5-9
Conrad seems to bring up one subject over and over again, the subject of innocence. Can innocence be preserved? Is the loss of childhood innocence inevitable. Marlow, during the course of the book, loses his innocence and then later realizes it. At the very end of the book we see the attempt to preserve the innocence of women.
During the course of Heart of Darkness Marlow starts as an innocent child looking at a blank map. While Marlow is growing up the map fills little by little. One of the major instances of Marlows loss of innocence is during his journey in the Congo. Marlow witnesses the murder of countless natives at the hands on white men. He also sees the poor living and working conditions that these natives are subjected to. Seeing all of these horrors in this unfamiliar environment must have further diminished Marlow’s already dwindleing innocence.
When Marlow arrives at Kurtz’s camp he encounters a Russian who resembles a Harlequin. This Harlequin shows Marlow the side of himself that he has lost. He displays the carefree, naïve, innocence that Marlow had himself when he was younger. Marlow mentions it himself in the book but he can’t do anything to regan his innocence.
At the very end of the book we see the innocence of one person being preserved. Kurt’z bride to be thought he was the nicest, most kind person in the world, but she didn’t see him after the Congo ripped away his innocence. Marlow protects her by telling her that Kurtz definitely set on example for everyone else and his last words were her name. This carries on the illusion of Kurtz being a good person so her world isn’t shattered.
Conrad seems to display and answer the question. Innocence can be preserved through intervention by outside forces which involves lying. But most people enevitably lose their innocence.
5-10
Mr. Kurtz is described in different ways. A central question Heart of Darkness raises is what kind of person Mr. Kurtz is. Through dialect and tone the readers get clues to an answer but never a definite answer agreed to by all characters.
Joseph Conrad uses dialect to show what the characters think of Mr. Kurtz without being blunt. When Marlow has to stop at the first station his meets a man that has met Mr. Kurtz. When the man explains to Marlow that he too will be meeting him, Marlow asks about him. The man’s response to Marlow is “he is a remarkable man.” What does that word remarkable mean. We often think as remarkable as a positive word but when we break it apart all the word really means is rememerable. The guy at the station isn’t saying that Mr. Kurtz is a great man who will be known for the great things he is doing; he is subtly saying that he isn’t easy to forget. Readers can take this to mean different things just by the words Conrad uses to describe him.
Along with dialect, tone allows reads to know exactly what Conrad was thinking when he described Mr. Kurtz as a “remarkable” man. Joseph Conrad wrote this excerpt of the novella in a particular tone. As the man is saying Kurtz is a “remarkable” man, the reader gets a sense of hesitation, and uncertainty. It’s as if he doesn’t know how to describe Mr. Kurtz without sounding cruel. The tone along with the word choice Conrad uses gives the readers an idea of what Mr. Kurtz is like.
Although we get the strong sense of dislike or negative thoughts of Mr. Kurtz from the guy at the station we get an opposite belief of him from the harlequin that lives at Kurtz’s station. The harlequin talks of Kurtz as a good man who is normal and likes to talk to people about life. The harlequin is a happy, joyful man who genuinely likes and cares for Mr. Kurtz. Who do we believe? The author, Joseph Conrad uses contradictory statements to confuse the reader on Mr. Kurtz’s true personality. Conrad is trying to convey that not everything is as it seems. You only know about something when you get to the heart of it.
5-11
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, raises many questions throughout the novella. One of the central questions in the novella is, “What are the effects of imperialism?” Marlow sets us up for the answers by telling us a personal story that shows how the natives were being treated, how much ivory was taken, and how imperialism affected Marlow and Kurtz.
The first answer we get to this question that helps us understand the effects of imperialism in Africa is the scene with the dying natives. Marlow is walking through the jungle and comes to a place where many of the natives had unraveled to rest from work. The scene has a somber tone as Marlow uses words like; shapes, angles, black bones, ect. to describe the natives who are too skinny and worn down, Marlow says he is horrified by the image before him because these “savages” look like black skeletons. In this scene the effects of imperialism on the natives is shown and helps the reader understand how horrible imperialism was.
The second answer the reader gets to the question is when Marlow is talking about how much ivory was being taken from Africa. Marlow says that he had to load his boat with stacks and piles of ivory. He also describes how the natives tried to bury the ivory in the ground soft wouldn’t be taken but Kurtz always found it. The gathering of this much ivory had an impact on the animals in Africa and we see this by how much ivory Kurtz is taking. This concept helps the reader realize how thee imperialists killed and hurt many animals for their tusks.
The last answer we get to the question is the effect that imperialism had on Kurtz and Marlow. Marlow was deeply scarred by his experience in Africa so imperialism must have been horrible there. He recounts his story with a bitter tone which shows how he feels that imperialism is wrong. Kurtz’s last words before he died show how imprialism affected him. He shouted “the horror! The horror!” bcause he knows what he has done and what monster he has become. The changing of these two men helps the reader understand how horrible imperialism is and how it changed people for the worse.
The impact imperialism had on Africa and the people involved is evident through this story. The treatment of the natives, the killing of animals, and the changing of the two main characters all show the negative effects of imperialism and help the reader understand how awful imperialism was.
5-12
Even though “Heart of Darkness” focuses around Marlow’s life, Kurtz is equally as important. Besides, the whole book leads up to the finding of Kurtz. The author of the book made this Kurtz character really ambiguous. We can not figure out if he is the protagonist or the antagonist. Is Kurtz the good guy or the bad guy?
Marlow seems to think that Kurtz is a bad guy. More particularly that Kurtz used to be good, but now he is corrupted by greed. The author purposely set up this contrast for the theme of greed. Marlow teaches us the lesson that it is not good to be greedy. Marlow shows us that he used to be greedy but he has changed because of this experience. We readers have to make the connection of what kind of character Kurtz is. The author purposely does this so we can dig deep into the character of Kurtz and realize that he is a corrupt being. We can now see how greed can completely change a person.
Kurtz is often called a “remarkable man.” Only people from the company call Kurtz a “remarkable man” though. The author makes it ambiguous to what kind of character Kurtz is so we can make connections. Any good reader would find out that the company is corrupted and bad bcause the think Kurtz is a remarkable man and clearly he is not.
The savages even think Kurtz is a good man. They look up to him and even attacked Marlow when he went to take Kurtz home. The savages looked up to him like he was God. The savages are mislead and mistreated. The author creates this “mysterious” Kurtz to show how corrupt society can be. Everyone comes to the conclusion that Kurtz is amazing. The only person who could see that he was really bad was Marlow. Marlow is the all knowing character who realized what greed can do to a person.
By creating this ambiguous character, we came to a higher realization of what bad things greed can do. Even though this question of good or bad depends on the viewpoint, we should know what viewpoint to choose.
5-13
As Roland Barthes has observed, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” One of the most profoud works to use ambiguity to firmly illustrate this principle is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Through his examination of locations, cultures, and the human psyche, Conrad presents and, to an extent, answers the question, “What is the origin of darkness?”
Conrad opens his novella with four men aboard a ship on the River Thames in England, however, most of the story is set in the Belgian Congo. Conrad presents his readers with the idea that darkess could begin in a place. He shows the readers the darkness of Africa with its wild dangers in contrast to the lightness of the tame and docile Europe. However, Conrad contradicts this solution by saying that Europe “too was also one of the dark places of the Earth.” Africa also shows lightness with bright locales contrasting with the darkness set upon the men on the Thames. Here Conrad presents answers but ensures that neither of which are conclusive.
Thus Conrad moves his focus to the creation of divergent cultures. Conrad wants his readers to think that perhaps human societies are the sources of darkness, of evil, of the unknown. Once again, Europeans are immediately shown in a benevolent light with “sophisticated” customs and a desire to bring “civilized” knowledge to the Africans; the Africans are shown as ignorant, devoid of “proper knowledge” and worshipping false gods in warring tribes. Yet Conrad juxtaposes this superficial examination with the brutal atrocities committed by the whites and the heart-wrenching brutalization of the once-pure Africans. Again, Conrad assures that the reader remains at an ambiguous impass on the path to finding the answer to this question
Finally Conrad takes the reader into the very heart of the analysis of the question by examining the heart of man. Could it be that the “heart of darkness” is the very heart of humankind, that enigmatic conglomerate of instinct and rationality? Conrad uses the characer of Kurtz to show the evil originating from man’s primeval desires, demonstrated by Kurtz’s brutalization of the natives and plundering of the land; however, Kurtz is also shown to have once been a great man, full of benevolent ambitions and good intentions, as shown by his characterization by his “Intended.” Thus we turn to Marlow, a steamboat captain who shows disdain for the atrocious explots of the European “pilgrims” but also reveres Kurtz and alludes to a want to succumb to primal desires. Conrad provides us the deepest insight into the source of darkness but refrains from etirely defining it.
In conclusion, Conrad presents answers to his question but never chooses one as a perfect solution. He shows possibilities for the “origin of darkness” to be location, cultures, and the human heart. However, due to his masterful uses of ambiguity, we readers may never know the true “heart of darkness.”
5-14
In Heart of Darkness, a question unanswered is if Kurtz is really good at heart. The natives obviously fear him. We see the heads that are on top of the poles and a good person wouldn’t do that. The harlequin talks about how he talks with Kurtz about everything, but he also mentions how Kurtz is someone you listen to, he’s the one that does all of the talking. Meaning, he demands to be listened to and thenus he deserves to be listened to. He’s too important to listen to other people. The harlequin also talks about how he takes good care of Kurtz. Kurtz was very sick twice and the harlequin took care of him, but Kurtz would still get mad at him and not speak to him. He says he would have to tread lightly until they were friends again. Kurtz sounds like a pompous man that only cares about himself. However, there are clues to Kurtz being a good man. Before he left for the Congo, he was a hard working man who was in love. He wanted to marry the Intended, but her family didn’t think he was good enough. This shows that Kurtz was a normal guy. He went to the Congo to earn money, so he could provide for his family. He had good intentions when he first arrived, but the Congo and his new environment changed him. This is also a reason that Kurtz is considered to be a tragic hero. He was a normal, hardworking man who left so he could provide for his new fiancée, but he allowed the “Heart of Darkness” to change him. At the end, his last words were “the horror! The horror!” Nobody knows what exactly he meant, but people can make guesses. He could be thinking back through his life and realizing how awful of a man he turned out to be. He could’ve gone to the Congo, earned the money and then returned home to his fiancée and lived a good life. However, he chose to get sucked in and take advantage of the power that was allotted to him and lose all control. He started out a good man, but turned evil. He had a mistress and heads on sticks. However, I think that he may have realized his evils at the end.