“I was a hair’s breadth of the last opportunity of pronouncement”(Conrad 106). During this time in history many European countries were in a race to colonize, what they would call savage parts of the world. Many men traveled from all over Europe to the deep parts of Africa in an attempt to obtain rare supplies and to civilize the savages. In Heart of Darkness one sees how European companies sent white men to Africa to collect ivory. One truly witnesses how hollow the European’s civilization was, through their treatment of the Africans and how they openly abused and exploited them. These examples show how when there is a lack of external and internal restraints those who are at one time civilized become savages. In Heart of Darkness a few
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When Marlow first hears of Kurtz, he is told Kurtz is a great man, and wants to meet the man “who had come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort”. On the way to find Kurtz, Marlow reads a report written by Kurtz called Suppression of Savage Customs. It begins elegantly and beautifully written, but suddenly ends with a strange post script, “Exterminate all the brutes”(75). When Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, he finds a man who has gone mad. Kurtz is deathly ill and has become the god figure for the natives. Marlow also observes a line of poles outside Kurtz’s hut that have heads of men Kurtz has killed mounted atop them. When Marlow asks the Russian, the man who stays with Kurtz, about the heads he states that Kurtz killed them because they were rebels. The Russian also tells Marlow about a moment when Kurtz threatened to shoot him before over a little bit of ivory that he had earned. Kurtz has also become involved with a African mistress despite the fact that he has a fiancé back in Europe who completely adores him. While Marlow is traveling back with Kurtz to civilization, Kurtz comes down with a bad sickness and begins to die. Marlow talks with him but most of the time he seems delirious, not making much sense. The very last words that Kurtz speaks are “The horror! The horror!”(105). These last moments with Kurtz show how a man, no longer being held accountable can sink …show more content…
The white colonizers have no ruling power over them when they were in the deep parts of Africa which allowed them chances to compromise their morals. To the point of willing to kill those who call them friends for a profit. Because Kurtz has unchecked power where he served as a manager, he turned from a smart, philosophically deep individual to a crazy man who killed those who get in his way and displays their heads. Judging from Kurtz’s dramatic change, his feelings must have existed in him through his whole life. However he was never in the circumstances to allow them to show until he was in the deep parts of Africa. By being in the deep parts of Africa it allowed the pilgrims to explore their natural sinful desires and temptations without worrying about any worldly consequences. Unfortunately Kurtz seemed to have gone too far down the rabbit hole and did not seem to make it back out before his death. However there is still a very smart and profoundly deep philosophical person, with a intimate understanding of the world, and no amount of moral change could ever change that part in Kurtz. “Believe me or not, his intelligence was perfectly clear—concentrated, it is true, upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear;”
When Marlow first hears of Kurtz, he is told Kurtz is a great man, and wants to meet the man “who had come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort”. On the way to find Kurtz, Marlow reads a report written by Kurtz called Suppression of Savage Customs. It begins elegantly and beautifully written, but suddenly ends with a strange post script, “Exterminate all the brutes”(75). When Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, he finds a man who has gone mad. Kurtz is deathly ill and has become the god figure for the natives. Marlow also observes a line of poles outside Kurtz’s hut that have heads of men Kurtz has killed mounted atop them. When Marlow asks the Russian, the man who stays with Kurtz, about the heads he states that Kurtz killed them because they were rebels. The Russian also tells Marlow about a moment when Kurtz threatened to shoot him before over a little bit of ivory that he had earned. Kurtz has also become involved with a African mistress despite the fact that he has a fiancé back in Europe who completely adores him. While Marlow is traveling back with Kurtz to civilization, Kurtz comes down with a bad sickness and begins to die. Marlow talks with him but most of the time he seems delirious, not making much sense. The very last words that Kurtz speaks are “The horror! The horror!”(105). These last moments with Kurtz show how a man, no longer being held accountable can sink …show more content…
The white colonizers have no ruling power over them when they were in the deep parts of Africa which allowed them chances to compromise their morals. To the point of willing to kill those who call them friends for a profit. Because Kurtz has unchecked power where he served as a manager, he turned from a smart, philosophically deep individual to a crazy man who killed those who get in his way and displays their heads. Judging from Kurtz’s dramatic change, his feelings must have existed in him through his whole life. However he was never in the circumstances to allow them to show until he was in the deep parts of Africa. By being in the deep parts of Africa it allowed the pilgrims to explore their natural sinful desires and temptations without worrying about any worldly consequences. Unfortunately Kurtz seemed to have gone too far down the rabbit hole and did not seem to make it back out before his death. However there is still a very smart and profoundly deep philosophical person, with a intimate understanding of the world, and no amount of moral change could ever change that part in Kurtz. “Believe me or not, his intelligence was perfectly clear—concentrated, it is true, upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear;”