Heart of Darkness

We learn that Marlow gives respect to these black workers. He calls them "men" on page 12. The other white men call them workers or niggers.

The group of black workers he sees are being ordered by a black man in a uniform with a rifle. Marlow describes this man and how "evil" Marlow thinks he is for treating the black men with such cruelty. He refers to white people as devils, "I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men -- men, i tell you!" (13)
He also points out how European culture is changing Africa.

Marlow learns about an interesting man, Mr Kurtz. He is also the first name given to us.

He had a white companion on his journey to the Central Station. The man gets sick later on and has to carried around.

He also realizes how greedy the Europeans are with their ivory business. "The word ivory rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion" (20) In this passage the ivory is a symbol of money, greed, and power; everything that can corrupt a man. He talks about a corpse. This is the corpse of a black worker and an elephant that is being killed to obtain the ivory. Marlow is shocked by this discovery.

We learn that Marlow does not favor lying and will never appreciate a liar, "you know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie,...like biting something rotten would do." (23)

This section we had to read was obviously very eerie.
Marlow and his team were traveling towards Kurtz, but while on the trip, Marlow described many things as if he was foreshadowing that he shouldn't go there.
Ex. "We crept on, towards Kurtz. But the snags were thick, the water was treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither that fireman nor I had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts" (Conrad 33).
I also thought it was really brave of Marlow to come straight out and mention that after the cries, the black men were much more relaxed than the white men. That displays irony because white men are more experienced situations like these, while the black men only do the things they are demanded to do. Also, white men are more afraid of dying, even though they seem immune to death. It’s because they have seen so many deaths and they are scared that it might happen to them while death is a part of Africa, so it’s a part of the black people. If the black people have to live with white people of this kind, then they might as well just welcome death.

Oh, sorry. I wasn't done.

Then I wanted to talk about the fact that Marlow agreed to this journey because of a subconcious motive. That motive would be Kurtz. He doesn't realize it at first, but he still leaves subtle hints to remind the reader. For example, " I straightened that sudden twist out of that steamboat. There was no room to turn back even if I had wanted to, the snag was somewhere very near ahead in the confounded smoke, there was no time to lose, so I just crowded into the bank--right into the back, where I knew the water was deep" (41). Then on the next page, he totally admits to that! He says, " I couldn't have been more disgusted if I had travelled all this way for sole purposes of talking with Mr. Kurtz. Talking with...I flung one shoe overboard, and became aware that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to--a talk with Kurtz" (42-3).

Then I wanted to talk about some foreshadowing because Marlow, throughout the journey, talks about how it was dangerous to go into the heart of darkness. Maybe he wants to come right out and say, "Don't go there!" but he can't. He has to leave subtle hints. Marlow says, " But the snags were thick, and the water was treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither the firemen nor I had any time to peer into creepy thoughts" (33).

I hope that is good enough.

“No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze… it takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It’s really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the prediction of ones soul-than this kind of prolonged hunger” (38).


This quote can be applied to many scenarios in Heart of Darkness. One thing it could be applied to is the Europeans hunger for money and African riches. The Europeans have thrown all of their morals and values out of the window in the quest for riches and are blinded by their greed. This hunger is something they cannot resist and this shows how the weakness of the Europeans. This quote can also be applied to Marlow and his “hunger” to meet Mr. Kurtz. To Marlow Mr. Kurtz is almost a Christ like figure, he is portrayed in a divine light, and a person who can do no wrong. Marlow has not even met him, yet he is still willing to defend him and protect his reputation. This journey Marlow is now on is a quest to meet Mr. Kurtz and to just hear him speak and to simply be in his presence. Marlow has this “hunger” to meet Mr. Kurtz and that was his main motivation behind fixing the steam boat and wanting to continue on with the journey despite the problems along the way. Lastly, this quote can be used simply to display the weakness of the white men in the Congo. These men despite living in the Congo for a while now are still not used to feeling hunger, and the natives who get less meals than the white men are fine and able to control them selves. This displays the strength of the natives over the strength of the white men.

"Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico" (Conrad 31).

In this quote, the Europeans are portrayed like tiny, insignificant creatures compared to the massive and ancient Congolese forest. The forest is patiently waiting for the Europeans to leave so it can "eat itself" (Poisonwood Bible) and reverse the effects of the "fantastic invasion".



"Let the fool gape and shudder - the man knows ... But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff - with his own inborn strength. Principles won't do" (Conrad 32).

This is one of Marlow's redeeming moments of enlightenment. Marlow begins to see that all men are equal, regardless of skin color. He realizes that in the Congo, where survival is the main goal, beliefs, clothes, etc. do not matter. Every living organism on Earth fights to survive, which is something that unites all living things: "No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze" (Conrad 37-38). The more Marlow experiences in Africa, the more he begins to reject the belief of European superiority.



"The wilderness had patted him on the head, and behold, it was like a ball - an ivory ball ... it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite" (Conrad 44).

This foreshadows that Mr. Kurtz's greed and obsession with ivory completely took over his mind and actions, and he probably uses the Africans to serve himself and his selfish ways like the average European. This is kind of like the opposite of Ruth May's dying and becoming one with nature in the Poisonwood Bible. In a sense, Kurtz's humane side has died, and he has become one with the European shadow of darkness over Africa.

Throughout this part of the novel, Marlow tells the story of his journey into the heart of Africa as if he and his crew are simply a couple ants traveling through a massive forrest. He emphasizes how people cannot control the Congo, but rather that the Congo controls them:
“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." Pg.30

Marlow talks about how reality completely fades away as they travel into the Congo:
"When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality—the reality, I tell you—fades. The inner truth is hidden—luckily, luckily. But I felt it all the same; I felt often its mysterious stillness watching me at my monkey tricks, just as it watches you fellows performing on your respective tight-ropes for—what is it? half-a-crown a tumble—” Pg.30
and
"The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. Gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind. " Pg. 38

Here he shows how the big picture of life completely fades away as one struggles to somehow survive in the harsh wilderness of the Africa. Here he talks about how he doesnt even have time to think about anything other than simply collective enough driftwood to keep his boat going.

"The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. " pg. 32

Marlow is shocked by everything he is surrounded by. He realizes that he has lived in denial and unknowing of what is really out in the world. He describes the natives as animals, saying that they Howl and make faces; but then mentions that every man should recognize them as human. He says that every man should be able to understand these people on some level, and recognize them as long lost brothers.

Marlows description of Mr.Kurtz is also quite fascinating. Most could see Kurtz as a selfish and greedy man simply in search of gain, but Marlow analyzes his character much more deeply:
"Mind, I am not trying to excuse or even explain—I am trying to account to myself for—for—Mr. Kurtz—for the shade of Mr. Kurtz." Pg. 46

"He won’t be forgotten. Whatever he was, he was not common. He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honour; he could also fill the small souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings: he had one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul in the world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self-seeking. " Pg. 47

Marlow describes Kurtz as a very very powerful person, one who achieved quiet a lot. He says that he could make his followers do terrible things, and even control his enemies.

What I've read so far in Heart Of Darkness has been surprisingly good. There is a lot of Nature Vs. Mechanization as could be predicted with the time period and place of the story. Africa is being used by the Europeans for its natural resources. Ivory being the main focus in HOD. Despite being used by the Europeans, the jungle does a pretty good job of keeping them at bay with the attacks by the natives and the general harshness of the terrain. I found a great representation of the African pride while i was reading. This is the beautiful and savage tribal woman Marlow encounters at the Central station.

"She walked with measured steps, draped in stripped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her.She was savage and superb,wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul."P.55-56

The savage woman also wears many ornaments of glass beads, brass, and elephant tusks. She wears all the things that the Europeans want, yet the Europeans can't touch her because of her great pride and wild ways and are afraid to try. I believe this woman is the pride and soul of the jungle that can't be tamed. The Europeans are in over their heads when it comes to trying to tame the jungle and i think thats what Conrad is trying to convey with the tribal woman.

Marlow tells us about how he felt when he was traveling around Africa. He reflects upon nature and its control of the land. "We called at some more places with farcical names, where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthly atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb; all along the formless coast bordered by dangerous suf, as if Nature herself had tried to ward off intruders; in and out of rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded the contorted mangroves, that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of impotent despair (11)." This quote reflects the theme of man vs. nature. Marlow sees that, in the battle between man and nature, nature seems to be winning in Africa.

"‘Why did they attack us?’ I pursued. He hesitated, then said shamefacedly, ‘They don’t want him to go.’ ‘Don’t they?’ I said curiously. He nodded a nod full of mystery and wisdom. ‘I tell you,’ he cried, ‘this man has enlarged my mind.’ He opened his arms wide, staring at me with his little blue eyes that were perfectly round.” Pg.51

The Russian boy describes Kurtz as an amazing human being, one who has achieved feats that seemingly could not be done by man. Before this, the Natives have been described as completely different from whites; a culture that cannot be understood. When the Russian boy mentions that the natives attacked because they don't want Kurtz to leave, it shows that Kurtz has established a great bond with the natives of Africa; something that seemed like an impossible feat.

"This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn’t get away. When I had a chance I begged him to try and leave while there was time; I offered to go back with him. And he would say yes, and then he would remain; go off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks; forget himself amongst these people—forget himself—you know.’ "
pg. 56

This quote shows how unfortunately attached Kurtz became to Africa and his search for ivory. Even while suffering from illness, Kurtz still get up from bed and goes deep into the Forrest alone in search of Ivory. It also shows how much Kurtz has immersed himself in the African culture. This quote tells about how he would completely forget who he is and become one of them in his trips.

Marlow is worred and excited about meeting Kurtz. "All this was great, expectant, mute, while the man jabbered about himself. I wondered whether the stillness on the face of the immensity looking at us two were meant as an appeal or as a menace. What were we who had strayed in here? Could we handle that dumb thing. or would it handle us? I felt how big, how confoundedly big, was that thing that couldn't talk, and was deap as well. What was in there? I could see a little ivory coming out from there, and I had heard Mr. Kurtz was in there. I had heard enough about it, too- God know! Yet somehow it didn't bring any image with it= no more than if I had been told an angel or a fiend was in there (23)." Marlow is intrigued by Africa and wonders what he will discover about himself and the rest of humanity.

One thing we really didn't talk about in class was the outside frame story of Heart of Darkness. When Marlow begins to tell his story, the narrator says "His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence" (3). Here the other characters on the boat do not seem to have an intense interest in what Marlow has to say. From this quote, the reader can assume Marlow often brings up what appear to be random remarks about life. He simply wants to tell a story. But beginning around the time he starts to reach the inner station in his story, he becomes very emotional. He is no longer as calm, and someone even says to him, "Try to be civil, Marlow," (30) after he rants about truth. He comments more on these moral issues as they arise in his story. By the end, all he does is talk about how his life was changed. There is little action in the last few pages because Marlow has gotten so worked up and is somewhat reliving everything he has said and his emotions come back. Right in front of his friends he claims most city people "were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense, because I felt so sure they could not know the things I knew" (66). His friends even cannot truly understand everything he went through unless they were to go to Africa as well. Marlow seems to fail to realize where he is while he tells this story.

Another aspect that changed from the beginning of the book to the end was the setting. In the beginning, the sun was still going down, hinting at the coming darkness. The air was gloomy and mysterious. After Marlow is finished, the narrator describes the setting as "barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under and overcast sky-seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness" (72). This passage represents the dark and mysterious heart of Africa. Whiel the outside of Africa was gloomy, the middle was worse. The story Marlow tells starts off as very mysterious and gloomy, but it only gets darker as he continues to talk. Marlow's story has now brought all of his friends into that dark place that they can no longer get out of. While they did not experience it, they heard it with the emotion of Marlow. They may not feel as strongly as he does, but they now have his opinions in their minds that they cannot take out.

When Marlow is meeting with Kurtz's fiancee, he is overwhelmed with thought. "For her he had died only yesterday. And, by Jove! the impression was so powerful that for me, too, he seemed to have died only yesterday- nay, this very minute. I saw her and him in the same instant of time- his death and her sorrow- I saw her sorrow in the very moment of his death. Do you understand? I saw them together- I heard them together (69). Marlow seeing Kurtz's death and Kurtz's fiancee's sorrow being intertwined reminded me of when Adah, from the Poisonwood Bible, witnesses the death of Ruth May. Adah says that, "I was not present at Ruth May's birth but I have seen it now, because I saw each step of it played out in reverse at the end of her life. The closing parenthesis, at the end of the palindrome that was Ruth May. Her final gulp of air as hungry as a baby's first breath. That last howling scream, exactly like the first, and then at the end a fixed, steadfast moving backward out of this world (365)." Adah saw Ruth May's death as a insight into Ruth May's birth. Just as Marlow saw the death of Kurtz and the sorrow of Kurtz's fiancee as intertwined, Adah saw Ruth May's birth in her death.

I didn't get a chance to talk in class on Tuesday over the section: Time at the Inner Station (47-61) and I had a few points to make.

Marlow has landed at the Inner Station, but he questions himself about Kurtz. He wonders if Kurtz is actually worth the trouble or not.

At the Inner Station, the first person he sees is a Russian. A well dressed, clean shaven man which really surprises him. He calls him a "harlequin" (48) "look extremely gay and wonderfully neat withal" (48). Marlow is surprised when he sees this man because he's so clean even after living in Africa for a long time. He would have expected someone that looked a savage. There is also a portion of duality in this section, when Marlow describes the man "with a toss of the head up the hill, and becoming gloomy all of a sudden. His face was like the autumn sky, overcast one moment and bright the next" (48)

We learn more about Mr. Kurtz and how this Russian man idolizes him. The russian had continuously said "he has enlarged my mind" (50) "you can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man" (51)

They also talk about how Africa, more like the greed for ivory, kind of settled into Kurtz "go off on another ivory hunt; disappear for weeks, forget himself amongst these people-forget himself-you know." (52).

Later on Marlow runs into black men's heads on stakes near Kurtz's shelter. He is disgusted by this; but his reaction was surprising, like he wasn't very shocked to see heads but he was shocked to find an English book. The book was like a connection he had to civilization, his past, Europe.

Marlow compared Kurtz's body to ivory, "i could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arm waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with the menaces at the motionless crowd if men made of dark and glittering bronze" (55).

This section ended with Marlow saying, "and he was not much heavier than a child." (61)

I have read this novel long ago and was mesmerized by its beautiful expression. One of the truths manifested to me through this book is if we can access the recesses of our minds we can see the bleakest part of us that can blacken anybody's souls. Everyone is capable of the unthinkable in point of fact no matter what saintliness you try to prove to others. You are capable of loving a human and the other side of you shows you are capable of strangulating him. You have both motives innate though on the surface you may act as a saint. This book has helped me understand human natures more deeply

I was absent today for the class discussion.

Marlow is on his way back to Europe with Kurtz but sadly, Kurtz dies on the way, his last words being "The horror! The horror!" (64)

They all knew that Kurtz was to die soon, "whose fate it was to be buries presently in the primeval earth."

"But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of that sour satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power" (63). This shows duality of power and success.

Marlow began to praise Kurtz again after his death, "i understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darknes" (65)