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The Theme Of Color In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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The theme of color in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a symbolic narrative about the journey of a white man down into the interiors of Africa. Symbolism plays a significant role in the advancement of themes in heart of Darkness. The novel has a simple plot; however, the multiple symbols used in the narrative have enriched the themes of the novel. Colors are among the important symbols that assist in the development of the themes. Colors such as white, black, red, yellow, green, blue, pale and light are skillfully used to express goodness, evil, torture, cowardice, life, peace and weakness respectively. The symbolic importance of these colors will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
The black and white colors are very much used throughout Conrad’s Heart of darkness to denote light and darkness. They have significant meanings. Black is used to represent evil and darkness while white symbolizes light and goodness. Good people are thought to have white souls even if they have black skin while bad people and devils are thought to have black souls even if they are white skinned. Consequently, people are described as black or white not for the outer skin, but for their inner souls and how they act. Due to their corruption, greed and cruelty against the natives of Africa, white people are described by Marlow as evil and dishonest men with black souls. They are white from outside like the “Whited Sepulchre” (Conrad, 13) that is white and

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