The Heart of Darkness (follow-up)

Hey guys,

today we continued studying the extract from the Heart of Darkness. I hope you now understand better what is going on and the symbols behind the words (= interpretation).

Here is what we said about the text today:

The title gives us indications about the genre of books the Heart of Darkness belongs to.

It’s probably a book about mystery, suspense and adventure. The title possibly refers to the center of a new place we don’t know and where we don’t feel at ease.

New place : - An undiscovered / uncharted (not on a map) land with unknown people

                    - The cradle of humanity

                    - A person with a dark heart or a dark soul, capable of doing evil things

                            - The settlers: to impose / to bring civilization by force / to subdue

                            - The Natives: to rebel / to want to get revenge 

The 5 senses in the text :

Sight : ‘fires burned low’ (10) 

Touch : 

Smell :  

Taste :  

Hearing : ‘it was quiet here’ (6) 

               ‘the roll of drums’ (6)

               ‘the snappy of a twig’ (10)

               ‘a burst of yells’ (15)

               ‘a mass of hands claping, of feat stomping’ (16)

                ‘prayers’ (9)

Air / Fire / Earth / Water -> suspenseful atmosphere

                                       -> a primal / primevial atmosphere = the basics of nature

7.b) The four elements represent the natives because they respect and live in nature / the wild / the wilderness while the setters want to detroy it. It creates a suspenseful atmosphere because nature is almighty and the ‘pilgrims’ are nothing compared to it.

They are scared / in awe in front of those primal / primeval elements.

It helps the reader picture the environment of the characters and share their emotions.

Vocabulary:

Almighty = powerful

                  that cannot be defeated

Sacred = nature can be considered as the sacred place

HW:

- finir la fiche guide sur le texte intégralement.

- être capable de parler du texte et des symboles.

- faire des fiches de vocabulaire.