkness,” cheered on by thought of “promotion,” but how many would succumb to the “mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungle, in the hearts of wild men.” What he has done is provide us with a “map” of the terrain we are about to follow–from the delta of civilization to the headwaters of humankind.
• Read around and circle key words that stand out for you. Create a semantic map using the words.
• Annotate the text
• Use a dialectical journal to read a text closely.
• Learn the questioning techniques- remember/knowledge, understand/comprehend, demonstrate/application, analyze, synthesize/evaluate
• As a class, we will complete a close reading of the paragraph that begins on 721 and ends on 722.
• What does this paragraph tell us about the rest of the story?

In small groups, discuss the following questions

• How does the frame narrator represent Marlow? What kind of man is he? Should we believe the story he is about to tell? Why or why not?
• What kind of insights have you gained by using one of the analysis approaches, such as historical, autobiographical, spcialogical or political?

As a group, come up with 3 questions of nay nature based on the selected passage.

Exit Slip (Assessment): What type of person is Marlow? Do you think he is a sympathetic character?

Homework #3:

1.Create a dialectical journal ( 10 entries minimum based on 719-729). Try to focus on different aspects of the text.

2.Read pages 729-739. Answer the following questions while reading:

• Who do you think Mr. Kurtz is?
• What are your impressions of Marlow’s trip down the African coast? What emotions do these descriptions evoke in the reader?
• What happens at the Central Station? How do you think this connects to the information we gathered prior to reading?
• What are Marlow’s first impressions of Africa?
• 3. Read the article  “Conrad’s Use of Journey Motif in Heart of Darkness”  and bring in your notes on the article. We will share the notes tomorrow.

Day 3 (pages729-739)   Symbolism  Objectives: Students will understand the  Heart of Darkness  employs many layers of symbolism and apply their understanding of symbolism to the rest of the text.

Aim: What does the ‘Darkness’ represent in the  Heart of Darkness ?

Do Now: What image comes to mind when you read/hear the title “Heart of Darkness”? What do you think he might mean by the symbol?

Key words: symbolism, representation, purpose

Mini-lesson: (Acquisition)

• Teaching Point-
• Review the Dialectical journal based on pages 719-729. Share the important details of symbolism, diction and central idea.
• What causes the meanings of a symbol change and how does the symbolic use of a word change the denotative meaning over time?
• Point of view-narrator, Marlow( European), Whites in general, Africans
• Cultural and social contexts
• multifacets of meanings
• What are the connotative meanings implied in a symbol, such as black, rhythmic clinking or ominous voice, “new forces”?
• Close reading: Paragraph from 730-731 – How are symbols such as “darkness” and “jungle” developed in this passage? What meanings do they reveal?

2. In your small Group ( meaning making) :

• Read the pages 332-333 passage starting from ”  A slight clinking …” to “…finally I descened the hill. ..”.
• Identify three symbols and explain how they are developed in the passage. What layers of meaning do the symbols take on? How do you think the symbols will develop throughout the story?

3. Transfer knowledge (Assessment): How are the symbols used in the novel still valid? What symbol would you use to describe your life right now?

Homework #4

1. Read pages 739-749. Complete a close reading of the complete paragraph on page 740.

• What symbols are evoked in this paragraph? How are these symbols developed? How is the character of Marlowe represented and developed through this paragraph?

2. Answer the following questions as you read the rest of the section:

• “White men with long staves in their hands appeared languidly…”:  this is Marlow’s first acquaintance with what he comes to dub “the pilgrims.”  Keep your eye out for his attitude towards them, and the reasons for it.  Also:  why do they appear this way?  What are they hanging around for?  What is their attitude towards the natives around them?
• Marlow learns the steamer he’s to pilot up the river has been sunk.  How did this come about?  What does it seem to indicate about the quality of management at the station?
• The Manager of the Central Station.
• What initial impression does he make on Marlow?
• What impression is made by his explanation of how the steamer ended up getting its bottom torn out?  What are we to infer the Manager has  really  been up to?
• What are “the redeeming facts of life” that Marlow fought to keep his hold on?  How did he do this?
• What’s the first-class agent’s job?  What do we learn of the personality of the first-class agent, from Marlow’s relation of his conversation with him? Why does this person want to make the acquaintance of Marlow?
• Can you paraphrase the sense of Marlow’s disquisition upon lies?
• What attitude does Marlow find himself taking on towards Kurtz?
• Why do you think Conrad arranged for the frame narrator to intrude, here?
• What does the incident with the hippopotamus remind us of?
• What does Marlow think is crucially important about work?

Day 4 ( pages 739-749)  Diction

Objectives:

• Students will understand why  Heart of Darkness  Joseph Conrad made the word choices that he did.
• Students will be able to analyze a passage using close reading skills for diction.
• Students will be able to apply their understanding of diction to the rest of the text.

Aim: How does diction affect the meaning of a text?

1. What difference in meaning and impact do you notice between “It was evident he took me for a perfectly shameless prevaricator” and “He thought I was a liar”? Read the poem below and discuss how diction affects the overall meaning of the poem.

2. Consider: Art is the  antidote  that can call us back from the edge of numbness, restoring the ability to feel for another -Barbara Kingsolver,  High Tide in Tucson

Discuss:  By using the word  antidote , what does the author imply about the inability to feel for another?

They gave me glasses and I saw clearly

Sometimes I long for the kind old mist. -by Jerene Cline

• Review dialectical journals and homework questions based on pages 729-739.
• Mini Lesson
• Diction: the choice of words used in a literary work. Literal vs. Connotative meaning
• Consider: ‘spectral illumination of moonshine’ vs. ‘grayish illumination of moonshine’ or ‘empty immensity of earth, sky, and water’ vs. ‘empty hugeness of earth, sky, and water’ or ‘the background was sombre’ vs. the ‘background was dark.’
• How does changing one word affect the meaning of the quote?
• What shades of meaning do we see in Conrad’s version that are lost in our translation?
• In class- Close reading: Paragraph from 742-743: “Then I noticed a small sketch in oils” (mid-paragraph) to “you won’t have the opportunity” – What words jump out to you in this passage? What meanings do they reveal? How does Conrad’s diction develop the symbols in this passage? What do we learn about Marlow, the narrator, through his word choice?
• In your small group : Read and respond, page 743-744 “He blew the candle out” to “meant as an appeal or as a menace.” What interesting word choices can you find? What connotations are these words taking on? What layers of meaning do the words take on? Are these words taking on symbolic meaning or developing symbols? (Meaning making)
• Transfer (Assessment): Word choice can have a huge impact in many aspects in life. Share a few situations where diction really matters.

Homework #5- 1. Complete a dialectical journal with at least 10 entries covering pages 739-749. 2. Read pages 749-759 and answer the following questions as you read the rest of the section:

• Marlow is lying on the deck of the steamboat he is repairing, when he overhears a conversation between the Manager and his uncle, the leader of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition.
• What are the important things he learns from this exchange?
• What is the uncle gesturing towards at the end?
• When the EEE leaves, news filters back about what became of it.  What is Marlow referring to by the phrase “the less valuable animals”?
• On page 752, the frame narrator interjects. Why did Conrad arrange for this at this point, and why did he arrange for it to happen on the issue it does? What is the importance?
• What does Marlow say kept him from succumbing to madness?
• What is Marlow’s attitude towards the fireman in charge of stoking the boiler on the steamer?  It’s complicated.  What elements does it seem to be composed of?  Which element predominates?
• About 50 miles below the Inner Station:  a wood stack (for what?) and a warning (what?). What questions does this encounter raise?
• What does Marlow mean when he says, “The manager displayed a beautiful resignation”?  (What’s the tone here?)
• What would Marlow be saying if he were to “talk openly with Kurtz”?
• What temptation is Marlow near to when he has the sudden feeling that “What did it matter what anyone knew or ignored?  What did it matter who was manager?”
• What insight is Marlow referring to when he says, “One gets sometimes such a flash of insight”?  How does this claim square with the one that follows:  “The essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power of meddling.”

Day 5  pages 749-759  Metaphors

Objectives: Students will be able to

• identify metaphors in the  Heart of Darkness
• explain how metaphors are developed throughout the novella
• make the connection between the metaphors and their connection to the central meanings of the text.

Aim:  What are the key metaphors in the  Heart of Darkness  and how are they developed?

Do Now:  Compare and contrast the two following metaphors:

• Isaac Asimov’s updated version of the metaphor: “Life is a journey, but don’t worry, you’ll find a parking spot at the end.”
• Aerosmith’s: “Life’s a journey not a destination/And I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings.”
• Review dialectical journals on pages 739-749 and homework based on pages 749-759.

Teaching Point: (Acquisition)

• Metaphor: the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another. A metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas; the analogy is conveyed by the use of a metaphorical word in place of some other word.
• Consider: “But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map,  resembling  an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.” P. 724. “There were moments when one’s past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came back in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence.” (p. 751). What metaphors does Conrad use for the jungle? What simile does he use for the river?
• Close reading: P. 754 “The earth seemed  unearthly” to p. 755 “nor I had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts.” How does this reading reflect Conrad’s use of metaphor? What meanings do these metaphors reveal? How does Conrad’s diction affect the development of his metaphors? How do these metaphors take on symbolic meaning? What do they reveal about the narrator (what is Marlow trying to tell us) and  the central meaning  of the book?
• Find three examples of new metaphors or symbols in this passage and explain their meaning.
• Give one example of metaphor that has been further developed in the passage.
• What does the warning represent?
• What does Towson’s book represent?
• Find one example of Conrad’s diction and explain its impact on you.
• Transfer (Assessment): How are metaphors used today? Can you think of ways the media uses metaphors?

Homework #6

• Create a dialectical journal for pages 749-759 with at least ten pages.
• Read pages 759-769 and answer the following questions:
• Summarize Marlow’s meditation on the cannibal crew?  What is he impressed with?
• This moral trait will play a huge role in Marlow’s reflections later on, when he encounters Kurtz.  Keep this passage in mind.  How does it relate to Marlow’s fantasies about what the Roman imperial enterprise was all about in its day?
• Marlow flashes forward to tell his audience that later on that what they had taken as the motive of the event that scared them was way off the mark.  How so?
• After the fog lifts and they get under way again, what happens a little up the way, when the boat has to enter a narrow channel?  What’s the reaction of the pilgrims?  What does it remind us of?
• What happens to the helmsman? What is Marlow’s reaction to this?
• What possibility concerning Kurtz does this episode raise, for the manager? What is Marlow’s reaction to thinking about this? What explanation does he give for this?
• In the course of this explanation, we are introduced to the idea of Kurtz’s “voice” (p.765) — of Kurtz as “voice.”  This is a  motif  to be sure to trace from here on out.
• Why do you think the frame narrator interjects at this moment? Marlow jumps forward to mention something about his encounter with Kurtz.  What does he telegraph was the nature of this overcoming of his premature disappointment?  Was he thrilled?  Or was he set up for being more deeply disappointed?
• Keep track of every mention of ‘heart,’ ‘darkness,’ ‘light’ and ‘soul’ either in your notebooks or in the margins of the text. Also consider similar words such as black, white, will, intellect, appetite, etc. Add voice to the list.

Day 6 (pages 759-769 “Author’s Purpose” )

Objectives:  Students will be able to

• analyze author’s intent.
• discuss and debate the themes relevant to  Heart of Darkness
• argue persuasively for their interpretation of central meanings of the text.

Aim:  How can we put together everything we have covered so far to uncover the author’s purpose and deeper meanings in the  Heart of Darkness ?

Do Now:  Now that you are further into the novella, how do you interpret this quote as Marlow looks on at London: “’ And this also,’ said Marlow suddenly, ‘has been one of the dark places of the earth.’”?

• Knowledge Acquisition:
• Share  dialectical journals  based on pages 749-759 focusing on the author’s purpose.
• Why did Conrad write this story? What is the purpose behind lines such as, “No; I can’t forget him, though I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him. I missed my late helmsman awfully – I missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilot-house.”(page 769)? How does this line connect with the story’s deeper meanings?
• How is the Heart of Darkness a critique of colonialism or a racist polemic?
•  How is Conrad’s language in the Heart of Darkness so condensed or even cryptic ? How does such feature enhance or hinder your understanding of the central meaning?
• How is the Heart of Darknessis strictly a political novella or a story about the human condition? Can a work of fiction be interpreted in different ways? Should readers consider the author’s intent when analyzing a story? Why?
• How is the Heart of Darknesscan an incredibly dark and depressing story that paints civilizations in a very negative light? or rather it is quite a positive story?
• How does the Heart of Darkness illustrate some critics views that “the darkness of the landscape can lead to the darkness of social corruption”? How can one’s environment affect one’s actions, feelings, and morals? (Have you ever experienced a change in yourself that resulted from a change in your environment?)
• ( Meaning Making )In your small group: Read the passage on 768 from “… And there, don’t you see ?” to “… of burning noble words ”
• Examine the same questions above in their relation to this passage.
• Transfer  (Assessment)– Why did Conrad write  Heart of Darkness ?

Homework #7 1. Create a dialectical journal for pages 759-769 with at least ten entries. 2. Read pages 769-779 and answer the following questions:

• Marlow throws the corpse of the dead helmsman overboard. Why does he do this?  How does this relate to his attitude towards the dead person?
• What is Marlow’s attitude towards the remark of the “red-headed pilgrim”?
• What opinion in general does he have of their conduct during the attack from the bank?
• What is odd about the man’s appearance on the bank?
• What connotations attach to the idea of a “harlequin”?  (Check your dictionary on this one.)  What is the simple realistic explanation that accounts for this appearance?  In what respects does the idea of this person as a “harlequin” turn out to be symbolically apt?
• Where does he say Kurtz is?
• What is his history?  How has he come to be here?  (We can from now on alternatively refer to him as “the Russian trader.”)
• What kind of a person was he before he met Kurtz?
• It turns out to be he who stacked the wood at the clearing 8 miles downstream.  How did he come to leave his place there?  (The nautical manual is his:  how did it get left behind.)  What questions does the answer to this one raise in turn?
• A question for here and further on:  has his encounter with Kurtz changed him in specific ways?

Day 7   Imagery  (pages 769-779)

Objectives : Students will

• understand how Conrad uses imagery throughout the  Heart of Darkness
• make the connection between symbolism, metaphors and imagery
• analyze for imagery.

Aim:  What major imagery does Conrad use to portray the primeval jungle and “the heart of darkness”? How do they help reveal the central meaning of the story? What effect does the imagery have on the reader ?

Do Now:  What sort of image comes to your mind as you read this? How does this image characterize the Russian trader?

“ His clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown holland probably, but it was covered with patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red, and yellow – patches on the front, patches on elbows, on knees; coloured binding round his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshine made him look extremely gay and wonderfully neat withal …” (p. 771).

Teaching Point: ( Knowledge Acquisition)

• Imagery-Meaning: What role does imagery play throughout  Heart of Darkness ? Can you recollect any images that stick out to you as exceptionally important to help you understand the story?
• What image does this passage suggest to you? What is it literally? What symbolic importance does this image take on? How does this image affect the characterization of Mr. Kurtz?
• “I  had expected to see a knob of wood there, you know. I returned deliberately to the first I had seen – and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids – a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow while line of teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber. ” (p. 776).
• Close Reading:  Page 776 “ I am not disclosing any trade secrets ” to p. 777 “.. .conduct of life – or what not .”
• What images does Conrad present in this section?
• Do these images present the image of a civilized world or savage one?
• How are ‘lusts’ represented in this passage?
• What is the importance of ‘brightness?’
• How does the  Heart of Darkness  illustrate some critics views that “the darkness of the landscape can lead to the darkness of social corruption”? How can one’s environment affect one’s actions, feelings, and morals?

Meaning Making:                                 

In your small group: Read the passage on 778 from “ Now, if he does not say …” to “… breath is drawn in a long aspiration ” and  reexamine  the questions above in their relation to this passage you have read.

Transfer (Assessment) : Respond –  Why did Conrad write Heart of Darkness ?

Homework #8 :  1. Create a dialectical journal for pages 769-779 with at least ten entries. 2. Read pages 779-789 and answer the following questions:

• Who is the woman walking along the bank? What is her relationship to Mr. Kurtz? To the Russian Trader?
• What does the Russian Trader tell Marlow before his departure? Why does Kurtz do this? What layers does this add to our understanding of Kurtz?
• Who is the nightmare of Marlow’s choice? How/why did Marlow choose him?
• As Marlow follows Kurtz, the image of the woman knitting black fabric comes to him. Why do you think she reappears? What is the symbolic meaning of this flashback?
• On page 784, Marlow finds himself in a dangerous position. What exactly is the threat in this situation? Why does Marlow find himself in this situation? How does he protect himself?
•  How is Kurtz represented? What does he look like and how does he sound? What power does nature have over him? Why is this important information?
• Why does Marlow pull the whistle on the steam boat? What is he trying to avoid?
• Why does Kurtz give Marlow his papers? How does Kurtz feel about the manager? What can we infer about Kurtz’s attitude towards Marlow?
• Describe the scene of Kurtz’s death. What are his last words? How is this important to the themes of the novel?

Day 8 Characterization  (pages 779-789)

• understand how Conrad employs characterization throughout the  Heart of Darkness  to convey the central meaning of “horror”.
• understand how Conrad uses the narrator’s and frame narrator’s commentary to help understand the characters
• be able to analyze characters and understand the connection between characterization and the central meaning

Aim: How is characterization used throughout the  Heart of Darkness ? How does the characterization of Marlow affect our understanding of every other character in the book?

Do Now:  Choose two words to describe the following characters and be prepared to explain why you choose those words:

• The Manager
• The Bricklayer
• The Helmsman
• The Russian-Trader
• Comparing Characters:  How would you compare Kurtz and the Manager?
• What characteristics do they have in common?
• What characteristics separate them?
• Who is a better man in the eyes of Marlow?
• What textual evidence can you find to support your position?
• The Character of Kurtz
• What image does this passage suggest to you about Kurtz? How is he literally presented?
• What symbolic importance does this image take on?
• P. 784  “I came upon him, and, if he had not heard me coming, I would have fallen over him too, but he got up in time. He rose, unsteady, long, pale, indistinct, like a vapour exhaled by the earth, and swayed slightly, misty and silent before me; while at my back the fires loomed between the trees, and the murmur of many voices issued from the forest.”
• Close Reading:  Page 786 “ The brown current ” to p. 787 “he cried at the invisible wilderness.”
• What is the heart of darkness literally? Figuratively?
• How is Kurtz characterized throughout this passage?
• Why is Kurtz a voice?
• How does Marlow describe Kurtz? How does this description affect the reader’s opinions of Marlow? How does this characterize Marlow?

Meaning Making: In your small group: Read the passage on 781 from “ The manager came out ” to “ a choice of nightmares .”

• How is the manager characterized throughout this passage?
• What causes a shift in the relationship between Marlow and the manager?
• What choice of nightmares does Marlow have? Which does he choose? Why?

Transfer (Assessment) : Respond – How does the  Heart of Darkness  illustrate some critics’ views that “the darkness of the landscape can lead to the darkness of social corruption”? How can one’s environment affect one’s actions, feelings, and morals? (Have you ever experienced a change in yourself that resulted from a change in your environment?)

Homework #9:  1. Create a dialectical journal for pages 779-789 pages with at least  ten entries. 2. Read pages 788-796and answer the following questions:

• What are Kurtz’s last words? How are these words important? What do they signify?
•  What happened to his body? What remains of Kurtz’s voice?
• On page 789, Marlow considers death. What can we infer about from this passage about Marlow’s experiences with death? What are his conclusions regarding death?
• Where does Marlow find himself after his sickness has passed? How does the image of the ‘sepulchral’ city contrast with the places Marlow has been?
• What is the Company looking for? What do we learn from the interviews Marlow describes?
• How does Marlow feel for Kurtz after his death? What inspired such loyalty from Marlow?
• Kurtz’s intended cuts Marlow off at the end of page 793. What do you think Marlow was about to say? What does the Intended say instead?
• How is the Intended characterized? How does her speech affect Marlow?
• Compare and contrast the Intended and the Russian Trader.
• Describe the situation between the Intended and Marlow. How does Marlow interpret the situation? What can we infer about the Intended’s interpretation of the conversation?
• Why does Kurtz lie at the end of this story? How does this lie complicate our interpretation of the entire novella?

Day 9  Tone (pages 788-796)

• understand how Conrad sets the tone throughout the  Heart of Darkness .
• be able to identify passages that convey the tone of the novella.
• understand how Conrad uses the tone to reveal the deeper meanings throughout the text.

Aim:  How is tone set throughout the  Heart of Darkness ?

Do Now:  Choose one phrase, 5 words or less, to sum up the tone of the novel in pages 788-796.

• Tone:  Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms  defines the term as:
• A very vague critical term usually designating the mood or atmosphere of a work, although in some more restructured uses it refers to the author’s attitude to the reader (e.g. formal, intimate, pompous) or to the subject-matter (ironic, light, solemn, satiric, sentimental). Adjective: tonal.  See also  voice.
• Voice:   Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms  defines the term as:
• A rather vague metaphorical term by which some critics refer to distinctive features of a written work in terms of spoken utterance. The voice of a literary work is then the specific group of characteristics displayed by the Narrator or poetic ‘speaker’ (or, in some uses, the actual author behind them), assessed in terms of tone, style, or personality. Distinctions between various kinds of narrative voice tend to be distinctions between kinds of narrator in terms of how they address the reader (rather than in terms of their perception of events, as in the distinct concept of point of view).
• Given the structure of the narrators, how would you differentiate between voice and tone in  Heart of Darkness ? Is there a difference?
• What does this passage suggest about the tone/voice of the novella? What diction suggests the tone?
• “Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn’t touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror—of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision – he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: “ ‘The horror! The horror!’”
• What is the tone of the novella? Is it consistent with this passage?
• Close Reading:  Page 788 “ However, as you see, I did not go ” to p. 787 “ translucently pure as a cliff of crystal. ”
• What is the tone of this passage? What specific lines would you use to support your conclusion?
• How does Marlow approach death in this package? What significance does he give to Kurtz’s last words?
• What are the deeper meanings of this passage?

Meaning Making: In your small group: Read the passage on 791 from “ Thus I was left ” to “ But I went .”

• What is the tone/voice of this passage?

Transfer (Assessment) : Respond – Kurtz’s dying words are a cryptic whisper: “The horror, the horror.” What “horror” could Kurtz have been talking about? Is there more than one possibility? Why do you think Conrad made this scene so ambiguous?

Homework #10:  1. Create a dialectical journal for pages 788-796 with at least  ten entries. 2. Complete reading the  Heart of Darkness  packet, including the afterward. Answer questions one through ten of the “For Study” questions.

Day 10 Setting/Tone  (pages 788-796)

• Understand how Conrad sets the tone throughout the  Heart of Darkness .
• Be able to identify texts that convey the tone of the novella.
• Understand how Conrad uses the tone to reveal the deeper meanings throughout the text.
• Be able to identify setting throughout the text.
• Understand how crucial the setting is to the deeper meanings of the text.

Aim:  How is setting important to the purpose behind the  Heart of Darkness ?

Do Now:  Kurtz’s dying words are a cryptic whisper: “The horror, the horror.” What “horror” could Kurtz have been talking about? Is there more than one possibility? Why do you think Conrad made this scene so ambiguous?

Teaching Point: (Knowledge Acquisition )

• What is the tone of the novella? Is it consistent throughout this passage?
• How is the setting of the story important? Could the story be set in a different place at a different time? Could the frame narrative be set at a different place or time? How might that affect the meaning of the novella?
• *How could a strange environment(setting) where you are different from everyone else around you affect you or change you? Would the sitiation pull a person toward base and cruel instincts as Kurtz was? What would you do to cope with those feelings?
• How does Marlow approach death in this passage? What significance does he give to Kurtz’s last words?
• Where is Marlow as he is conveying these ideas? Mentally? Physically? How is this important to his reflection?

Transfer (Assessment) : Respond – *How could a strange environment where you are different from everyone else around you affect you or change you? Would the situation pull a person toward base and cruel instincts as Kurtz was? What would you do to cope with those feelings?

Homework #11:  1. Create a dialectical journal for pages 788-796 with at least  ten entries. 2. Complete reading the  Heart of Darkness  packet, including the afterward. Answer questions one through  twenty  of the “For Study” questions.

Day 11  (Review of Essential Questions and Enduring Understanding)

Objectives: Students will be able to recall the elements of the novel we have covered throughout the Heart of Darkness unit. Students will be able to analyze a passage for aspects of all elements. Students will be able to apply their understanding of these literary elements to the deeper meanings that Conrad embeds throughout the novel.

Aim: How does Conrad’s writing style affect the reader’s interpretation of the text?

Do Now: Find a passage in the novella that you believe most represent Conrad’s writing style.  Explain why you have selected the passage and what style it represents.

• What specific aspects of literature have we reviewed as we read Conrad’s work?
• What skills have we worked on developing throughout the unit?

Group Activity: (Meaning-Making)

• In your small groups, spend twenty minutes sharing, comparing and discussing the following essential questions and enduring understanding. At the end, be prepared to present a 3-5 minute overview of your response and conclusions. Be sure to refer back to textual evidence for support!

Transfer (Assessment): Respond to the following enduring understanding:

“In  Heart of Darkness , Kurtz is depicted as an upstanding European who has been transformed by his time in the jungle—away from his home, away from familiar people and food, and away from any community moral support that might have helped prevent him from becoming such a tyrant. There was nothing and no one, in essence, to keep him on the straight and narrow. Such a situation can change a person fundamentally.”

Homework #12 : Complete your small group responses to the assigned statements and questions.

Day 12  (Review of themes and style)

Objectives : Students will gain deeper insights into the novella by analyzing the themes and stylistic traits of the work.

Aim: How does Conrad reveal the themes of  Heart of Darkness ? What kind of role does the main character, Marlow, play in the work? Why does Kurts reveal the deepest & darkest thoughts to Kurts?

Do Now:  Pick one statement form Enduring Understanding and a question from the Essential Questions respectively, whcih you feel most revealing about the work. Explain why.

Acqusition:

• Read the  Notes on Conrad’s style of writing  and make a list of the characteristics you have discerned in the novella. Find evidence to support your assertions.
• Review the Enduring Understanding Statements and Essential questions. Which statement(s) are thematic ones? Why?
• Read in class the “Afterword” on pages 798-791, underline thematic statements and other insights of the novella.

Meaning Making-

( Think-Pair-Share Activity) – Discuss within your group the thematic statements and insightful notes you have underlined. Provide explanation to your notes.

Transfer (Assessment): How does  The Heart of Darkness  make sense to you in the light of today’s world? In other words, what connections can you make between what happened in the story of Heart of Darkness and the world we live in today?

Homework#13  Make a dialectical journal with at least 10 entries based on the “Afterwords” of the novella.

Summative Assessment #1

2006 Poem: “Evening Hawk” (Robert Penn Warren) Prompt:   Read the following poem carefully.  Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet uses language to describe the scene and to convey mood and meaning.

Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren

From plane of light to plane, wings dipping through Geometries and orchids that the sunset builds, Out of the peak’s black angularity of shadow, riding The last tumultuous avalanche of Light above pines and the guttural gorge, The hawk comes. His wing Scythes down another day, his motion Is that of the honed steel-edge, we hear The crashless fall of stalks of Time.

The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error.

Look!  Look!  he is climbing the last light Who knows neither Time nor error, and under Whose eye, unforgiving, the world, unforgiven, swings Into shadow.

Long now, The last thrush is still, the last bat Now cruises in his sharp hieroglyphics.  His wisdom Is ancient, too, and immense.  The star Is steady, like Plato, over the mountain.

If there were no wind we might, we think, hear The earth grind on its axis, or history Drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar.

“With its rhythmical loveliness – an evening lull quickened by hawk-motions – and its unrepentent sensory vividness, which triumphs at the end, and most of all the hawk’s animal vigor, the poem stays alive, however fought over from inside. The emotion remains true and intact, because the poet is not contemptuous of vitality per se, but only of vitality that fails. Here, vitality in its full power is consonant with Platonic freedom from death and error.” -From Calvin Bedient, “His Varying Stance,” Chapter 4 in  In The Heart’s Last Kingdom: Robert Penn Warren’s Major Poetry  (Cambridge: harvard U P, 1984), 166-167.

Summative Assessment #2

The following passage comes from the middle section of  Heart of Darkness  by Joseph Conrad. Read the passage carefully. Write an essay in which you analyze the meaning of the main character, Kurtz’s last words, “Horror, Horror!” Pay particular attention to the diction, symbolism and figurative language Conrad uses to convey such “horror”.

“A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking. Another report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen firing into a continent. It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings. “Instead of going up, I turned and descended to the left. My idea was to let that chain-gang get out of sight before I climbed the hill. You know I am not particularly tender; I’ve had to strike and to fend off. I’ve had to resist and to attack sometimes — that’s only one way of resisting — without counting the exact cost, according to the demands of such sort of life as I had blundered into. I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men — men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther. For a moment I stood appalled, as though by a warning. Finally I descended the hill, obliquely, towards the trees I had seen. “I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn’t a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do. I don’t know. Then I nearly fell into a very narrow ravine, almost no more than a scar in the hillside. I discovered that a lot of imported drainage-pipes for the settlement had been tumbled in there. There wasn’t one that was not broken. It was a wanton smash-up. At last I got under the trees. My purpose was to stroll into the shade for a moment; but no sooner within than it seemed to me I had stepped into the gloomy circle of some Inferno. The rapids were near, and an uninterrupted, uniform, headlong, rushing noise filled the mournful stillness of the grove, where not a breath stirred, not a leaf moved, with a mysterious sound — as though the tearing pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die…. “I didn’t want any more loitering in the shade, and I made haste towards the station. When near the buildings I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing, and had a penholder behind his ear.

Assessment #3  Pick  one  of the open-ended questions below to write an essay as your critical response to  Heart of Darkness  by J. Conrad.

1984.  Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

1987.  Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary.

2002.  Morally ambiguous characters — characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good — are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2004.  Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

2006.  Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.

2006, Form B.  In many works of literature, a physical journey – the literal movement from one place to another – plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

The Core Vocabulary in  Heart of Darkness

• Offing-a near or foreseeable future
• Diaphanous- characterized by delicacy of firm or texture
• Inscrutable-not readily investigated, interpreted or understood
• Sedentary- completely inactive
• Propensity-an often intense preference or natural inclination
• Spectral-ghostly
• Struts-a spar that crosses a fore and aft of a sail diagonally
• Luminous-glowing, a lighted
• Estuary-Water passage where the tide meets the river current

10. Ascetic-practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal or spiritual discipline

11. Venerable-Sacred, religious or respected

12. August-marked by majestic dignity

13. Knight Errant-a knight traveling in search of adventures in which to exhibit military skill and prowess.

14. Immutability-changeable

15. Concertina-a small musical, instrument, like an accordion

16. Somnambulist-a sleepwalker

17. Ominous-Unfavorable or threatening

18. Sententiously-full of meaning, saying much in few words, giving advice

19. Enigma-something hard to understand or mysterious – adj, enigmatic-

20. Insipid-Without any taste or spirit of interest

21. Lugubrious-too sad – overly mournful

22. Drollery-Unwhimsical humor

23. Morose-having a gloomy disposition

24. Alacrity-Punctual, prompt or on-time

25. Rapacious-excessively covetous

26. Moribund-state of dying

27. Pestilence-contagious or infectious

28. Demoralization-to corrupt, or the corruption of something

29. Trenchant-vigorously effective, morals articulate

30. Stealthy-sneaky or undercover

31. Deplorable-deserving contempt

32. Indefatigable-unable to become tired

33. Scathing-bitterly severe

34. Taunt-tease or make fun of

35. Epoch-a time period or fixed point

36. Serviette-a table napkin

37. Ostentation-to display

38. Beguiled-to lead by deception

39. Supercilious-haughty or proud

40. Prevaricator-liar, deviator of truth

41. Impudence-marked by cocky boldness

42. Vexed-debated or discussed at length

43. Pestiferous-dangerous to society

44. Indignation: to be unjust, unworth and mean

45. Sagacious: discerning

46. edifying-to instruct and improve spiritually

47. inscrutable

48. culminating

49. sepulcher

50. uncanny

51. confounded

52. insoluble

53. effaced

55. trenchant

56. rapacity

57. indefatigable

58. commingling

60. pestilential

62. modulated

63. serried

64. peroration

65. promptitude

66. harlequin

67. despondency

68. brusque

70. voracious

Text-based Questions

1. What is the point of providing a “frame narrator”? How does the presence of this kind of narrator affect your view of Marlow’s authority as a narrator?

2. What does the frame narrator say distinguishes Marlow from other sailors? How is this distinction significant with respect to the adventure that Marlow recounts?

3. What does Marlow say about the Roman imperial project? How does the Roman project compare to the Belgian (and British) motivations for seeking an empire?

4. Keep track of references to maps — see, for example, What significance lies in Marlow’s references to maps? How, for example, do they represent the novella’s frequent opposition between light and “darkness”?

5. Marlow describes a map image of the Congo River in Africa as being like a snake. What snake-like qualities does this reference transfer to the River, and how does the transference set us up for the rest of the novel’s events?

6 Marlow meets a pair of women weaving — to what Classical myths does this scene appeal, and why would such an appeal be significant in the context of the story as a whole?

7. Describe the exchange between Marlow and his idealistic Aunt .How well does Marlow’s self-description as a realist hold up over the course of the story? Explain.

8. Soon Marlow sets out for Africa on a French steamship, and gets his first look at native Africans along the shore. What qualities does he observe in them, and what seems to be his attitude about those qualities?

9. Marlow has reached the Company’s Outer Station, and offers us some observations about it. What does he say about the reigning “Devil” in this Outer Station? How does this “Devil” differ from others with whom he has made acquaintance?

10. What fundamental contrast or contradiction among the Outer Station inhabitants begins to appear right away, as soon as Marlow comes across dying workers and the smartly dressed Company Accountant?

11. What is the first description we hear of Kurtz? For what quality or activity is he praised? How does the praise bring up the novella’s frequent oppositions between light or whiteness and darkness?

12. Marlow reaches the Central Station. How does he describe nature’s effects on the Station and its inhabitants? What power does the wilderness have over the Station, and what appears to motivate its occupants?

13. What view of Kurtz does the Brickmaker (a favorite of the Manager) take? Why does he appear to resent Kurtz?

14.Marlow says that he detests lies. Does this implied (and elsewhere stated) preference for truth hold constant in the novella? Does Marlow seem to understand his own character, or is he at times confused about his interests and beliefs? Explain.

15.How do the Manager and his nephew reveal their resentment of Kurtz in spite of that agent’s obvious success as an ivory collector? What effect does their resentment have upon Marlow, who has overheard their conversation?

16. How does Marlow describe the Congo River and its environs? How does he describe his interaction with the River? What illusion does the River promote? What insight does it provide, at least so far as Marlow is concerned?

17. What does Marlow imply is the basis for his ability to respond to the African natives he observes? To what extent does he here invoke the distinction often made between nature and culture, primitive and civilized? Does he accept that distinction?

18. Marlow discovers a hut with some firewood and a book. Why does this book impress him?

19. Marlow says that he came to an important realization as he neared Kurtz’s Station. What is the realization, and to what extent does it influence or explain his behavior in the rest of the story?

20. What commentary does Marlow offer on the issue of “restraint”? What accounts for the restraint shown by the natives, and what accounts for the restraint shown by the Manager?

21. Marlow speaks of Kurtz as “a voice.” Soon thereafter, how does Marlow’s manner of relating his story change? What seems to be the reason for his fascination with Kurtz’ voice?

22. How does Marlow describe the partially completed report that Kurtz penned before lapsing into his fatal illness? What effect does that report have on Marlow?

23. Marlow meets a Russian devotee of Kurtz. What view of Kurtz does the Russian set forth? How does he differ from Kurtz?

24. Marlow sees the “symbolic” skulls lining Kurtz’s hut? What reflections do those skulls lead Marlow to make regarding the nature of Kurtz’ downfall in the wilderness?

25. The travelers meet Kurtz’ mistress. Does her presence affect their (or your) understanding of Kurtz? If so, how?

26. After making some less than condemnatory remarks about Kurtz, Marlow is pegged as a “fellow traveler” of Kurtz. How does Marlow react when he finally closes in upon and then encounters Kurtz?

27. What does Kurtz say in his final illness? What, if anything, does Marlow learn from Kurtz? How does he interpret Kurtz’s phrase “the horror, the horror”?

28. Kurtz finally passes away, and, at the text’s conclusion, Marlow decides to visit Kurtz’s “Intended,” or fiancee. Why does Marlow lie to her about Kurtz’s last words? Does his lie reflect any insight he has gained from his trip up the Congo and to “the Heart of Darkness”? Explain.

AP English                                                                             Name: ________________________________

Heart of Darkness Test

The multiple choice questions are based on the following passage from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness .

The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.

“I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago — the other day. . . . Light came out of this river since — you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker — may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine — what d’ye call ’em? — trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries — a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been, too — used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read. Imagine him here — the very end of the world, a sea the colour of lead, a sky the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina — and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sand-banks, marshes, forests, savages, — precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay — cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death — death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush. They must have been dying like flies here. Oh, yes — he did it. Did it very well, too, no doubt, and without thinking much about it either, except afterwards to brag of what he had gone through in his time, perhaps. They were men enough to face the darkness. And perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a chance of promotion to the fleet at Ravenna by and by, if he had good friends in Rome and survived the awful climate. Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga — perhaps too much dice, you know — coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even, to mend his fortunes. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him — all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There’s no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination — you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.”

“Mind,” he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower — “Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency — the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force — nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind — as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea — something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . . .”

_____  1.  In the passage, darkness implies all of the following except

            a. the unknown

            b. savagery

            c. ignorance

            d. death

            e. exploration

_____ 2. The setting of the passage is

            a. Africa

            b. Ancient Rome

            c. London

            d. the Mediterranean

            e. Italy

_____ 3. The tone of the passage is

            a. condescending

            b. indignant

            c. scornful

            d. pensive

            e. laudatory

_____4. Later events may be foreshadowed by all of the following phrases except

            a. “…imagine the feelings of a commander…”

            b. “…live in the midst of the incomprehensible…”

            c. “…in some inland post feel the savagery…”

            d. “They must have been dying like flies here.”

            e. “The very end of the world…”

_____5. The narrator draws a parallel between

            a. light and dark

            b. past and present

            c. life and death

            d. fascination and abomination

            e. decency and savagery

_____6. In this passage, “We live in the flicker…” (lines 9-10) may be interpreted to mean

            I.  In the history of the world, humanity’s span on earth is brief.

            II. Future civilizations will learn from only a portion of the past.

            III. Periods of enlightenment and vision appear only briefly.

            a. I

            b. II

            c. III

            d. II and III

            e. I and III

_____ 7. One may conclude from the passage that the speaker

            a. admires adventurers

            b. longs to be a crusader

            c. is a former military officer

            d. recognizes and accepts the presences of evil in human experience

            e. is prejudiced

_____8. In the context of the passage, which of the following phrases contains a paradox?

            a. “The fascination of the abomination”

            b. “In the hearts of wild men”

            c. “There’s no initiation…into such mysteries…”

            d. “a flash of lightning in the clouds…”

            e. “Death skulking in the air…”

_____9. The lines, “…Imagine him here…concertina…” (13 to 15) contain examples of

            a. hyperbole and personification

            b. irony and metaphor

            c. alliteration and personification

            d. parallel structure and simile

            e. allusion and simile

_____ 10. According to the speaker, the one trait which saves Europeans from savagery is

            a. sentiment

            b. a sense of mystery

            c. brute force

            d. religious zeal

            e. efficiency

_____ 11. According to the speaker, the only justification for conquest is

            a. the “weakness of others”

            b. it’s being “proper for those who tackle the darkness…”

            c. their grabbing “what they could get for the sake of what was to be got”

            d. “…an unselfish belief in the idea”

            e. “The fascination of the abomination”

_____ 12. In the statement by the speaker, “Mind none of us would feel exactly like this: (line 33), “this” refers to

            a. “…a Buddha preaching in European clothes…” (line 34)

            b. “…imagine the growing regrets…the hate” (lines 31-32)

            c. “What redeems it is the idea only.” (lines 42-44)

            d. “…think of a decent young citizen in a toga…” (lines 22- 23)

            e. “I was thinking of very old times…”  (line 7)

_____ 13.  The speaker presents all of the following reasons for exploration and conquest except

            a. military expeditions

            b. “…a chance of promotion”

            c. “…to mend his fortune…”

            d. religious commitment

            e. punishment for a crime

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Heart of Darkness

Joseph conrad.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Heart of Darkness: Introduction

Heart of darkness: plot summary, heart of darkness: detailed summary & analysis, heart of darkness: themes, heart of darkness: quotes, heart of darkness: characters, heart of darkness: symbols, heart of darkness: literary devices, heart of darkness: quizzes, heart of darkness: theme wheel, brief biography of joseph conrad.

Historical Context of Heart of Darkness

Other books related to heart of darkness.

• Full Title: Heart of Darkness
• When Published: 1899
• Literary Period: Victorianism/Modernism
• Genre: Colonial literature; Quest literature
• Setting: The Narrator tells the story from a ship at the mouth of the Thames River near London, England around 1899. Marlow's story-within-the-story is set in an unnamed European city (probably Brussels) and in the Belgian Congo in Africa sometime in the early to mid 1890s, during the colonial era.
• Climax: The confrontation between Marlow and Kurtz in the jungle
• Antagonist: Kurtz
• Point of View: First person (both Marlow and the Unnamed Narrator use first person)

Extra Credit for Heart of Darkness

Heart of the Apocalypse. Heart of Darkness is the source for the movie Apocalypse Now. The movie uses the primary plot and themes of Heart of Darkness, and shifts the story from Africa to Vietnam to explore the hypocrisy, inanity, and emptiness of the American war effort there.

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Moving Beyond "Huh?": Ambiguity in Heart of Darkness

Introduction.

One week before we begin reading it, I pull out a copy of the Norton Critical Edition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness . "This is our next project, Heart of Darkness ," I say to 32-37 (sometimes) attentive faces. I flip through the book, pinch pages 3-77 of the 500-plus-page book between my thumb and index finger, and hold it up. "These pages here are the text of the novella. That's it." My students look at me and at each other, confused. Then the chorus of voices ensues: "What do you mean?" "That's it?" "Yay!" "You're lying. Um, I mean, are you lying to us?"

Then my favorite question: "Wait. Then how come the book is so big?" I smile slyly. "It's stuff about the novella," I answer. And they're hooked, as if anticipating initiation into some clandestine society for Heart of Darkness aficionados—but then they begin reading it, and their excitement fades and frustration takes its place.

That students find the text difficult to understand is an understatement. Not only do they struggle with the syntax, they are perplexed, among other things, as to what is the "right" interpretation of Marlow's journey up the Congo or what Kurtz's character or the cannibals represent or what those "stupid black hens" symbolize. As a result, they become reluctant readers of a piece of literature that critics continue to write about and debate today. Such reluctance on their part raises the question: Why teach Heart of Darkness ? Good question.

Heart of Darkness is a text that my students, even the best ones, struggle with each year. It makes them doubt themselves, their intelligence, and for some, even their potential success in college. Many of them are the best and the brightest at Overfelt and so fearless in many other ways, and yet this work makes them afraid to take chances, to explore possible meanings because they do not want to be wrong. They want concrete answers and are unable to accept/maneuver the gray areas, but it is in that gray area that literature comes alive.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley and the third-largest city in California (and the 10 th largest in the U.S.), William C. Overfelt High School serves East San Jose, or colloquially the "East Side." The student body of approximately 1,470 students (9-12) is working class and predominantly low-income. The community faces tremendous poverty and high crime rates; in fact, the City of San Jose has identified Overfelt's attendance area as a "gang hot spot." The significant economic and social hardships facing the community have a major impact on student achievement as measured by mandated testing.(1) Though our API has steadily increased since 2004, less than a third of our students score proficient or advanced on the English Language portion of the STAR tests.(2) Yet, on the standardized tests given every year in California(3) in April, the month I think of as the harbinger of "testing season," the scores of some of my students rival those of students from schools that consistently score—on a scale that tops out at 900—in the high 800s or better. Their scores, however, are not enough to erase the stigma of a low-performing school and nor lift it above the rising tide of emphasis placed on achievement tests to determine the quality of instruction in the classroom and teacher effectiveness.

Hoping to raise test scores, Overfelt recently adopted a small learning community model school-wide. I belong to Fiat Lux ,(4) the "honors" academy. I am one of the lucky few at the school to have a resource period to co-lead a team of six teachers, including myself. We are cognizant that due to the make-up of Overfelt's student body, school-wide resources have focused on improving the achievement of our middle- and lowest-achieving students. Fiat Lux agrees the school must do this, but we also know we cannot ignore the needs of our highest achieving students, often overlooked because "they will do well no matter what." That is neither the case nor is it just. So, our goal is to develop curriculum that engages and challenges students, and to create community among our students who, unlike others, are placed in the academy mostly owing to their test scores and grades rather than their own choice. We want to ensure they are not forgotten in the push to improve instruction among the less gifted students and close the achievement gap. But of course, these are not the only students who take Advanced Placement classes.

In the hopes of shrinking that gap and to ensure no student who wants to take AP is denied access to its challenging curriculum, Overfelt has maintained an open-door policy in regards to AP classes. That means that enrollment in the course is not predicated on any kind of prerequisite with the exception that students must have taken (but need not have passed) AP English Language in the 11 th grade. Received an F in English 3 (college-prep junior English)? Go ahead and take AP. D's in freshman and sophomore English classes? Not a problem. Sign up for AP. Counselor strongly advised against AP? Disregard that. Take AP. I am, however, by no means advocating that students who do not have the "proper credentials" be excluded from enrolling in AP. There are too many factors accounting for why students do not do well in their classes before enrolling in AP English Literature. For example, it is all too common that students must work to help support their families, to care for younger siblings (and/or cousins in multi-family households) while parents (or aunts and uncles) work, or do both. So, while every parent or guardian I have met wants their child to do well in school, often something has to give in order that basic needs are met first; unfortunately, that something is often schoolwork. Another reason some students did not do well in English 3 is because they did not find the course engaging or challenging, and so they did not work for the grade they easily could have earned. These students often thrive in the AP classroom. And then there are those students who know they have not acquired many of the skills students normally have in order to be successful in an AP classroom but are nevertheless willing to challenge themselves; these students are often my most diligent and hard working. Regardless of how my students come to me, I strongly believe that with the right support, with instruction that engages them, they can be successful in my classroom, even with the most challenging of texts, such as Heart of Darkness .

So, again the question: why teach a text as difficult as Heart of Darkness to a class of students, the bulk of whom will struggle even with scaffolding? Simple: There is value in that struggle. This is one of those times when the journey is just as important as the destination.

First, it would not be surprising if Heart of Darkness were one of the required readings they encounter in college. It is what some critics believe to be "'among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.'"(5) That students have a working familiarity with it and have previously spent time analyzing it will work in their favor. They can use the skills they learn analyzing Heart of Darkness to access independently other texts that are just as difficult. They will learn that different types of texts require different approaches, that as readers, they must read Heart of Darkness (and other texts like it) with intent.

Secondly, Heart of Darkness is especially fertile ground for interpretation. One theme students will see immediately has to do with race and the character of Marlow. Several questions arise. Can—as W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley argue in "The Intentional Fallacy"(6)—we ignore Conrad's intent when we judge Heart of Darkness ' success as a literary work? If one believes that Conrad and/or the text is racist, does that negate any value it has as literary art? Or can the work be judged on its own merits, regardless of what Conrad intended? If students come to the conclusion that Conrad and/or Marlow is racist, can the text still be read as an indictment of imperialism, or must it be read as Chinua Achebe did, a warning against the dangers of allowing darkness to overwhelm civilization? These are the text-specific questions students will deal with in their discussions in class, conversations I hope they will continue outside the confines of our classroom walls.

Finally, my students are on the verge of new lives. Many will be on their own for the first time, away at college and making adult decisions for themselves, from the mundane to the serious. They are coming of age in a world in which the use of social media connects us to people on the other side of the globe by simply clicking "Accept Friend Request," where it is more commonplace to text than to call, where we have over a thousand "friends" we've never met and whose voices we've never heard, where strangers follow our 140-character thoughts on issues big and small. This begs the following question: Have we become merely observers of life rather than participants, posting pictures of our lives rather being actively engaged in them? Heart of Darkness is a work fraught with such questions about the nature of humanity, about our responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and to others to act in ways that are humane, and what the consequences are for us as a people when we act in inhumane ways or fail to stop others from doing so.

Content Objectives

The goal of my unit is to teach my students interpretation skills specifically using Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness . And as I write this unit, I keep coming back to the question, Why Heart of Darkness ? It is the question I go back to every year as I plan the readings and works we will study during the course of the school year. While I am cognizant of the fact that it is the one work that students either love or hate; that there seems to be no middle ground; that those who hate Heart of Darkness are the ones who "just don't get it" and struggle mightily with not just vocabulary (which can certainly be daunting but not insurmountable) but with the enormous amount of symbolism and ambiguity in Conrad's work, they need not stay lost in the murkiness of the landscape, unable to glean meaning from the actions of the novel's characters. I would like to provide them a way to navigate all this by guiding them through close readings of particular passages (which we will do as a class, then they will do in pairs or small groups, and finally individually), and allowing them to process information both verbally through class discussions and in writing via journals and essays. (Enduring Understanding 1, below)

By the end of this unit, it is my hope that students will have (further) developed their skills in the art (or science) of interpretation through close reading and analysis of the text, and learned the importance of supporting their opinions with appropriate evidence from the text. (Enduring Understanding 3, below) With these skills, they will be able to access other complex texts—whether they be novels, poems, or expository texts—with confidence.

Essential Questions

During the last week of classes before Overfelt tore down the wing in which my first classroom was located in order to replace it with a new, state-of-the-art science wing, my colleagues and I, who were being relocated to the new C-wing designed for 21 st century collaborative learning communities, invited students both current and former to leave messages on the walls, their good-byes to the place where they had been nurtured as scholars, where many of them had laughed, cried, fought, made up, made friends, and, for some, likely made a few enemies. Word spread, and they came—before school, between classes, at break, during lunch, and after school. They took up permanent markers to leave impermanent messages bold and tender and cryptic and funny on walls that would soon be a pile of rubble to be hauled away, leaving no physical evidence of the sometimes life-changing events that had taken place within them. But, of the over two hundreds epitaphs scrawled on my walls and doors and windows, only one brought tears to my eyes, a simple eight-word statement by a 2006 graduate:

I became a better person in this classroom.

That epitaph sums up why I believe the essential questions below are integral to the teaching of Heart of Darkness .

I do not see my job as simply to teach English literature and writing. I believe that as an educator, I have an obligation to help my students become better people, responsible and informed citizens of the communities they (will) live and work in, which, in this age of Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Tumblr, and Instagram, are becoming more than ever interconnected and increasingly interdependent. They are inhabiting a global community, and the essential questions below will get them thinking about their place in society and how their actions or inaction may have consequences far beyond their ken.

Essential Question 1 (below) is the foundation question. In determining whether Heart of Darkness is a racist text, students must examine the very current argument about whether we are living in a "post-racial" society. But even before they can begin discussing that question, they must come to some answer about what that phrase even means. They can then explore whether there is value in reading literature that engenders such strong reactions in readers that there is still debate over whether or not it should be taught. My hope is that they will come to the conclusion J. Hillis Miller reaches in his essay entitled "Should We Read Heart of Darkness ?": not only should the novella be read, but we have "an obligation to do so,"(7) and that if we do not, we have abdicated our authority to come to an informed decision about whether the text should be read. Rather than depend on someone else's opinion, we need to

perform a reading in the strong sense, an active responsible response that renders justice to a book by generating more language in its turn, the language of attestation, even though that language may remain silent or implicit.(8)

My hope is that this examination will lead naturally to the questions that follow, that they will eventually come to the conclusion of the old adage, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

• Is Heart of Darkness a racist text?
• Does man control his own destiny?
• How do the characters reflect the society in which they live?
• What do these characters' decisions and actions say about human nature and how we respond to our environment?
• What makes us human?
• What does it mean to act humanely?
• Are we required to act when we see other human beings treated inhumanely, and if so, do the times and culture we live in negate that obligation or excuse our failure to do so?

Enduring Understandings

• Interpreting difficult text is a skill that can be mastered.
• Knowledge of an author's background, and the historical and cultural context of a piece of literature lead to a better understanding of the work.
• Literary interpretation must be substantiated by evidence in the work itself.

Modernism and the Modernist Novel

Though there is no exact date when the Modernist period in English literature began, it is generally accepted that the seeds of its inception began to be seen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its emphasis on the inner self and consciousness, its view of society in decay or decline, and the sense of loss, alienation, and disillusionment, is often described as a reaction to world events that called into question Victorian ideals and sensibilities and to the Romantic world-view in which the focus was on nature and the individual. It eschewed the conventional characteristics of literature; the omniscient third-person narrator was replaced by the first-person or multiple narrators, and stream-of-consciousness style narration made its appearance. Heart of Darkness fits this description.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born writer who did not begin learning English, his third language, until he was in his 20s. He lost his mother when he was eight, his father when he was twelve, and was raised by his uncle thereafter. From a very young age, he was fascinated with the sea, recounting that when he was nine years old, he pointed to the blank part of a map of Africa and announced emphatically, "When I grow up I shall go there. "(9) In 1874 at sixteen years of age, Conrad left Poland to Marseilles, France, to work with the French shipping company, C. Delestang et Fils. In 1878, he joined the British Merchant Service, in which he served fifteen years. He became a British citizen in 1886. He travelled the world as a seaman, sailing to places such as the Caribbean, the West Indies, South America, Bangkok, and Singapore, before signing with a Belgian company to command a steamboat in the Congo,(10) this experience being the basis of Heart of Darkness . He authored several books, including his first, Almayer's Folly in 1895, and Heart of Darkness , which was published in serial form in 1899.(11) He died in 1924 and is buried in Canterbury Cemetery.(12)

Belgium and the Congo Free State

In King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa , Adam Hochschild recounts Belgium's King Leopold II's policies that resulted in "killing in the Congo [that] was of genocidal proportions, [but] was not, strictly speaking, genocide," in that "the Congo state was not deliberately trying to eliminate one particular ethnic group from the face of the Earth."(13) Rather, "Leopold's men were looking for labor."(14) The millions of lives lost in their search for and use of labor was "to them [ ] incidental."(15)

In 1885, after several years of negotiation with the United States and other European powers, King Leopold was granted sovereignty over the Congo Free State by the International Association of the Congo.(16) The guise under which he secured power over the Congo, that of a humanitarian mission, was vastly different from the reality of what occurred. Hochschild details the "four closely connected sources" that resulted in a tremendous population loss during 1885 and 1910, with the greatest loss of life in the 1890's: "1) murder; 2) starvation, exhaustion, and exposure; 3) disease; and 4) a plummeting birth rate."(17) The population from 1885 to 1919 was estimated to be "'reduced by half,'" according to a 1919 Belgian commission.(18) Based on a census conducted in 1924, the population during that year was estimated to be ten million, which means that "during Leopold's period and its immediate aftermath the population of the territory dropped by approximately ten million people.(19)

Articles and Essays for Discussion

Students will read the following texts because all address the question of whether Conrad and, thus, the novella are racist. Because I want students to interpret Heart of Darkness and, individually and as a class, come to their own conclusions about it, they will read these articles after reading Heart of Darkness . I want these pieces to serve as a starting point for the less text-specific inquiries of the Essential Questions above. These essays will encourage them to consider other interpretations, to analyze how those interpretations differ from their own, and to evaluate not only the validity of the conclusions and the evidence used for others' interpretations but also to re-examine the evidence they use to support their own interpretations and conclusions.

Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness "

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), the Nigerian-born poet, novelist, and professor at Brown University, details several instances in the novella that he believes prove that "Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist."(20) His essay is a revised lecture he originally delivered at University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975. In it, he writes that from a Western perspective, Africa is viewed as "a foil to Europe, a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest."(21) He seems to argue that the novella warns that "[t]ragedy begins when things leave their accustomed place."(22) He disputes the argument that "the attitude to the African in Heart of Darkness is not Conrad's but that of his fictional narrator, Marlow, and that far from endorsing it Conrad might indeed be holding it up to irony and criticism"(23) and contends instead that if Conrad had meant to distinguish Marlow from himself, he failed miserably. To Achebe, it was an effort "totally wasted" because Conrad provided no "alternative frame of reference by which [readers] may judge the actions and opinions of his characters."(24) He concludes by conceding that Conrad did indeed "condemn[ ] the evil of imperial exploitation"(25); nevertheless, Conrad was "strangely unaware"(26) of the racism on which such practices were predicated and that inability to see or recognize it is why he believed Conrad was a racist.

Hunt Hawkins, " Heart of Darkness and Racism"

In his essay, Heart of Darkness and Racism, Hunt Hawkins, professor of English at University of South Florida, takes issue with Achebe's reading of the novella. Although he agrees with Achebe that "much of Heart of Darkness dehumanizes Africans" and that "the image Conrad projects of African life can hardly be called flattering,"(27) Hawkins asserts that Conrad's depiction of the Congo cannot and should not be read as representative of "all the cultures and situations" in Africa.(28) Moreover, he claims that Conrad was a critic of imperialism:

Conrad became a staunch, if complicated opponent of European Expansion. Heart of Darkness offers a powerful indictment of imperialism, both explicitly for the case of King Leopold and implicitly (despite Marlow's comments on the patches of red) for all other European powers.(29)

He believes that Conrad's "comparative reduction and neglect of Africans" in the novella was intentional.(30) He seems to argue that Achebe's observation that Africans are rarely seen in the novella is an intentional omission on Conrad's part. He interprets the passage in which Marlow journey's up the Congo, describing it as "traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world"(31) not as evidence that Conrad supported imperialism because of an inherent sense of superiority of European culture but rather as a way to focus readers on the idea on European hypocrisy, that those who purported to desire bringing civilization to Africa "[did not] live up to their own ideals as civilizers"(32) and in fact may have called into question the "validity" of those very ideals. Conrad's marginalization of Africans in the novella was a deliberate decision to have the narrative structure mimic societal structure.

He ends by saying that the value of Heart of Darkness is clearly evident in the fact that the title has become synonymous with the atrocities perpetrated in cases of human rights abuse and that "[f]ar from condoning genocide, Conrad clearly saw humanity's horrific capacity and gave it a name."(33)

Paul B. Armstrong, "[Reading, Race, and Representing Others]"

Of the critical essays to accompany our study of Heart of Darkness , the most difficult and most likely in need of scaffolding is Armstrong's.

Armstrong acknowledges the different ways in which Heart of Darkness has been interpreted, on the one had as a text perpetuating racist stereotypes (as advocated by Achebe) and on the other as "a model of…the most promising practices in representing other peoples and cultures."(34) He then posits that it is neither. Rather, " Heart of Darkness is a calculated failure to depict achieved cross-cultural understanding."(35) In other words, Marlow fails to participate in "truly reciprocal"(36) dialogue with the Africans that is required for a true appreciation and respect and understanding of cultures and people different from our own. Though he has many opportunities to engage in such "[ ]dialogical encounters," he does not take advantage of them but rather remains an aloof observer of the people and the landscape and activities going on around him,

... a tourist who sees the passing landscape through a window which separates him from it, and he consequently commits the crimes of touristic misappropriation of otherness even as he is aware of and points out the limitations of that position.(37)

Marlow's inability to bridge the power gap that separates him from the native Africans becomes representative of the text's inability to engage in the type of dialogue necessary to begin understanding. Armstrong sees Achebe's accusations similarly, as a failure to recognize Heart of Darkness as an opening salvo exploring the possibility of connecting with the "Other"; yet the charges Achebe makes in his response are valuable because "they break the aura of the text and reestablish reciprocity between it and its interpreters by putting them on equal terms" and that acknowledging "how unsettlingly ambiguous this text is about the ideals of reciprocity and mutual understanding" allows us to begin to "engage in the sort of dialogue with it which Marlow never achieves with Africans or anyone else."(38)

Teaching Strategies

Before we begin, I will provide 1) a very short overview of Modernism and the Modernist movement in literature, 2) a brief biography of Conrad, and 3) introduce them to the historical and geo-political context of the novella. (Enduring Understanding 2, above) This is necessary because many of my students will have some general knowledge of European and American imperialism but not the specific history of Belgian encroachments on the Congo and the devastating effects of the Belgian government's policies and practices on the native African population. This will be the starting point for students to explore the broader issue of the effects of imperialism on both the perpetrators and its victims. Finally, using Heart of Darkness , students will learn to look closely at the literary devices used by Conrad to arrive at some understanding of the questions raised by the work, themes that they may encounter on the Advanced Placement English Literature Examination, which they are all required to take in May.

Class Discussions: Whole Class, Socratic Seminar, Fishbowl

I love having my students engage in class discussions. They are a wonderful way to get students thinking and to practice putting their thoughts together in words coherently and logically, and to do it more quickly than they thought they could. They learn to articulate their opinions in academic language and to support their ideas with evidence from the text, which they must read closely and deliberately in order to participate cogently and thoughtfully.

At the beginning of the school year, I provide students a list of phrases that they use to help them converse like literary critics. At first they make a big show of using the phrases and we all laugh, but it quickly becomes part of their discussion lexicon. These phrases become an integral and necessary part of maintaining a college-level classroom culture, one in which students own the language of literary criticism.

At the very least, students will have engaged in whole-class discussion by the time we begin our study of Heart of Darkness . Usually, I lead the first formal, graded one. Sometimes, however, I will have a student whose behavior in informal discussions makes me think he or she will be particularly adept at running a discussion with minimal guidance and participation from me—and very rarely will that student disappoint. I use whole class discussion at the beginning of the school year to gauge students' comfort level with participation and to begin getting them comfortable with participating verbally since they are required to do so quite often in class.

In a fishbowl discussion, I choose ten students to begin in a circle discussion. They will need to bring discussion questions and their text(s) in order to participate. In order for a student on the outside to enter the discussion, he or she must "tap out" a student in the circle. This teaches students not just manners but also how to listen closely to argument and how to segue smoothly, with as minimal disruption as possible to the flow of conversation.

Of the three discussion formats,(39) the Socratic seminar is perhaps my favorite method. Because of the size of my classes (it is not unusual to have 35 students in a class), the seminars are conducted over two days, with one group (the quiet ones) going on the first day and "the talkers" on the second day. Neither group is immutable; students may, based on their performances in prior seminar and discussions, be moved (or ask to be moved) from one group to another.

In general, before they come to me in AP English, students have not had much opportunity for formal class discussions, and few students have even participated in informal class discussions. Because of this lack of experience, I spend 15-20 minutes detailing for them the procedures and my expectations.(40) More importantly, it is an excellent method to get students accustomed to college-level dialogue about books. The Socratic seminar also addresses many of the impending Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English-Language Arts, especially when used in conjunction with Heart of Darkness and the essays above. Requiring them to support their interpretations with evidence from the text helps them learn to synthesize ideas to come to perhaps a new or better understanding of the text.

Oral Reading

Because of the difficult nature of the text, I will read much of chapter one aloud while students follow along in their books (although, if I have particularly strong readers, I may call on them periodically to read part of a paragraph or short section), stopping often to ask comprehension questions. This oral reading is a crucial step, necessary before students are assigned to small groups of no more than four to work through chapters two and three together. I do this to model for them how to handle Conrad's long, syntactically complex sentences, and to demonstrate the importance of slowing down and attending to punctuation, something they often ignore in their attempt to "just get through the chapter," and so they will know how to read when they are working together. Though group readings may seem to slow down the process, students benefit from their discussion about how they see the text and what they see in it to help them in interpreting what they see.

Dialectical Journal

"Dialectic" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation," or, more simply, "an intellectual exchange of ideas."(41) Dialectical journals are an excellent way for students to write succinct responses to short passages. They may make connections to the text (text to text, text to self, text to world), or they may analyze a particular literary device or technique. Dialectical journals are also useful in preparing students for class discussions. It focuses them on a specific text and requires them to read closely. Students are allowed to use their journals during discussions to help them pinpoint where in the text a particular idea and supporting quote can be found, allowing their conversations to be organic and academic at the same time.

In-class essays ( i.e. , "timed writes")

For each of the Advanced Placement subjects, the College Board administers examinations that purport to evaluate a student's mastery of the subject matter. For English Literature, the examination includes a multiple-choice section and an essay section that requires students to respond to specific prompts on a poem or pair of poems, a short prose passage, and a thematic question (often referred to as "Question 3") for which they choose an appropriate piece of literature. So, every year, before I return students' first in-class essays to them, I ask them what "AP" stands for, and every year the first verbal response (because their first response is to look at me like I have lost my mind) is "Advanced Placement." That is when I tell them they are both right and wrong.

For our purposes, I tell them, they need to add a second definition of what "AP" stands for: "Answer the Prompt." They laugh when I tell them this, and so do I. But when I pass back their essays with both a letter grade and number score based on the AP scoring guide, their laughter quickly dies out; some quietly share their scores with the person next to them; others shrug and shake their heads in response to silent inquiries about how they did. I introduce the essay this way not to discourage them as much as it is to humble them a bit, to break them of their preconceived notions that the way they have "always" written in their past English classes, that the process that has gotten them the "As" they so covet will be "good enough" in AP. They quickly learn that 1) even the highest achieving of them need lots of practice in writing responses that adequately address the prompt, 2) grammar and mechanics count even on timed essays, and 3) 40 minutes to write an essay on a prompt as complex and involved as the AP prompts is not an easy task but is a doable one. Students, therefore, will write several in-class essays to prepare them for the AP exam essays.

The timed essays, however, are more than just preparing for the Advanced Placement exam. Like discussions, the timed essays are a way for students to practice expressing cogently and thoughtfully their interpretations of the text.

Classroom Activities

This first week will be dedicated to "getting our feet wet." I will conduct a short lecture to provide background knowledge of the text: biographical information about Conrad and the geographical setting and historical and political context of the novella. We will then begin chapter one. They will use reading questions developed by Kris Tully and Robert Litchfield(42) to work through this and the other two chapters. I will read some of chapter one, stopping often to check for understanding and to allow students to ask for clarification and write answers to the reading questions, and to identify and define vocabulary words. I will also have students read along with an audio recording of the novella(43) so that they can hear how different readers emphasize different words in the same text. This should lead to a brief discussion of whether and how that affects their own understanding and interpretation of text.

Students will then assemble in their assigned groups to complete chapter one and begin chapter two. As they read, I will be circling among them, answering questions and asking them some of my own in order to push them to come to some understanding on their own. If a particular group seems to be having particular difficulty, I may sit with them for an extended period of time (as I will do throughout the unit). In addition to answering the reading questions, as they read students will annotate directly in their texts, noting any questions they may have, examples of figurative language, and/or words or phrases that have a special resonance for them. At the end of each class, each group will assign nightly homework to its own members so that they stay on schedule. Groups are encouraged to spend time outside of class working together, although this is not always possible when students have sports or familial obligations.

The first part of week two will be dedicated to students completing group readings of chapter two. We will spend class time identifying and defining problematic words in the chapter. This will also be time for students to ask clarifying questions about characters and plot before they take a test on chapter one so that I can assess whether they understand the text on the most basic level. If they do not, we will spend time reviewing.

We will conduct a whole-class close reading of what I call the "maps" passage in which Marlowe relates his childhood fascination with maps ("Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps" to "The snake had charmed me.") and the allure of the "mighty big river" which "resembl[ed] an immense snake uncoiled…."(44) I will use the document camera to project the passage onto the screen while they annotate indirectly their texts.

We will end the week with a whole-class discussion led by me or by a student volunteer. Each student will come to class with five questions that fall on the higher end of Bloom's Taxonomy, which we will have discussed earlier in the school year. They must also have their text in order to participate. At this point in their reading, students will have developed a preliminary opinion about whether Heart of Darkness is a racist text. Students will explore this issue, citing specific evidence from the novella to bolster their arguments. Depending on the quality of the discussion, the issues raised, and student interest, the discussion may go a second day.

Students will start the week by taking a test on chapter two. They will also begin their group readings of chapter three. The major assignments for this week are the close-readings students will do in pairs. The passage is about Marlowe's description of his initial visit to the Company offices.(45) They may begin in class and, if they do not finish, will complete the analysis for homework. The next day we will debrief as a class and discuss their interpretations of the passage.

For the fishbowl discussion, students will come to class with five discussion questions. I will have placed ten chairs in the middle of the classroom. I will choose the initial ten participants, who take their places in the circle, with one student to open the discussion. Those not in the fishbowl may enter the discussion after ten minutes have elapsed. A student who wishes to participate in the discussion taps the shoulder of the student whose place he wishes to take. Once in the circle, a student must remain for at least five minutes and may not leave until "tapped out" by another. As always, depending on the quality of discussion, the issues raised, and student interest, the fishbowl may go on to a second day.

To begin our final week, students will complete chapter three in their groups. We will, as we have done for each of the first two, identify and define problematic words and review the chapter prior to the chapter three test.

Once students have completed chapter three, I will assign the essays by Achebe and Hawkins to read and journal, using the dialectical method for the upcoming Socratic seminar. For the dialectical journal, students will use a spiral-bound notebook. For each entry, students will fold the page in half lengthwise. On the left, they write quotes (one per entry) they would like to analyze, citing the page number on which the quote can be found. On the right-hand side of the page, they will record their responses. They may explore the effect or possible meanings of figurative turns of phrase; they may write about personal connections they have made, or how a particular situation is relevant to the world today. Entries may not , however, be solely of the personal connection type, e.g. , "This reminds me of a time in my life when…." Students will write a total of ten entries for both essays combined. As they are reading Achebe's and Hawkins' essays outside of class, in class we will read, annotate, and discuss Armstrong's essay. Because of its complexity, we will spend the whole class period for this.

At the end of the week, we will hold the Socratic seminar, which will span two days. The classroom will be arranged with enough chairs in the center of the room for half the students to discuss. There will also be in the circle a "hot seat," which will allow a student outside the circle to ask a question or make a comment of the current seminar participants. The "hot seat" is only for asking a question or making a comment; a student in the seat may not remain to participate in the discussion. Students will each receive a seminar check sheet with rubric (see Appendix B, below). Each student will write their names on the "Outer Circle" line and the name of their partner on the "Inner Circle" line (partners are chosen by me). Again, students will come with five questions for discussion. I will write the essential questions on the board. Students are required to bring their text and may use their notes on Armstrong's essay and journal of Achebe's and Hawkins' essays. The quiet students will discuss on the first day, the "talkers" on the second day. On both days, I will choose a student to open the discussion. A student may begin the discussion with one of the essential questions or with one of her own. Because of the nature of discussion as it often develops and the different viewpoints and experiences of students, students may turn out not to stay focused on the essential questions. If this happens, I will only intervene if the discussion strays very far afield.

The culminating activity will be the timed write using the AP English Literature Exam 2004 released prompt.(46) Students will have the class period to write the essay.

Appendix A: Implementing District Standards

Common Core State Standards (CCSS or Standards) for English-Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects

Although there are at least ten standards that apply, for purposes of the unit, the three standards most pertinent are:

Reading 1: During discussions and in dialectical journals and essays, students will be required to "[c]ite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain." This requires that prior to discussion or to the writing of their essays, they must have read and evaluated the texts to be discussed. It is in their dialectical journals that they may note questions that become the basis for discussion.

Writing 2(a), (e), and (f) : In their essays, students are required "to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content." A well-written essay will—in cogent, formal prose throughout—introduce the topic at issue, organize arguments logically, and provide a concluding section that pulls together their arguments succinctly but not perfunctorily.

Speaking and Listening 1(a), (c), (d) : Essential to understanding literature is the free exchange of ideas. The expectation is that students will have read the assigned readings, thought about them, and will come to class willing to share their thoughts and ideas and any questions they may have. They are evaluated not only on the quantity of the comments they make but, more importantly, on the quality of their comments, including but not limited to whether: 1) their comments move the discussion forward; 2) they are listening to others' comments and observations, and responding thoughtfully; inviting more reticent members of the class to participate; 3) they are not simply agreeing with another's comment but providing further explanation as to why, as well as not simply disagreeing with another's comment but explaining why their view differs. Students must also cite specific evidence from texts in order to receive credit. Comments that are particularly insightful, that synthesize several points of view or opinions, are rewarded; comments that do not move discussion forward, are not. Comments made in side conversations do not receive credit.

Socratic Seminar Rubric

A+—50 points: Participated in 9 categories and spoke at least 15 times.

A—47.5 points: Participated in at least 7 categories and spoke at least 10 times.

B—42.5 points: Participated in at least 4 categories and spoke at least 6 times.

C—37.5 points: Participated in at least 2 categories and spoke at least 3 times.

D—32.5 points: Participated in 1 category and spoke at least once.

F—25 points: Present but no verbal participation.

Comments Grading Scale:

1. What went well: To get the full three points for this section, you must list at least three (3) things your group did well during the discussion. You are evaluating the group's performance, not merely your own.

2. Improving the process: You are evaluating BOTH sessions. Here is your chance to state what should be changed when planning our next discussion. Your suggestion might be about the way the discussion is structured—for instance, how much time we spend on one topic before going to another. You might offer a very specific critique of class behavior in the discussion—for instance that people are interrupting one another too often. Or, you might suggest a change in which group members are chosen. In something as complex as a seminar, I cannot envision a time when it will be truthful to state, "No changes are necessary," so I will give you zero (0) points for this [last] response.

Insightful comments: To get the full four (4) points for this section, you must record or summarize at least two insightful comments, which may be made by someone in your group or in the other group, or one from each session. To be truly insightful, a comment must show original thought (the speaker has been thinking on his or her own here) and cannot be merely a fact that anyone who opens the text can read for him- or herself. In other words, it cannot be a statement such as "Jocasta hanged herself," "Oedipus used Jocasta's brooches to blind himself," or " Oedipus the King was a tragic play."

Annotated Bibliography

Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." In Heart of Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context Criticism . Edited by Paul B. Armstrong. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 2006.

Adelman, Gary. Heart of Darkness: Search for the Unconscious . Boston: Twayne, 1987.

Armstrong, Paul B. "Reading, Race, and Representing Others." In Heart of Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context Criticism. Armstrong, ed.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context Criticism . Armstrong, ed .

Hawkins, Hunt. "Heart of Darkness and Racism." In Heart of Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context Criticism. Armstrong, ed.

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa . New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. This book details, thoroughly and often graphically, the history of and atrocities perpetuated on the native Africans of the Congo under the reign of King Leopold of Belgium.

Miller, J. Hillis. "Should We Read Heart of Darkness ?" In Heart of Darkness: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context Criticism . Armstrong, ed.

Simmons, Allan. Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Reader's Guide . London: Continuum, 2007.

Unrau, Norman J., and Robert B. Ruddell. "Interpreting Texts in Classroom Contexts." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 39, no. 1 (1995): 16-27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40016717 (accessed July 6, 2013).

Wimsatt, William K., and Monroe C. Beardsley. "The Intentional Fallacy." In The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry . Lexington, Ky.: University of Kentucky Press, 1954. 2-18. This essay explores the place that authorial intent plays in the interpretation of poetry. Although the focus of the essay is on the interpretation of poetry, the discussion is certainly applicable to something such as Heart of Darkness .

1. Chapter 1 "School Profile," William C. Overfelt Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Report 2012-2013. WASC is the organization that provides accreditation for public and private schools, colleges, and universities. The states of California and Hawaii, as well as U.S. territories including, but not limited to Guam and American Samoa, fall under its jurisdiction. Last year, after a year of self-study, Overfelt was granted by WASC six more years of accreditation, with a third-year mid-term report. This is the longest period that WASC grants to any institution. More information about the organization can be found at: http://www.acswasc.org.

2. On the 2012 STAR tests, the last year for which we have data, 37% of freshmen, 32% of sophomores, and 25% of juniors scored proficient or advanced.

3. For several decades, California has measured student achievement in 1 st through 12 th grades based on results from a variety of annual tests, most recently the California Standardized Testing and Reporting Tests (STAR Tests) and California Standards Tests (CSTs); however, the state will be joining a growing number that utilize tests based on the Common Core State Standards, colloquially known as Common Core. During the 2013-2014 school year, Overfelt will be a preparing for implementation beginning with the 2014-2015 academic year.

4. Latin: "Let there be light."

5. Chinua Achebe, "Image of Africa," quoting Albert J. Gerard, 337.

6. Though Wimsatt and Beardsley wrote specifically of poetry, I believe that the same general issues they discuss can be applied to fiction.

7. J. Hillis Miller, "Should We Read Heart of Darkness ?" in Heart of Darkness , 474.

8. Ibid . , 463.

9. Joseph Conrad, "Conrad in the Congo," in Heart of Darkness, 242.

10. Gary Adelman, Heart of Darkness , xii-xiii.

11. Ibid . , xiv-xv.

12. Allan Simmons, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, 8.

13. Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost , 225.

15. Ibid., 225-26.

16. "Imperialism and the Congo," in Heart of Darkness , 99.

17. Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost , 226.

18. Ibid., 233.

20. Achebe, "Image of Africa," in Heart of Darkness, 343.

21. Ibid., 337.

22. Ibid., 340.

23. Ibid., 342.

25. Ibid., 346

27. Hunt Hawkins, " Heart of Darkness and Racism," in Heart of Darkness , 366.

28. Ibid., 367.

29. Ibid., 368.

31. Conrad, Heart of Darkness , 33.

32. Hawkins, " Heart of Darkness and Racism," in Heart of Darkness , 369.

33. Ibid., 375.

34. Paul B. Armstrong , Reading, Race , 430.

35. Ibid., 431.

37. Ibid., 432

38. Ibid., 444.

39. For all three formats, I require students to come to class with five discussion questions on the upper-end of Bloom's Taxonomy and having read the assigned text. Whole-class discussions require a discussion leader whose job it is to make sure that discussion flows freely and to maintain order should conversation become quite animated.

40. A few days prior to the seminar, students are asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1-5, "1" for those who almost never say anything to "5" for those who proudly claim, "Just try and shut me up!" I then place them into one of two groups: the talkers and the quiet ones, with those students who rated themselves 3 (+/-) interspersed in the two groups.

41. dialectic. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary . Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialectic (accessed July 12, 2013).

42. The original questions were developed by the late Robert Litchfield, College Board consultant and teacher at Point Loma High School in San Diego. Kris Tully, English teacher at University High School in Tucson, Arizona, revised the questions into their current form. The questions can be found and downloaded at: http://teacherweb.com/CA/PalisadesCharterHighSchool/StephenBerger/Heart-of-Darkness-Reading-Questions.doc

43. The audio recording I will use can be accessed in iTunes and is provided by LoudLit.org, a site "committed to delivering public domain literature paired with high quality audio performances." Heart of Darkness, read by David Kirkwood and narrated by Tom Franks, is one of several novels, short stories, poems, and historical documents. Their limited library can be accessed at http://www.loudlit.org/collection.htm.

44. Conrad, Heart of Darkness , 7-8.

45. Ibid., 10 (The paragraph beginning with "A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow,…" and ending at " Bon Voyage ").

46. A pdf of the exam can be viewed and downloaded at the College Board's website: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap04_frq_english_lit_36149.pdf. There are also examples of student responses to the prompt.

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Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: AP Literature Q2 Prose Passage Essay Prompt

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This AP Literature Q2 Prose Literary Analysis essay is perfectly paired to get students to analyze the broader ideas of the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. It has one prose sample from the novel and asks students to answer an AP style question about the passage, practicing their exam-ready skills. You will have editing rights to these documents so you can customize these directions for your own ease of use.

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