Heart of Darkness- light and dark images

Throughout the novel, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the contrasting of light and dark images permeated the text. The use of this imagery created an underlying theme revolving around the conflict between savagery and culture, knowledge and ignorance. Conrad depicts the events, locations, and ideas that Marlow encounters in terms of light and dark. These archetypal roles in novel often become a paradox when being purely one or the other can attain neither. Instead …

…light meaning purity and knowledge. Knowledge becomes the poison of society by creating a desire to ascertain that which will in theory enlighten but in practice blinds more severely. In the Allegory, the sun was incredibly painful for the cave dweller to view but he remained in it, demolishing his prior truths. Why would anyone pain themselves to reveal that which makes life much more painful? Again, that is the paradox of humanity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**