A forest of symbols. How appropriate is this phrase as a description Essay

A forest of symbols. How appropriate is this phrase as a description of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Essay Example Instead, he finds meaning in the outside nature of things, what can be seen and touched and therefore proved. This emphasizes the importance of symbolism in bringing out the meaning of the story as Marlowe, concentrating on the outside, will make finding true meaning difficult at best. However, Marlow’s experience in the Congo has changed him to a man who cannot ignore the deeper meanings of the symbols around him. Like the rest of the story, in which everything seems to be reversed with its opposite or at best misunderstood in its entirety, the opening of the novel depends largely upon symbols as a means of conveying this sense of inner conflict between the nature of a thing and itself. The concepts of inward and outward, civilized and savage and light and dark are recurrent themes throughout the novel, introduced at the novel’s beginning and illustrating how each of these words are actually defined by cultural rather than actual standards. The bulk of the book concentrates on Marlowe’s telling of his adventures on the Congo River as a steamboat captain sent in to find a station master who has gone missing. As he struggles to make his way up the river to the interior where this man is supposed to be waiting for him, Marlowe begins to gain a deeper understanding of what is actually occurring in the forest outside the realm of what he’s been told by the Company. The trip on the Congo serves as a frame for a variety of adventures Marlow experienced as a younger man including encountering abject poverty, the frightening sight of ‘black men’ (never humans) working, chain gangs, uncomfortable station managers and broken down steamer ships. He is exposed to the most self-centered and greed-oriented individuals who appear to view the jungle as their personal treasure chest, to be exploited in any way they see fit, rather