Discuss Conrad’s use of color, particularly black and white in Heart of Darkness.
Does he follow the traditional use of black for evil and white for good? To what degree is there reversal? Are both symbols of evil?
What is the relationship between the color and the theme of the whole book?
Provide specific text to support your argument.
Instruction: Do a close reading of the story to formulate your essay.
1. Definition: Because close reading focuses on the details of the text or passage and how they work together to create meaning, it is especially important to support all claims about the text with specific examples from the text in the form of quotation or cited paraphrase.
Quotations are preferable whenever possible because of their specificity. Close reading essays which are effective should contain a large proportion of quotations. However, it is also important to remember to connect all of those details to your central thesis.
2. Example: The Cyropaedia presents hunting as “the best method of practicing all such things as relate to war” (150), not only because it sharpens a soldier’s horsemanship, marksmanship, and ability to follow orders but because the spoils of a hunt, just like the spoils of war, can be distributed in exchange for social capital.
