Writing Samples

As promised, here are the samples we put together in class. Use them as references as you put together your paragraph on the poem.

From 5th hour:

The novel Heart of Darkness and the poem The Hollow Men both include numerous symbols of darkness and evil.
In The Heart of Darkness, Conrad provides an eerie and dark scene early in the novel to foreshadow the darkness that will envelope Marlow once he arrives in Africa. When Marlow goes to sign his contract and get a physical from The Company. He describes two women “guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall.” Conrad capitalized the word “darkness,” which suggests the company’s likeness to Hell. A pall, which is a blanket for a coffin, also suggests darkness. These two, combined with the use of black wool by the women, work to suggest an atmosphere of darkness and evil.

From 4th Hour:

Both The Heart of Darkness and The Hollow Men provide numerous symbols of darkness that help create a somber and foreboding mood. The Hollow Men achieves this mood by providing a number of dreary images. In line 33, Eliot provides an image of a “rat’s coat.” Rats are often associated with sewers and disease, both of which indicate a foreboding mood. The fact that Eliot is providing the coat of the rat implies that the wearer of the coat is wrapped up in this sense of dreariness. The same line also includes “crossed staves,” indicating a crude cross made of two connected and perpendicular sticks. Such crosses are often used for graves found in rural or desolate settings, like the desert setting found in the poem. Eliot also refers to the “dying stars” that are visible in this desolate setting (line 54). The clear reference to death in this image helps to solidify the somber and foreboding mood.