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Novel Cover Design
For the design of the cover I wanted to portray and emphasize the word darkness by having a distorted and corrupted map of Africa isolated in the center of the page taking over by the “light of civilization”. I wanted to portray the devastation and isolation and the struggle between good and evil (light and darkness). In the novel nothing is described in concrete terms. The word “darkness” is used to reflect the unknown and is conceptually important mainly where as Africa is described as gloomy and dark. I wanted to portray the corruptive nature of imperialism in Africa and the devastating effects it had to the people of Africa. If observed closely I illustrated an abstract version of the “human heart” inside the map of Africa, where I have illustrated (heart veins/tree branches) which reveals the evil heart of Krutz. The entire concept in the novel has a very distorted and evil concept and the reality of the situation is apparent in Kurtz final true words, when he vows to “exterminate the beasts”. (Wipe out the entire African people).
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