"The Shadow Line" is a novel written and published by Joseph Conrad in 1917. The story has as its main theme the youth and its end. When the protagonist warns that his youth is practically over, he decides to leave the tropics and leaves. While waiting for the ship that will take him far away, life gives him a great opportunity: the possibility of assuming the role of Captain on an Eastern ship. But on the navec hovers a very bad energy, it seems almost bewitched and the memory of the previous dead mad captain is still present. The journey proceeds, therefore, in a disturbing and uncomfortable: the crew is annihilated by fevers and no wind. The main theme of the story is the inviting transformation that life claims: the transition from childhood to adult, (the transition from ingenuity and impulsiveness to wisdom) requires an inner emptiness not free from effort and suffering. We can say that beyond a novel of adventure, "The Shadow Line" is also a psychological account of what happens in the psyche of a boy, when he realizes that, in one way or another, he must change.
