Part III Regarding JOURNEY METAPHOR/THEME

Marlows meeting with Kurtz is the final culminating point of his experience because the entire story has basically been leading up to it. It finally gives Marlow the chance to see how Kurtz truly is and to put a face to all of the stories that he has heard. In Marlows eyes, Kurtz embodies everything that he has heard about him. When Marlow meets Kurtz, he is close to death. Marlow realizes what has brought Kurtz to this point and that greed and lust has devoured him. Kurtz's final words are "The horror! The horror!" maybe symbolizing that in his final moments, Kurtz finally realized the evils in Africa and what has truly killed him.

Marlow has been hearing all these great stories of Kurtz throughout the whole novel and when he finally meets him it is the culminating point of his experience. The story is concerned with the evil of man in his essential nature, since Kurtz is full of greed and cruelty and after their encounter Marlow was able to see the true corrupt nature of Kurtz. Greed is like a disease to men and leads to the downfall of many great men.

When Marlow meets Kurtz he can finally find out what the man is really like. He has heard stories of how incredible he is and he has heard stories that put Kurtz in a very different light. In meeting with Kurtz he is symbolically discovering the nature of man. He sees how driven by greed and lust for power Kurtz really is. It has seemed to have taken over his life and now he rarely even comes back to visit civilization. The story casts a light on the disease of men in history since its about how the white men are ripping apart the Congo taking whatever they can with the least possible effort they can manage.

Marlow's encounter with Kurtz is the climax of the novel as Marlow is able to determine for himself what kind of person Kurtz is in comparison to the rumors and stories he's been told. This novel focuses on the evil of man when describing how these civilized Europeans revert to savagery. The wilderness can be used to describe the process of losing one's virtues and turning to evil acts to survive in the interior. Another example of the evil of man can be seen when Marlow is constantly giving his opinion to the reader when describing the cruel treatment he witness and how no one is able to refer to Africans other than criminals or rebels. This novel can be said to an extent that it is a story about the disease of the modern, social man in history in that Heart of Darkness displays how modern men during that time aren't able to survive in the wilderness as the machinery isn't being put to beneficial use. Instead, the machinery is described as "decaying" and this leads the reader to form the opinion over the course of the novel that imperialism in Africa isn't going to be long term. The focus has always been on greed and as a result, nothing is accomplished. Kurtz possibly realizes this when his last words are, "The horror! The horror!"

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Originally Posted by Yvonne Sturgeon

Marlow speaks of his encounter with Kurtz as being at "the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience." Explain exactly n what sense Marlow's encounter with Kurtz may be regarded as the culminating point of Marlow's understanding of the nature of man. How far is the meaning of the story concerned with the evil of man in his essential nature? How far is it a story about the disease of modern, social man in history?

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The entire time Marlow has been in Africa he has seemingly heard non stop about Kurtz and what a remarkable man he is. He gathers from various people that Kurtz has produced more ivory at his station than all the other stations combined. After hearing so much about Kurtz, Marlow is intrigued and wants to meet him and see this incredible man in person. When he does meet Kurtz, he realizes he has gone insane. He begins to resent Kurtz because Marlow believes he is merely a man who has lost himself in his obsession with ivory, riches and power and has been driven mad by loneliness, sickness and interaction with the natives. Through this experience, Marlow discovers that with nothing to guide or stop him, the nature of a man will draw him to riches and power. Marlow is repulsed by what Kurtz has become and thinks it is evil.

Marlow's encounter with Kurtz can be regarded as the cumulating point because he has gathered all these great information about Kurtz being this heroic and honorable man that is helping improve the African natives way of life, but Marlow sees Kurtz as he really is self-inulged and very greedy. The meaning of the story is concerned with the evil of man in his essential nature because things like greed, an abundance of wealth, and power through influence are really the aspects that have created evil and darkness in Africa and can be considered a disease of modern, social man in history as it continues to consume and greatly affect even the most honorable and civilized men that come in contact with them.

When Marlow finally meets Kurtz, he feels as if his journey has come to the X on the map. He has found the one person he has been searching for, the one person who seems to have the perfect meaning behind everything. Marlow greatly idolizes Kurtz, and his ability to always have a say. Kurtz's voice has the ability to change others, he is thought of as a kind of religious figure throughout the novel and very idealized. Along the journey of friendship between Marlow and Kurtz, Marlow realizes that Kurtz is not the man Marlow thought he was in the beginning. Kurtz is actually filled with jealousy and greed, in determination to discover the ivory.Kurtz has freed himself from the ties of civilization and has become one with the natives.

Marlow describes meeting Kurtz as an experience that "throw[s] a kind of light […] into my thoughts,” meaning that it clears up the ideas he had about Kurtz. He can finally understand all the stories he’s heard about him. It is the final culminating point because he is finally realizing the evil of colonialism and imperialism. When he is with Kurtz as he is about to die he realizes the truth of the nature of man. Kurtz has gone mad, but luckily Marlow isn’t overtaken by the “heart of darkness.” We are shown how greed and no morals have led to Kurtz’s death. In the beginning of the novel, the doctor introduces the mental health of the modern man ends up losing his mind after his journey, which explains the disease of the modern and social man in history.

Marlow's meeting with Kurtz opened his eyes to what man could become when left alone plagued by the evils of mankind. Without companions and a social life Kurtz is left to be with his dangerous mind most of the time, and although is still spoken about many times throughout the story. Marlow, at one point, is so eager to meet Kurtz that he felt that if he died before he reached his death bed, he felt as if the whole journey had been a complete waste. After hearing countless stories from many people on the way to Kurtz, he has a very high expectation, but soon realizes by the heads on the stakes and the way people worship him that he is a product of greed, and corruption. The meaning of the story is directly concerned with the evils of social pressures from man as all whites were treating them poorly so all of them took part in the savage ways of treating humans.

Marlow does come to his final realization on mans nature when he encounters Kurtz at the inner station. As Marlow makes his way down river the traditional societal norms that seem to keep people like Kurtz and Marlow civilized seem to break down. As that structure breaks down people find less need in maintaining the high moral standards the exist outside in the more advanced world. the story clearly talks of the evil of mans true nature, that was Conrad's point in writing the Novelette, and he does say that the modern man is diseased, but not with evil, rather with ignorance. That is how the seemingly normal nice people were able to commit some of the most atrocious acts.

Marlow had learned and heard a lot about Kurtz before ever seeing him. Throughout the beginning of the story we learn what a powerful leader and ivory trader Kurtz is in the jungle. This is considered the culminating point to when Marlow learns the nature of man because when he finally meets Kurtz he realizes the major flaws he has and the problems he's dealing with. Through his experiences with Kurtz, Marlow learns how little he cares for mankind and is selfish in that, all he wants is ivory.

Marlow has heard about Kurtz in the beginning of his journey, and later on, when he heard about him several more times, reaching Kurtz became much alike finishing the trip for him. History of Kurtz in Marlow's interpretation seems to show that even Kurtz was evil while alive, he actually was able to see his sins and his evil style of life, so he could've possibly improved something in his life if he had time. As Kurtz is a representative of Europeans, he represents madness in the society, it's an illness and corruption. But it could improve if it realizes that it does wrong things.

Marlow's encounter with Kurtz could be seen as the culminating point of him understanding man by seeing what being truly alone out in the jungle can do to a person and how they react to being cut off from social communication. Heart of Darkness is largely concerned with what evils are revealed in human nature when no other outside influence is concerned, it delves into the human psyche to explore how and why they do the things they do. The modern social man in this story is one that takes what he wants with little to no regard for what effect it'll have on the people it was done to, especially if those were less fortunate than him and those actions had a mean for getting them farther ahead in life, having said that I believe the story is more concerned with the evil aspects of human nature.

Kurtz represents the most extreme type of person that is imperializing in Africa. He is greedy and selfish and will do what he must to acquire what he desires. He eventually becomes obsessed with collecting ivory so he raids all of the native tribes he can find to go and collect their ivory. As Marlow travels through Africa to reach the "Heart of Darkness" he meets Kurtz who is found out to actually be evil which represents that deep in the wilderness or deep down in Humans evil is present. Also the fact that it is the more "civilized" people behaving in this manner while the natives simply want to be left alone shows that even if mankind is developing in a technological sense they aren't acting more "civilized" by taking what they desire.

I chose the theme of adventure. It was an adventure for Marlow because he followed his dream of going to Africa on an old steamboat and succeeded in getting there. He had many pitfalls that he worked past and succeeded in arriving at his destination. He also got to meet the “famous” Kurtz. He learned a lot about himself on the journey and reached the goals that he set out to complete.