Heart Of Darkness Vs Apocalypse Now Essay

Placed in different time periods and settings, the novel “Heart of Darkness”, written by Joseph Conrad, and the film “Apocalypse Now”, directed by Francis Coppola, both create the same mysterious journey with a change in setting and culture. The journey consists of riding up a river by boat through the jungle. The reason for the voyage is to search for a sick man named Kurtz. Along the way, the protagonists face different factors affecting their mission. Even though they faced different environments, the ending is the same with Kurtz being found and we see that Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now are similar yet two different stories that end in the same style. Heart of Darkness was written in 1899 and Apocalypse Now was filmed nearly 70 years later. With several world events taking place in between Coppola took it to its advantage. In the novel the storyline took place along the Congo River in Africa, but Coppola set his film in Vietnam. A change that split the stories apart. This could have been Coppola's opinion of a wrong political action and the brutality and senselessness of war. Also, being based in different eras affected their characters. In the novel, Conrad used ivory traders who chose to accompany Marlow by their own free will, while Coppola …show more content…
The setting affecting the characters and their attitudes toward their mission. Also, the different areas having a toll on the technology available to them Both stories consist of riding up a river on a voyage to find Kurtz; however, the rivers are different which causes the rest of the story to change in its own way. The jungles are described as “savage and dark” but are located in special areas. The soldiers talk and act diversely to show that the stories are 70 years apart. While the novel and film are connected their differences are enough to show separation between the