By Joseph Conrad Project by Drake Thomas Heart of Darkness NOTE: To change the image on this slide, select the picture and delete it. Then click the Pictures icon in the placeholder to insert your own image. By Joseph Conrad Project by Drake Thomas

Work Chosen On the recommended literature list Recommended by Mrs. Fisher Only 77 pages

Summary Marlow, the protagonist of the novel, receives a job offer in the late 1800s as a captain for The Company, an ivory trafficking conglomerate which operates in Africa. He accepts the job and journeys to the outskirts of the Congo River where he is assigned to sail a ship to resupply an inland station. During his journey, he questions and begins to criticize imperialism by seeing its effects firsthand.

Marlow Protagonist Captain of the ship Curious and ambitious (why he takes the job) Sympathetic Becomes skeptical and critical

Kurtz Before working for The Company Universal genius Great musician Great politician and speaker Working for The Company Head of the Inner Station Violent Crawls on all fours Physically weak Alluded insanity Obsessive & greedy

Major Themes Imperialism Hypocrisy Cruelty Madness

Pros Only 77 pages Easy to write about Most FRQ #3 prompts were neutral or negative Neutral: geography Negative: madness, cruelty, deception The book has mostly negative aspects

Cons A bit boring Conrad is a overly descriptive

Recommendation Highly recommend to any incoming AP Lit student Short Easy to write about for most prompts The theme of imperialism connects to many other negative themes Ample evidence for support despite its short page count