Jackson read his assigned reading for the duration of class.

Nina completed her final exam for the course during today's sessions.

Nina took her final exam during today's sessions. She will complete the examination essays tomorrow.

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.

During our first session, we studied Chinua Achebe's widely read essay," Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Mr Achebe is a native of Nigeria who argues the novel contains a residue "of antipathy to black people." We analyzed the essay to first locate the thesis and then highlighted his support for the argument with an emphasis on paying attention to the writing craftsmanship .Nina then discussed her views on the essay and articulated where she disagreed with the writer. We specifically noted that regardless of one's opinion of the writer's point of view, he validly observes that the Native Africans portrayed in the novel are flat dimensionless figures who appear to serve as backdrops for the European characters. During our next session, we continued our work on essay writing using the five essay writing exercises I prepared. Nina completed an essay on atavism and the symbolism of darkness in the novel. I demonstrated how to condense sentences by transforming static intransitive verbs into active more descriptive verbs. We further worked on how to smoothly embed quotes into a sentence, and where to reorder sentences within the paragraph.

As Nina completed the novel over the weekend, we discussed what Nina enjoyed about the novel(reading it) as well as her criticisms of the oblique ending and her observation that the novel's harsh critique of European colonialism was important but still somewhat outdated. We then parsed the last pages drenched in verbal and dramatic irony wherein Marlow visits Kurtz' fiancee and abandons his reverence for truth to maintain the fiancee's illusion that Kurtz was a great noble man. We identified the irony and double meaning of each line of Marlow's conversation with Kurtz' fiancee. This led to the philosophical examination of whether truth or illusion and Faith have greater value and under what circumstances illusions must be maintained. We tied this discussion to the illusion /reality motif and to the great"Idea" or pretense that justifies colonial exploitation that Marlow alluded to in the opening pages . In this same vein, we compared Kurtz' European fiancee with his paramour ,an African Native, as representations of this dichotomy . During our final session, we reviewed Nina's study guide homework which addressed Marlow's (and Conrad's) bleak view of life as purposeless and futile. Last, we reviewed all of the vocabulary(taken from the novel) that will appear on the final exam.

Today's lesson addressed inferring the meaning of symbols and identifying theme. I first placed four quotes on the board describing the jungle or wilderness setting of the novel. We then analyzed the figurative language and allusions within each description and placed interpretations on the language describing the wilderness/jungle . This discussion provided a good segue to theme, specifically the import of Kurtz' dying words,"The horror! The horror!" Nina addressed the possibility that Kurtz refers both to Colonial exploitation and his savage actions and greed. We then delved into the darker possibility that Conrad expresses a dark view of all humanity, not just Kurtz. I discussed how Conrad's characterizations of human behavior resemble Freud's but remarkably predate Freud by about 20 years. We then reviewed the study guide questions that explored the last moments of Kurtz ' life and why Marlow feels Kurtz' dark revelation was actually a moral victory as it least constituted an affirmation of something as opposed to total nihilism.

During our first sessions we focused on the author's use of symbolism and foreshadowing to highlight Marlow's moral dilemma which he characterizes as a choice between two nightmares. We explored the author's fluid descriptions of the jungle first as impenetrable, then as vengeful ,and last as pitiless and inferred the author's suggestion that the "non-human"world does not care about the human world. We further addressed the symbolism of the skulls on the rail posts of Kurtz' hut and the innocent "Russian harlequin" who acts as foil to Kurtz' corruption. As Marlow comments that he is relieved by Kurtz displaying his moral derangement (the skulls) in the open, we discussed why Marlow prefers Kurtz' open derangement to the self righteous hypocrisy of the company manager. Nina then completed an exercise locating phrases and adjectives describing the "native woman" who obviously was in some form of relationship with Kurtz as she dramatically and painfully expresses her discomfiture over Kurtz departure from the inner station .We will compare this woman with Kurtz' fiancee whom we will meet at the end of the novel. During our final session we continued our mini writing seminar using the writing exercises I prepared based on the novel. Today, Nina completed an essay on the theme of societal vs internal restraint and which is the more admirable . Nina has a good grasp on this motif and did well in integrating supporting quotes into her essay, in editing her work, and in crafting complex sentences. I assisted in word choice and paragraph organization where necessary .

During our final course sessions, we are allocating significant time to essay writing skills. Today, in response to the writing exercises I prepared based on our study of "Heart of Darkness" Nina first completed an essay on the author's use of foreshadowing . In this exercise, we addressed the need to identify a controlling idea for the essay and to incorporate this idea into a thesis within the first paragraph. We then completed our second essay on the illusion vs reality motif in the novel as illustrated in the author's depiction of women. Again, we worked on formatting a controlling idea and drafting a first sentence that broadly addresses the question and yet introduces the point of the essay. As Nina completed paragraphs ,we worked on the skill of self-editing , sentence placement, and word choice . Additionally, I provided instruction on using the first paragraph to provide some sense of a definition of what constituted an illusion and what constituted the reality that the narrator encountered . From there ,Nina was able to compose a second paragraph that explained the significance and import of the illusory world where the author suggests women do and must continue to reside. We then started a third essay on the theme of restraint, societal vs internal ,and discussed restraint's role in the maintenance of an orderly civilized society. To assist Nina in getting started,I again modeled some broad first sentences that could form a foundation or controlling idea for the essay. We left off discussing how to combine sentences in the first sentences Nina drafted.

Today's lesson focused on identifying symbolism and characterizing the "Russian harlequin" as a foil to Kurtz and to the other characters engaged in colonial exploitation . Nina did well identifying the symbolic significance of the fog in the context of the confused Marlow seeking or hoping to find moral clarity when he meets Kurtz . However, as she had difficulty with some of the other examples, I demonstrated how to examine the text for clues and how to analogize objects to thematic motifs. In this regard, we analogized the lack of a fence railing at Kurtz' hut to Kurtz' lack of self-restraint that we learn likely has led to his moral decline. We then studied the descriptions of the "Russian harlequin " and noted his innocence as a foil to other characters as well as identifying his patchwork clothing as a symbol of European exploitation carving Africa into a motley patchwork of corporate colonies, Further, after noting the underlying racism in some of the passages, we studied Rudyard Kipling's very racist and famous poem "White Man's Burden" published about the same time the novel was written. Last, we reviewed Nina's study guide homework and supplemented her answers with further explanation and textual support where appropriate ,