Tuesday 13 November 2012

“Oh the horror... the horror...”

"Oh the horror... the horror..."

(Kurtz, from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now)

     In Heart of Darkness, while the protagonist (Kurtz) is dying he starts to reflect his life, which was surrounded by bad events caused by him. Apparently, things kept getting worse throughout that novel, just like in Lord Of The Flies. If we think about what Kurtz made with his life, we can relate it to what the children did with the heavenly island where they were. Kurtz was given a beautiful life, and he made it terrible while doing not good things. The same happens in Lord Of The Flies: the boys are "given" a wonderful island and now have the power to do anything they want with it. Instead of enjoying the bright side of it, they turned that paradise into a hell. It really becomes a horror.

1 comment:

  1. I don't quite understand what you're saying about the island. I believe it was a paradise to the extent of the freedom the boys had, having no adults to control them, but in my perspective, being stranded on an island isn't great because of the limited resources. I do agree that they could have enjoyed their time trying to survive at the beginning, but with the conflicts, the feuding between Ralph and Jack and the boys turning "savage", the conditions to survive became harsher.Perhaps before Jack took over, life seemed a bit easier but not perfect. So yes, things got worse as the story progressed, from paradise to hell. Overall, good work and nice analysis.

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