Heart Of Darkness Kurtz Journey

Throughout the first two parts of Joseph Conrad's book, Heart of Darkness, the character Kurtz is built up to be this amazing and remarkable man. In the third book, however, we learn the truth about who Kurtz really is. Kurtz cries out in a whisper, "The horror! The horror!"(p. 86), and in only two words he manages to sum up the realization of all the horrors of his life during his time in the Congo.

At the End of the book it is evident that Marlow does not believe in colonizing Africa. When he goes back to England and walks through the streets, he becomes disgusted with the people going through their everyday lives which are surrounded by money, greed, and bettering themselves. He has seen the horror and "darkness" which this greed is doing to a people of another land by imperialism and colonialism.

The above epitomizes what Marlow thinks about what colonialism really brought to Africa.  Some Europeans may have genuinely believed in the idea of colonialism as being noble, but this "belief in the idea" cannot save the horrible actions of colonialism or make them acceptable.  Indeed this false belief in an idea, rather then the practicalities of colonialism only aids to brutality of such actions.

* Fifteen days after leaving the outer station Marlow “hobble[s] into the Central Station”, which was being run by “the flabby devil”, referring to the greed of the Europeans. There he finds out that his ship had been sunk when they tried to take off before he got there. He also meets the manager of the Central Station who is only employed because he never gets sick, and the brick maker who doesn’t actually make any bricks. He overhears a conversation between the manager and his uncle, who is leading the “Eldorado Exploring Expedition” that passes through the station. They are talking about Mr. Kurtz. This all occurs two months before they reach Kurtz’s station.

The cruelty that Marlow sees in the congo sways his opinion against total imperialism. He views piles of bodies on the street, murder for

At the beginning of Marlow’s journey his aggressively states he hate of liars and hypocrites, yet at the end Marlow lies to Mr. Kurtz fiancé, “But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark- too dark altogether… (Page 72).” The journey changed this aspect of Marlow’s personality. As Marlow faces the horrors of the Congo River he learns that some lies are necessary to spare others. In How To Read Literature Like a Professor, the author Thomas C. Foster states, “Okay so here’s the general rule: whether it’s Italy or Greece or Africa or Malaysia or Vietnam, when writers send characters south, its so they can run amok… if we’re being generous, that they can run amok because they are having direct, raw encounters with the subconscious (Foster, 179).” As Marlow travels down the Congo River he continues to here about Mr. Kurtz and he begins to relate himself to Kurtz. As Marlow’s journey continues he begins to realize that Kurtz is crazy. As marlow begins to realize that As that happens Marlow begins to connect himself to Mr. Kurtz but as he continues to relate to Kurtz he begins to realize hat Kurtz is not the man Marlow believed him to be. This realization of how Mr. Kurtz is subconsciously hurts Marlow because Marlow saw himself and Kurtz as kindred spirits and no that Marlow sees that Kurtz is a horrible person

Marlow begins his journey into the center of Africa, his perceptions of Africa change significantly, so he realizes that the darkness is inherent everywhere, not just Africa. In his eyes, the Europeans are the savages.

Furthermore, when Marlow first arrives at the Central Station, he spots the manager. “His eyes, of the usual blues, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe” (Conrad, “Chapter 1,” Paragraph 52). Consequently, after Marlow states that the manager's eyes are very intense, it appeared as if the manager transpired someone who was quite aggressive and very scary. Correspondingly, the characterization of the manager continues to be as someone who invigorated anxiousness, “he was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness” (Conrad, "Chapter 1,” Paragraph 52). Not to mention, although he inspired uneasiness and anxiousness, Marlow describes the manager as someone who occurred to be an extremely uneducated person that sustained the manager profession owing to the fact that he was never unhealthy. “He had no learning and no

This isolation lends Marlow a sort of objectivity, allowing him to keenly assess the true damage Europe has inflicted upon the Congo. Unbound by friendships or any close ties, Marlow is able to survey the Congo and its colonists from an outsider’s perspective. As previously noted, he refers to them as “pilgrims” as a means of detaching himself. He comments on how when attacked by natives, “The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush” (Conrad 41). By distancing himself from the others, Marlow is able to recognize the pointlessness of the chaotic violence the Europeans perpetuate. Though his distaste for European methods is not always well defined, it is definitely evident, seeming to escalate as he travels further along the Congo. Perhaps, then, the “heart of darkness” that Marlow so frequently says he is journeying into is not the jungle itself, but rather the truth about European brutality. At the core of this heart, both physically and symbolically, lies the Inner Station, where Marlow finds Kurtz. When Marlow first hears about Kurtz, he is fascinated. The colonists rave, “He is a prodigy…He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else” (Conrad 22). These colonists are naïve, uninformed, beholding Kurtz as

We are always taught to appreciate the little things in life; the things that don’t seem to have much of significance at first but end up meaning the world to us. These small things have a value so great but so hidden that they are usually taken a granted for. In The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, there are a few characters that aren’t present in the book for a large amount of time but have a great affect on the story. Kurtz is one of these characters. Kurtz is introduced towards the end of the story but he has an affect on the action, the theme and the other characters development even when he isn’t present.

Marlow tells his shipmates on the boat (the Nelly) that the natives passed him “within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (16). Marlow’s story of his experience exhibits how the Europeans captured the natives and forced them to work; to strip their homeland of its resources and natural beauty. When the Europeans colonize Africa, they do not want to help the African people, but exploit them and put them to work for their own desire of obtaining ivory, rubber, and other resources and goods. As the Europeans imperialize the area, they do not build culture or assist in the development of the Congo region, but break down culture as they enslave the natives and take away their rights, along with stripping the area of resources and natural, earthly beauty, which is conveyed through the cruel physical treatment towards the natives. This treatment is also presented through the literary devices that Conrad decides to use to reveal the experiences of the natives to the

Marlow is the wanderer into the unconscious mind; he is meandering through his deepest understanding of himself. In other words, he is a symbol for the archetype meeting himself in the depths of his unconscious mind. Not only is he initially finding meaning through his encounter with Kurtz but also he is attempting to find meaning through the retelling of his story. Marlow’s voyage ventures “deep into his own personal heart of darkness, where lurks the impulse to savagery that he had never acknowledged while in the deceptive milieu of a sophisticated city” (Spivack 432). Marlow is the principal character through which

Marlow says that, "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-- nothing to boast of."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) . Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such a voyage. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by illustrating a picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the novel. White Europeans are used as symbols of self-deception, and we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as it is very proper for those who tackle darkness."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) This shows how Conrad feels about colonialism through Marlow, because Marlow feels strongly adverse to the actions of the whites in the Congo.

The description shows the bleakness of the Congo compared to the outside world, is one of the first representations of the civilized (or outside) world contrasted to the Congo. The uncivilized/civilized comparison and the descriptions of darkness heighten when Conrad increases the contrast by moving Marlow into an oasis of civilization, the Main Station, a port outpost on the coast of Africa, owned and commanded by white Europeans, but kept alive by the slave work of black natives. Upon setting foot on shore,

Marlow tells a story of his first trip to Africa on a steamboat with a company that gathers ivory. The real adventure begins as he goes on a journey to the Congo to find a man known as Kurtz, who he has a weird obsession with upon hearing about him. Like the framing device of the novel, the idea of the Company and trading of ivory seems structured from an outside point of view. The Company appeases their journey by calling it “economic trade” and “civilization” for the savage. But through the journey, Marlow witnesses the cruelty of the Company. The structure’s underlying chaos and corruption gives rise to the hypocrisy of imperialism in the novel. The “economic trade” and “civilization” relates to the frame of the novel while Kurtz and the actual