Heart of Darkness Symbolism

Written stories all use literary techniques to structure writings, as well as engage readers. One literary device that that most of writings have in common is the use of symbols to show hidden messages such as moods and tones. Symbols can be divided into two categories a thematic concept which is what readers thinks the work is about, and a thematic statement, being what the work says about the subject. Interesting enough stories tend to use very similar tones to describe things such as a characters mood.

In the stories “ Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad “ The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and the movie Memento, all main characters moods are shown to change depending on the environment they are in. In Heart of darkness when nature changes such as gloomy skies so does the character.

In House on Mango Street depending on what environment Esperanza is in she changes her mood and tone and lastly in Memento depending on who he is with his attitude changes as well. All three stories have thematic intertext by Mood and tone. Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, The theme of nature and foul weather is found throughout the book of Heart of Darkness setting a tone of gloominess. The reader cannot help but notice the gloomy and condescending mood of this work. Marlow’s impassive and stark descriptions of unpleasant situations add to the cheerless and depressing nature of the tone.

For example, Marlow describes his first glimpse at the enslaved “criminal” natives, “Near the same tree two more, bundles of acute angles, sat with their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees, stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a great weariness:”.The impending gloom of night and foul weather is common to find in Heart of Darkness, especially when Marlow takes a moment to collect his thoughts or to assess his surroundings. This natural shadow is seen extensively in the African jungles, a wilderness impenetrable even by sunlight, as you can see in the modern-day image on screen. In Heart of Darkness, the natural world isn’t a place of comfort or pleasure, it’s dark, frightening,

In the story The House on Mango Street it covers a year in the life of Esperanza, a Chicana (Mexican-American girl), who is about twelve years old. The novel begins with Esperanza and her family moving into a new house, the house is a huge improvement from the family’s previous apartment, and it is the first home her parents actually own. However, the house is not what Esperanza has dreamed of, because it is old and small. The house is in the middle of a crowded Latino neighborhood, where many people just like Esperanza are racially segregated. The house symbolizes many things as the reader is able to see throughout reading the book. in the story The House on Mango Street the house represents freedom and confinement as when Esperanza is home she feels like she is away from the judgement of the outside world.

The house also represents success and failure as they have moved from a place that was worse to where they are now but it is still a failure to people in the outside world looking in and lastly. The house symbolizes confinement, failure, and reality as Esperanza is embarrassed about her living conditions. This is the first house her family has owned and not rented, but it doesn’t live up to the fantasies she had of a house that her parents promised but her reality is she now lives there and it is better than where she was before. The symbols shown in the novel are up to the readers depiction to seek out and find as not all things are symbols in the authors eyes.

The movie Memento is a backwards telling story of a main character Lenny, who is an insurance claims investigator who lives with his diabetic wife. One night, two junkies break into his house and rape and murder his wife. He kills one of them but the other leaves him with brain damage and gets away, Lenny then goes through the movie trying to find the killer with his amnesia utilizing tools like a polaroid camera to remember things. The symbols in the movie can be very obvious even starting with the dvd cover which is made to look like lenny’s polaroid camera pictures. Polaroids to Lenny are symbols of the people that he has to remember in order to get his revenge on the person who murdered his wife.

His polaroids are clues to lead him to the exact points he needs to go to every day in order get his ultimate goal.Leonard has a slew of tattoos all over his body in order for him to remember vital facts about his life. The symbol of his tattoos is that he must never forget what happened to his wife. He has to remember that he has a mission to complete In Memento, symbolism is used numerous times to convey intentions where mirrors and photographs are the constant recurring symbols. Despite the different context of the scenes, mirrors appear frequently to symbolize the characters throughout the movie.

For example, Lenny is seen reading his tattoos using a mirror while on the phone. Despite all the tattoos on his body, there is only one that can be read using a mirror which reads, “John G. raped and murdered my wife.” which is his mission statement as if it is for others to read. Mirrors are also used in the film to show Lenny’s reality he has constructed. In the scene where he washes his hands in a bathroom, he remembers Sammy Jankis and changes his story to fit in his memory and thereby creates his dual which represented that by the reflection in the mirror in the bathroom. The scene, in which Leonard is assaulted by Dodd, is a heroic reconstruction of the assault on his wife where he prevails over the intruder and the mirror remains intact. However, during the invasion where he failed to protect his wife, he is thrown into his bathroom mirror where the broken mirror represents his broken memory and his inability to know himself without it.

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