1. By Joseph Conrad Project by Drake Thomas
Heart of Darkness
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By Joseph Conrad
Project by Drake Thomas

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

3. 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.

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

5. 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

6. Major Themes
Imperialism
Hypocrisy
Cruelty
Madness

7. 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

8. Cons
A bit boring
Conrad is a overly descriptive

9. 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