Heart of Darkness Test Questions
The Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and Secret Sharer exam will be on Wednesday. You can vote on the poll on the right side of the screen until Monday at midnight to eliminate one question from the test. The final test will have two questions, each to be answered with a full thesis + four paragraph response.
1. Chinua Achebe argued that Heart of Darkness is an “offensive and deplorable book” that “set[s] Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.”Is Achebe correct about Heart of Darkness? Does it reduce Africa and its people to the role of a foil for Europe? Or is Conrad’s point of view more complicated, using Marlow as an ironic commentator on colonialism?
2. Explain how Heart of Darkness functions allegorically, focusing on characters. There are two sets of allegorical representations, at least. One is the ship’s crew; the other the Intended-African Queen-Kurtz triad. It would be fair to spend more time on Kurtz than the others, but do not neglect the other characters.
3. Explain the deliberate juxtaposition of The Intended and the The Mistress. What do we learn from their implicit comparison? What lessons does Marlow learn?
4. Which argument makes more sense, that Marlow is the imperialist and racist alter ego of Joseph Conrad, or that he is an ironic character, one from which we are intended to learn that colonialism is wrong?
5. Heart of Darkness represents a narrative reconstruction of African and its people. How might this discourse, according to Edward Said have constructed a vision of Africa for European audiences that was untrue?
Secret Sharer/Apocalypse Now Questions (cannot be voted out)
Alsbury Special
Some have contended that Leggatt represents an ideal to be emulated by the captain because of his firm actions in the face of great danger; others have argued that he displays cowardice, murderous instincts, and irrationality, and therefore represents that which is evil about the captain and humankind. Using specific references from the story, defend one of these points of view, or construct your own description of Leggatt.
Film Special
“Apocalypse Now” explores the issue of madness in two distinct ways: the madness of Colonel Kurtz and the madness of the Vietnam War. Using specific examples from the film, demonstrate how director Francis Coppola shows us this madness and make an argument for the ultimate meaning of the work. (I would guess this second part would make a nice thesis statement.)
