Socratic Seminar Quotes
Directions
• Discuss the thematic ideas/concepts that can
be compared through the various quotes.
Beloved vs. Heart of Darkness
• Saying more might push
them both to a place
they couldn’t get back
from. He would keep
the rest where it
belonged: in that
tobacco tin buried in his
chest where a red heart
used to be. Its lid rusted
shut.
• You lost your way on
that river as you would
in a desert…til you
thought yourself
bewitched and cut off
forever from everything
you had once.
Beloved vs. Heart of Darkness
• White people believed
that whatever the
manners, under every
dark skin was a jungle.
Swift unnavigable
waters, swinging
screaming baboons,
sleeping snakes, red
gums ready for their
sweet white blood. In a
way . . . they were right.
• It was unearthly, and
the men were—No,
they were not inhuman.
Well, you know, that
was the worst of it—the
suspicion of their not
being inhuman.
The Stranger vs. Beloved
• But everybody knows
life isn’t worth living.
• They killed the flirt
whom folks called
Life for leading
them on. Making
them think the
next sunrise would
be worth it; that
another stroke of
time would do it at
last.
Heart of Darkness vs. The Stranger
• Droll thing life is — that
mysterious arrangement
of merciless logic for a
futile purpose. The most
you can hope from it is
some knowledge of
yourself — that comes
too late — a crop of
unextinguishable regrets.
• So close to death Maman
must have felt free then
and ready to live it all
again. Nobody, nobody
had the right to cry over
her. And I felt ready to
live it all again too.
The Stranger vs. Heart of Darkness
• I felt that I had been
happy and that I was
happy again. For
everything to be
consummated, for me to
feel less alone, I had only
to wish that there be a
large crowd of spectators
the day of my execution
and that they greet me
with cries of hate.
• The possibility of sudden
onslaught and massacre,
or something of the kind,
which I saw impending,
was positively welcome
and composing.