Nature and Hearts of Darkness

Paper Summary:

This essay discusses the following three novels: Tayeb Salih's 'Seasons of Migrations to the North', David Malouf's 'Remembering Babylon', and Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' . All of these novels reveal the shadow side of the human soul, the dark, forbidden side that most of us don't want to admit exists and show how it manifests in relationship to the unknown. When humans come into contact with something other than that which they know well, they often react out of fear which springs from the depths of their own hidden inner selves. Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness is the classic on this theme to which the other two are compared. In these novels human life is represented as a duality hovering between light and darkness. All three writers use nature extensively to symbolize this duality. In these books most often nature is evil and dark, though now and then we catch a glimpse of beauty and light.

From the Paper:

"This study will explore the role that images of nature play in three novels of cultural conflict. Tayeb Salih's Seasons of Migrations to the North, and David Malouf's Remembering Babylon, will be discussed using Conrad's Heart of Darkness as the standard by which all such works are measured.In addition to being about clashing cultures, these novels are about the shadow side of the human soul, the dark, forbidden side that most of us don't want to admit exists and how it manifests in relationship to the unknown. When humans come into contact with something other than that which they know well, they often react out of fear which springs from the depths of their own hidden inner selves. Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness is the classic on this theme. In these novels human life is represented as a duality hovering between light and darkness. All three writers use nature extensively to symbolize this duality. In these books most often nature is evil and dark, though now and then we catch a glimpse of beauty and light."

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