A Comparative Study on Mental Growth in Heart of Darkness and The Great Gatsby: Based on Marlow and Nick

This paper aims to compare and analyze mental growth in Heart of Darkness and The Great Gatsby and to find out similarities and differences between two heroes: Marlow and Nick. The major results in this study are shown as follows; In Heart of Darkness Kurtz’s tragic death results from inner evil in human nature in the light of moral corruption embodied in him. Joseph Conrad reveals his tragic vision of human nature through multiple narrators and change in Marlow’s vision. Kurtz’s last word before his death is quite enlightening. Marlow undergoes a transformation and see the truth. Marlow realized that Kurtz’s evil are deeply rooted in self and in civilization. In The Great Gatsby, F, Scott Fitzgerald infuses a romantic optimism into Gatsby. Because Gatsby is a romantic, he has retained an ability to see a life of limitless possibilities. In the end, Nick, narrator, major character and critic, returns to the West, hometown, because of the corrupted materialism embodied in Tom and Daisy. Nick’s return to West means Nick’s transformation of consciousness or mental growth. In conclusion, Heart of Darkness and The Great Gatsby represent the desire for quest, mental growth, moral sense and self-recognition. But there is a critical difference in that the former reveals Dark Power, that is, moral evil in human nature and the latter shows the importance of romantic sensibility and moral corruption embodied in face value of money-centered society.