Because Heart of Darkness was a disturbing novel on so many levels, I feel strange to say I enjoyed the story, however, I found Conrad's philosophical question to be interesting and therefore Heart of Darkness to me, is not so much enjoyable as it is a sad and possibly truthful look into humanity's depths. I found that the story mirrored my thoughts and opinion of Lord of the Flies. Although the book as a whole was disturbing and almost painful to think about both Conrad and Golding made points concerning the evil in man, and I find that to be an interesting and possibly unanswerable philosophical question.
In a freshman thesis I described how I believed in the concept, the notion, that people were born a blank slate, a tabula rasa, and that society influences an individual and brings out the evil within them. As a senior I have debated this question over and over in my mind and believe to have drawn up a new conclusion. After reading Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies, watching films such as Apocalypse Now, and hearing of the evil around the world, I cannot think that society alone will flood a man with such evil, to the point where his humanity is questionable. Kurtz, in both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now are of course extreme cases, however although their state is so hard for me to grasp I don't think that it is impossible to exist. As I grow older I see things in new light and this is just one example. I now think that yes, man is born in a sense evil, or at least with the capacity to become evil. Humans or not we are still animals in a sense and given the right circumstance, I think that our primal impulsive instinct can lead us to the depths of darkness, where human morality ceases to exist.
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Hey! I too found myself constantly comparing this story to Lord of the Flies. I one hundred percent agree with the idea that a man/woman is born with the capacity for evil. I think people are born with different ways of expressing evil, however. For example, while one may be drawn to the use of physical violence, another may be drawn to verbal evil. In the case of Kurtz, I think it was his feelings of incompetence that led him to insanity. I think the atmosphere of the jungle added to his feelings of failure, and the combination pushed him over the edge.
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