The Landscape In Heart Of Darkness And Cormac Mccarthys...

Limited in their ability to represent the characters’ conditions without explicit statements, authors cannot elucidate each event and character’s thought while continuing to hold the reader’s attention. Therefore, many authors utilize the landscape of the story to parallel a character or group of characters. Both Joseph Conrad, author of Heart of Darkness, and Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, manipulate the landscape to represent the human condition. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad personifies the landscape as a fluid character, so as the reader begins to further comprehend the landscape’s meaning, Marlow’s understanding of the people around him becomes more clear. Likewise, in The Road, McCarthy utilizes the ashy remains of the forest as†¦show more content†¦For Marlow, like most of the men who ventured into the Congo, â€Å"the snake had charmed [him]†(Conrad 6). Yellow represents deception, disease, and fear, and with the image o f the deadly snake slithering through the center, Conrad makes an allusion to the Bible. While the Congo may have once been full of vibrant plants and beautiful animals, the presence of Europeans who had the disease of evil in them, a spark of greed that became a raging fire, resulted in a plundering of the native land and the native people. As Marlow struggles to contextualize and express the landscape of the Congo at the beginning of the novel, he struggles to do the same for the human race. Conrad makes it clear that Marlow always wanted to explore the unknown. Africa, however, does not want to be discovered. By personifying the African landscape, Conrad creates the image of an invisible force made of the bushes, the trees, and the smoke. Marlow first observes this unseen force when he watches the French warship â€Å"firing onto the continent† as if there were someone or something to kill. He remarks that, despite their efforts, â€Å"nothing could happen† (Conrad 11). The French were attacking the force, one that would reappear throughout the novella, because they did not understand it. Marlow also struggles to describe the landscape of Africa, denoting it as â€Å"smiling, frowning, inviting, grand,Show MoreRelatedCormac Mccarthy Dystopian Essay1421 Words   |  6 Pagesdystopia. In what ways has he used language to create the mood of the story and how has he represented the relationship between the man and his son? Cormac McCarthy is a well-known fictional author, especially well-known for his dystopian novels and his ability to lure readers into his books through his language and his depth of writing. His famous novel â€Å"The Road† entices readers in through his well-constructed post-apocalyptic dystopian genre. McCarthy cleverly uses language techniques such as third personRead More`` The Road `` By Cormac Mccarthy2000 Words   |  8 PagesLiterature has always been a medium to express writer’s concerns; in her award winning book The Handmaids Tale Margaret Atwood warns of the instability in our patriarchal society, likewise Cormac McCarthy in his acclaimed book The Road also gives a warning; that of the fragility of human nature. Using the setting of hostile, post-apocalyptic America these authors explore what happens to both individuals and the wider society when rights and basic human necessities are taken away. Atwood createsRead MoreThe Road By Cormac Mccarthy2062 Word s   |  9 PagesReid Norberg Period 3 3/18/16 2016 AP Lodestar 1. Title: The Road Author: Cormac McCarthy Date of Publication: 2006 Genre: Post- apocalyptic fiction 2. The Road is a novel written by American author Cormac McCarthy. Although born in the North East, McCarthy was driven to the South West later in his life where he has since based most of his novels, including The Road. The Road tells a story of a man and his son in post apocalyptic America where the weather is winter-like and the ground isRead Moreâ€Å"Fear of the Unknown Is a Common Gothic Theme†. Is This True in Your Texts?3510 Words   |  15 PagesBram Stoker’s Dracula the overpowering force of the sublime, the prominence of religion, death and use of darkness accompanied by typical Gothic techniques evoke a fear of the unknown in responders. This common Gothic themes can also be observed in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, in which the fear of the unknown is enhanced by the sublime, the prominence of religion, death and the use of darkness. Furthermore, it is clear that context has played a massive part in composition of each novel, establishing