Read the following passage from the end of Heart of Darkness, after Kurtz has died and Marlow himself has almost died. Then, in
a well-organized, MLA-formatted essay of 700-800 words, analyze the language (repetition, imagery, diction, syntax) Conrad
uses to illustrate Marlows feelings about death, and how he compares himself to Kurtz.
Tips for Success:
Read and reread, looking up words you do not know, and annotating purposefully.
Start with a clear and focused introduction where you include a thesis that directly references the prompt. Avoid
generalities or vague openers; feel free to get right to your point.
Your subsequent paragraphs should begin with thesis that clearly indicate which part of the argument you are addressing.
Do not forget to include transitions as you move from one idea to the next.
Blended and contextualized evidence should be only from the passage and should be plentiful; use words and phrases
instead of whole sentences so that you can better focus your ideas. Citations are not necessary.
Analysis should directly illustrate how meaning is being created through language.
Your conclusion should be purposeful, offering new insight based on your analysis. No need for length here 2-3
sentences should cover it.
Droll thing life isthat mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is
some knowledge of yourselfthat comes too latea crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death. It is the
most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing
around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat,
in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If
such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be. I was within a hair’s-breadth of
the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the
reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. Since I had peeped over the
edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough
to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness. He had summed
uphe had judged. ‘The horror!’ He was a remarkable man. After all, this was the expression of some sort of belief; it had
candor, it had conviction, it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper, it had the appalling face of a glimpsed truththe
strange commingling of desire and hate. And it is not my own extremity I remember besta vision of grayness without form
filled with physical pain, and a careless contempt for the evanescence of all thingseven of this pain itself. No! It is his
extremity that I seem to have lived through. True, he had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while I had
been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot. And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom, and all
truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of
the invisible. Perhaps! I like to think my summing-up would not have been a word of careless contempt. Better his
crymuch better. It was an affirmation, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by
abominable satisfactions. But it was a victory! (44).
