STURGEON ENG 4B HD Part II Significant Quotes

After reading part 2, the two images that I now find to prevail throughout the story are savages and the "heart" of the jungle. The colonials referring to the natives as "savages" places them inferior to the white men. The Europeans even refer to the African natives as "cannibals--in their place" (23). This is significant because it shows how stereotypical the white men are at the time back when people of other races and colors are seen as animals. The second image of the "heart" of darkness being the jungle becomes more prevalent. It is ironic that a heart, which is usually happy and lively and the center of earthliness, is being compared with darkness and doom. Continuously throughout part 2, the land is described as a "treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart" (22). This jungle where the colonists choose to go, is unpleasant and dangerous to them. In reality, it is the home to many native Africans and families. The onesidedness of the Europeans only allows for them to see the jungle as a disgusting money making haven.

Images which prevail in Part 1 and Part 2 for me are: 1) The use of phrases that symbolize darkness to describe the unknown African terrain. The farther the expedition went up the river the "darker" things got. "We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there" (31). Those images which describe the terrain as scary and mysterious symbolize how we fear things we don't understand. When an area is colonized, it "lights" up because it is laid out in a way that the Europeans can understand. 2) The greed of the Europeans also shines in this novel. It becomes more evident that the reason the Europeans came to Africa in the first place was for the money rather than to "civilize" those countries. "The word ivory would ring in the air for a while---and on we went again into the silence" (31). Ivory was the main source of money, and it looked like it was the only reason those men were actually here. It was the only thing they can get excited about so they can actually talk to each other. They never really cared about the welfare of the Africans and how many Africans it would take to get them their money.

While reading part two, i noticed that the idea of stillness/silence was very prevalent. With exception to the time when Marlow and the others were attacked by the natives, almost every aspect of his surroundings was characterized as still or silent. For example, Marlow says stuff like "..we went again into the silence(32)" and "listening to the nearly as appalling and excessive silence(36)." I believe the silence is significant because it magnifies each and every action in the story and allows us to further analyze the importance of other actions. Also, I noticed that the idea of madness is very prevalent. Throughout part 1, the idea of madness was centered around marlow, but it soon encompassed others such as the "mad helmsman, who was shaking the empty rifle and yelling at the shore(41)." As the men journey through the heart of darkness, the uncertainty and silence of what lies ahead of them has disrupted their mental state of mind and has further cemented the notion that they are irrational beings who fail to make substantial progress in any regard.

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Originally Posted by Yvonne Sturgeon

For all Eng IVB students, my question to you is this: What two images do you find now after Part II that seem to prevail throughout the story? Name them and discuss their significance. This is the first of several threads, as well as an opportunity to post questions to others!:)

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After reading Part II, several images throughout the story such as the depiction of the dense jungle and the comparison between the Europeans and the Africans stood out the most. Joseph Conrad chooses specific words to illustrate the jungle, for example, " going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world"(22). Images of isolation, thick vegetation, flourishing wildlife, and no imperialism emerges. The jungle represents more than a habitat to the wildlife; it symbolizes the darkness in ones heart. The jungle portrays this darkness by having an unsettling atmosphere, for example, when Marlow and his crew go up river at first they sense an eerie feeling of an attack which later in part two the attack actually happens. Darkness in ones heart is represented in the jungle because the heart can be fooled easily and manipulated.
The other image, the comparison of Europeans and Africans also prevailed throughout the story. Marlow verbally names the Africans as savages however, he describes them with such beauty even though some of the descriptions are intimidating. When Marlow describes the fireman he admires how well kept the fireman is, "he was an improved specimen"(24).
As Marlow continues to describe the fireman, empathy and compassion are felt. On the other hand, Marlow describes how "unwholesome the pilgrims looked"(26) and the fact of idealizing/justifying himself in the story also depicts the other Europeans as savages. Although, physically Europeans seem to be the way Joseph Conrad wants us to think well kept, proper, and have manners, he twists the idea and internally the Europeans are savages throughout the story. Joseph Conrad challenges the stereotypical perceptions of what imperialism and westernization are and distorts them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yvonne Sturgeon

For all Eng IVB students, my question to you is this: What two images do you find now after Part II that seem to prevail throughout the story? Name them and discuss their significance. This is the first of several threads, as well as an opportunity to post questions to others!:)

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After reading part II of Heart of Darkness, I find that there are many images that are significant regarding the interpretation of the story. The first image that I find to prevail throughout the story is the old and almost run down condition of the river. In part two, Conrad constantly refers to the river as being prehistoric and neglected. Furthermore, Conrad also describes Marlow's journey as "traveling back in time to the earliest beginnings of the world." Conrad describes the condition of the river in order to depict the basic lifestyle that many African villages abide by. Conrad describes the river this way in order to show how the colonization of other parts of Africa has corrupted and ruined the lives of many people. The description of the riverbed not allowing "the brilliance of sunshine" is used to help the reader and public realize that not everything that was happening in Africa was good and that behind the scenes, a vast majority of the African villagers were truly depressed yet they were too afraid to revolt against the more advanced white population in Africa. Another image that I have found to prevail throughout Part II of Heart of Darkness is the way Conrad makes Kurtz appear to be a God. Throughout the voyage, Marlow meets new people who all tend to share the same common belief: Kurtz is the greatest and most honorable man in all of Africa. Marlow solidifies this interpretation during his rant in the middle of the battle with the Cannibals. In this rant, Marlow makes it known that Kurtz seems to be the owner or responsible for almost everything that is associated with Africa and the harvesting of ivory. The description of Kurtz is imperative for the meaning of the story because this description helps portray many themes involved in this book, especially greed. Kurtz's god-like status represents greed because almost everyone lower than his position wish that they would be in his position and wish they had the power that he has.

Two images that seem to have prevailed through the story so far, is the imagery of Natives and their savagery, as well as the imagery of the surroundings, especially the fog, in which Marlow travels through.

Throughout Marlow's journey, there has always been a presence of "white fog". I believe this symbolises the extent to which Marlow has no idea what's in store for him in Africa. “When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more binding than the night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all around you like something solid” (25). The fog obscures his view on several occasions, leaving Marlow to wonder what, or who, is beyond. The fog may also symbolise the savagery that is lurking within the wilderness, whilst at the same time hiding it from the view of Marlow whilst he is on his voyage. “I observed with assumed innocence that no man was safe from trouble in this world” (25). The inability to be able to see through the fog, caused Marlow to become quite scared of what was beyond. Being that Marlow is from Europe, he was also unaware of what to look out for, as it was entirely new setting and atmosphere for him to be involved in. The wilderness was also extremely hard to navigate through, “Still, I had also judged the jungle of both banks quite impenetrable— and yet, eyes were in it, eyes that had seen us” (27). Savagery is a prominent image in the novella. From the start, the African Natives are referred to as “black shapes” (12), “..black shadows of disease and starvation” (12), and “black figures” (17). This automatically dehumanises these people, seemingly portraying them as just bodies, rather than real people. The Natives are also portrayed as cannibals. “Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear— or some kind of primitive honor? No fear can stand up to hunger…” (27). In this quote, Marlow is faced with the savagery of the natives, and is amazed by their control of their impulses. Although the natives are hungry, they do not attack Marlow’s boat, as he clearly expected. Each time Marlow encounters the Natives, however, his views on their ways of living, change. Marlow is becoming more and more accepting of them, as the novella continues.

I find that the fog, which is mentioned at the beginning of the book in part one, is a prevailing symbol as it turns up I'm part two as well and with more weight. The fog found in the begining of part one, which is the future in the storynof Marlow's life, is not so much of fog as it is a haze and in part two it is which and dense and but represents a distraction form the mission, the fog stops everything, when it rolls in it takes over and is the only thing bring mentioned. Another major symbol that shows up in part two is the river. It represents mans regression as he moves farther from 'society' or 'civilization' and how people become primitive, both in the scope of the lives of individuals but also it is what leads to the atrocities that the Europeans committed whist in Africa and the Congo.

One of the most prominent images is definitely the natives that are often times call savages, even Marlow jokes about himself being savage because he was "standing and working all day". Towards the beginning of the book when he isn't really involved and doesn't see what is going on first hand he has little to no sympathy for the natives, but as he travels farther and farther into "the heart of darkness" he begins to feel more sympathy for them as he realized how evil the things the Europeans are doing to them. Another image that sounds out is the wilderness, we hear the central station manager and uncle discuss the wilderness and shortly after they die in the wilderness. We also get a description of Marlow and it describes him as being changed by it. Marlow also has been experiencing times in which it all feels like a dream so this is changing Marlow as well and also his opinion on the natives is changing as he travels more and more through the wilderness. This also proves the doctors point before he even left that the journey changes people mentally.

Two Images that really stood out to me was the fog and the Congo River. Fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures but distorts vision. Marlow ends up being stuck in the fog and ends up getting attacked by the natives "'Will they attack?' whispered an awed voice. 'We will be all butchered in this fog,' murmured another. The faces twitched with the strain, the hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot to wink".Marlow struggles to face the Congo river because of its poor and rough environment, however it shows the current situation he has gotten himself into, furthermore Marlow describes the river as divided, keeping himself away from natives and Kurtz.It allows Marlow to see both sides of the situation."Its current makes travel upriver slow and difficult, but the flow of water makes travel downriver, back toward “civilization,” rapid and seemingly inevitable"

The two images I find in part II that prevail throughout the story are, one, the more vivid descriptions that Conrad gives us of the Congo, and, two, even more descriptions about the natives. When Marlow is moving up the river on the steamer, Conrad writes, "Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine"(73). With these more vivid descriptions, Conrad gives us a better understanding of what Marlow is seeing and feeling through his experience traveling along the Congo river. Compared to part I, Conrad is much more descriptive when it comes to the wilderness in part II.

In part II, Conrad gives us a much better view and image in our heads of what the natives look, sound, and act like. When the attack by the natives against the steamer is happening, Marlow describes natives he see's, saying, "I had to lean right out to swing the heavy shutter, and I saw a face amongst the leaves on the level with my own, looking at me very fierce and steady; and then suddenly, as though the veil had been removed from my eyes, I made out, deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes,-the bush was swarming with human limbs in movement, glistening, of bronze color"(86). This is just one of the many points in part two that Conrad gives us very eccentric and savage-like descriptions of the natives. It is significant because it gives us a better view of what these people are actually like, and not just what the Europeans made them out to be to Marlow in the beginning, before he'd seen it for himself. These descriptions give us a solidified characterization of what the natives of the Congo are like.

Two images that I found to prevail throughout the story after part II are Marlow's surroundings and the savagery of the natives.The darkness that Marlow sees continues to grow darker and darker as he goes deeper into Africa. As Marlow travels further into Africa he seems to be going insane. "We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day." This is significant because it describes the scenery he sees as he enters the "heart of darkness". "Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara". This idea that all of the natives are worthless is consistent throughout the entire novel. The death of a native seems to have no effect on any of the men and they don't seem to care at all.

The two images that seem to prevail throughout the story are the darkness and the light. The darkness at first seems to be everything that Africa is, the jungle, the savages, and even the river leading into the heart of darkness. As the story develops, we see that the first impressions of darkness are actually good and that civilization is the evil and the true darkness. Despite white people seeming to be the light with all of their advances, they turn out to be the evil entering the darkness and spreading throughout. It is a journey into the heart of darkness in reality but symbolically into the heart of light, purity, and innocence as we experience the white men arriving with darkness. Marlow and his companions however are intruders, spreading darkness the further they enter on a quest for more ivory, which is on the outside white, but its consequences are dark. Marlow states, “we penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” (Conrad 23). They are traveling to collect ivory as they go deeper there is more of it and its collection and loss will cause more darkness for the savages through their forced toil.

The images that seem to prevail throughout Heart of Darkness are the contrast of light and dark and the wilderness. Conrad seems to associate the light and the dark with the good and the bad that accompany Marlow in the book. For example Conrad pairs death with darkness with the 'dark sullen faces' (not just referring to their natural skin color). Darkness is used as an adjective for things in the story even when it is bright out from the sun. For example, Conrad refers to England and Africa as dark which didn't suit the context, but meant that they were of uncertainty and evil. In the dark, it is hard to see and be cognizant of one's whereabouts. Conrad uses this idea with Marlow having trouble seeing other people mentally rather than physically and have difficulty understanding their motives. Another image that is repeated in Heart of Darkness is the wilderness. Marlow doesn't need direct communication with individuals and rather seeks out his information through observation and eavesdropping, in this case observing his environment. He refers to the jungle as he goes through it on the steam boat as if it is a place in the past and that he is going back in time to a less civilized Earth with savages and disorder (natives). A quote that ties together the two images that are prevailed in the book is “The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress…" Conrad explains that the river that they are traveling on is quickly leaving the jungle (wilderness) which encapsulates the darkness, or the unclearness and savagery.

After part 2 there are several images that keep reoccurring for me. One of which is the analogy of the river taking us back in time. As we move along the river the denser the jungle becomes and the less whites me encounter. Many believe the human race began in Africa, so as we move through time to where it is only the” savages” it gives us a glimpse of how we all started. Also, as we go deeper into the river the whites become less and less “civilized” and more cruel. Their mentality has gone back to an “eat or be eaten” mentality. The white men believe they should overtake and control the blacks so that they do not do the same. They are more concerned about life and death and are constantly in fear, something that rarely happens in modern society. Another image that stands out to be is the brutality of the white men on the black men. They are seen working the black men to literal death and giving them slim resources to live off of. This is why I believe this book is called “heart of darkness” because all the white pioneers hearts go black and cold, while all the natives hearts become hopeless and weak.

The two images that seem to prevail are the image of the savages and the image of the rivets.
The savages are described as cannibals and uneducated. The Europeans feel the need to civilize them. The Europeans look down on the blacks and use their ignorance against them to do labor for them.
The images of the rivets laying all over the place show how inefficient everything is over in Africa. The Europeans are not there to help the blacks they are simply there to exploit them. They only care about quick results. A similar example to the rivets is the bucket with a hole in it. They don't get new buckets because the savages lives don't matter. They'd rather save a buck than a life. Its a frugal business operation they are running.