Apocalypse Now

Throughout Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz’s last words help Marlow formulate a revering demeanor towards Kurtz, which leads him to establishing his own mindset about the maliciousness of imperialism and assist Marlow in understanding what Kurtz had seen. Imperialism was a hot discussion throughout Marlow’s time period, and Marlow never genuinely looked into it. However, his point of view towards imperialism changes when he meets Kurtz and listen to his last words. Kurtz’s words not only…

Literature at its finest makes people think—it causes readers to leave the experience changed. Some literary authors are kind enough to answer the questions they pose; for others, their readerships are not so lucky. The latter is true for readers of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Ambiguous from the beginning to the end, Conrad raises many questions—is colonization ethical? are racial stereotypes correct? is Marlow biologically incapable of telling a good story?—but the first one, the one…

In King Leopold's Ghost, Hoschild imparts to his pursuers the new story of King Leopold of Belgium's abuse of the Congo and the shocking wrongdoings submitted against mankind for practical and political reasons. The writer's objective in this book was to bring attention to what occurred. Hoschild demonstrates to us that a great deal of history as we probably are aware is that it is one-sided and white washed. Ordinarily history is wrote or observed by the individuals who are in control and their…

The Archetypal Lens of Good vs. Evil in Heart of Darkness In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad focuses on the main characters of Marlow, the story’s narrator, who recounts his journey into the interior of the Congo, and Kurtz, an ivory trader, who is shrouded in mystery as Marlow is eager to meet him. Through the archetypes of the hero’s journey and shadow, both Marlow and Kurtz become deeply affected by their setting, which illuminates the theme of good versus evil. Throughout Heart of Darkness,…

Some inherit “darkness” lies at the center of every individual. Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness explores this through the journey of Charles Marlow, who, as he ventures into the Congo, comes to realize that to believe those of a more advanced society are above this base savagery is to tell oneself lies. The hypocrisy of imperialism is a prominent theme throughout Conrad’s novel and it is reflected in not only the thoughts of Marlow, but the pervasive ill treatment of the native Africans as…

The novella Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad in 1899, which is set in the Congo, Africa in 1890. It is based on the narrator Charles Marlow travels to the Congo, in the heart of Africa to relieve a brilliant ivory trader named Krutz, who is working for the Belgium Government. While there is a complexity on British identity of Joseph Conrad, the role he played in the development of British literary history is significant. The writings of Conrad were not inherently English but…

Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness is a story filled with overwhelming condemnation of imperialism. This dark allegory describes the journey of the narrator, Marlow, into the dark interior of the African continent and his fascination with the mysterious Mr. Kurtz who dominates the inhabitants of the region. The power Mr. Kurtz holds over the natives enables him the ability to be the best and most economically savvy in the ivory trade. As Marlow moves through the story he becomes aware that…

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad portrays the colonization in Africa through Marlow, the young protagonist’s journey into the Congo and his confrontation with Kurtz, the most capable ivory collector. Of all the Europeans, Marlow alone is there for curiosity and therefore has neither profit to make nor a noble cause to fulfill, which gives him the ability to see what is happening to the land and its people and the mission to civilize Africa becomes an absurd lie. Conrad exposes the cruelty and…

“He struggled with himself, too. I saw it -- I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.” (Conrad, 140). This isolation and internal conflict, within Kurtz, is the epitome of what occurs when one is caught in a seemingly inescapable situation; losing all unnecessary components of life and relying purely on instinct and intuition. Joseph Conrad compels the readers to question the ways of thinking that…

THIS IS NOT DONE!! “Don 't care what people say Just follow your own way Don 't give up and use the chance To return to innocence That 's not the beginning of the end That 's the return to yourself The return to innocence” – Return To Innocence by Enigma (15-21). Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, published in 1990 is a semi-fiction and semi non-fiction book about the stories of O’Brien, his troops in Vietnam at war, and their loved ones back in America. In 1986, Oliver Stone released a…