For our presentation (group #4) we had the prompt that stressed the “tale with in a tale” in the novel, Heart of Darkness. The specific quote that the protagonist, Kurtz, says on page 80, “’I laid the ghost of his gifts at last with a lie, he began suddenly. ‘Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it -completely. They –the women I mean –are out if it –should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their won, lest ours gets worse.”This quote stresses several main themes of the book. The most important is the theme of secrecy. Kurtz wants to keep the women from knowing the truths of his operation in the inner station in Africa. He also keeps the details of his operation secret from the workers and almost everyone else who is involved with the Company. The theme of secrecy is indeed a theme that applies to the entire book. The ‘darkness’ hinted at in the theme is a symbol of secrecy.In our quote, another aspect cannot be overlooked. That aspect is the presence of women and their treatment in the novel. The women obviously have no clue as to what is going on. All of the women are sheltered in the book. Other quotes which express this were given in our presentation. Another example which we gave was the fact that even after Kurtz passed away, his Intended was kept from the truth and was told a lie about what was really said on his deathbed. Women were kept “out of it” within this book and in life. Another presentation that I thought was helpful and thoroughly presented was the presentation about the symbol of black and white. I think that black and white is a very prominent and important symbol in the novel. There are many different ways to interpret it and there are many different aspects of these interpretations. This group did a very good job of relating the theme of black and white to the good versus evil...
