1. On page 8, Conrad’s narrator in Heart of Darkness describes the scene: “Flames glided in on the river, small green flames, red flames, white flames, pursuing, overtaking, joining, crossing each other--then separating slowly or hastily.”

2. Like ''Beowulf, J. R. R.'' Tolkien’s character Bilbo is “terrified of losing himself” and so rejects exile and embraces the warrior’s heroic code (Annotated Hobbit 226). Another work by Tolkien confronts the same issue: the character Frodo is told that he must resist going to a “cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten” (365).

3 . Magazine covers are often overtly political. Take the example of ''Time magazine’s''most recent issue, which featured three swinging orange wrecking balls with yellow hair.