Heart Of Darkness :: essays research papers fc

The Horror&9Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel where the main character Marlow is telling a story of a trip to the Congo. This novel is said to possibly be an autobiography of Conrads life at sea. This is said because Conrad was a seaman for a many a(prenominal) years and went into Africa many times. The story is so powerful that even afterwards 100 years, we still struggle with its meaning. This story has been retold by Francis Ford Coppola in the film Apocalypse at one time. Chinua Achebe has recently explored Conrads ideas on imperialism. Achebe believed Conrads accommodate presented a racist vision of the people of Africa and Achebe in his own handwriting, Things choke Apart, presented imperialism through the eyes of the Africans. The story of Heart of Darkness is being told to intravenous feeding men on the deck of the Nellie. The story being told is about unmatched of Marlows expeditions to the Congo in search of an Ivory hunter named Kurtz. When Marlow gi ve Kurtz in the Congo, Kurtz had "gone native" Marlow found, "a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole," outside of Kurtzs house and Kurtz had been hunting with tribes in the sector (Conrad, 73). When Marlow arrived Kurtz, was ill and dying. Kurtz cried out the words "The horror The horror" right forward he died (Conrad, 85). These words cried out by Kurtz as he died created the most important passages in Heart of Darkness. The way this one passage is interpreted determines how the book is interpreted.&9One interpretation is that the "horror" is death and Kurtz is realizing he is dying. Kurtz is horrified at the thought of dying and is crying out in pain of the realization. Kurtz may be afraid to die in the amount of darkness. Kurtz may be afraid to die knowing that he testament never see his intended again and he may go through guilty for leaving his intended for his savage life. This interpretation shows a book about lost love and gu ilt for finding a clean life. This interpretation is one of the less complex and uninteresting interpretations.&9Now here is a more interesting and complex interpretation. Some look out Heart of Darkness as a racist book. This interpretation comes from the view that the "horror" Kurtz is identifying is his being brought "down" to the African slipway. This interpretation sees the African ways as uncivilized and horrid to Kurtz when he realizes he was at their level.