Before reading the text, I would like to point out the layout. Double spaced, block quotes, bold and creative title. I notice these things because I of course will find myself writing my own critical lens essay here in a few weeks.
"For a novella teeming with a masterful use of literary elements, looking through a biographical or post colonial lens limits the reader's experience and understanding of Conrad's work." -I find this sentence intriguing because the author is somewhat explaining why a formalist lens is the best lens to view the Heart of Darkness with. I find that interesting, and I did not see that in any other mentor text we have read.
"Through a formalist lens, Heart of Darkness is no longer just a story of Marlow's journey through the Congo; it becomes a story about Marlow's affinity, even obsession, for truth and his frustration at language's limitations for conveying the truth" - I find this to be the authors claim. Again noticing it is written toward the end of the first paragraph much like the other mentor texts. I am not sure if "The most obvious structural element in the novella that develops this concern for the truth is the fact that the novella is written in frame narrative.", the next line, would be considered apart of the thesis, or even if that merely is the thesis disregarding the sentence before?
I notice that after the author claims the most important structural element used is frame narrative, he goes on to show were the frame narrative is set up early on in the story.
The author uses lots of quotes embedded in his paragraphs and explains why they are important directly after the quote.
The authors diction is above average id say!
The authors conclusion ties back into the intro, and is very simple and understandable. All of his points he chose to argue for mentioned in the conclusion were appointed in the body paragraphs thoroughly and shown through evidence in the text.
Works Cited
Overall a very useful mentor text.
My blog post looked somewhat like yours!
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