We completed our series of essay writing classes by focusing on writing a comparison essay and a symbol/theme essay. With respect to the comparison essay, I discussed the literary device of a foil and examined the Russian harlequin as a foil to Kurtz. Our second essay addressed the Russian harlequin's motley attire as a mirror of the multi colored map of Africa dividing the continent into European sectors which Marlow views in the Company's office .We then addressed how the European zeitgeist evidenced by the map contributed to Kurtz' moral corruption. Nina diligently located supporting quotes from the novel for both essays and worked on using commentary to create paragraph cohesion. We then edited the drafts by eliminating extra words, by employing active verbs instead of the passive tense, and by combining sentences where necessary. Additionally, I demonstrated how to reorder words within a sentence to vary sentence beginnings and offered word choice suggestions. At the conclusion of the sessions, Nina had completed two well drafted essays.