"Kurtz"

(Unrevised blog) (blog stil in process of being edited)
Since I spoke in my last blog about how Kurtz can be viewed as a evil, I want to look more into who Kurtz, the character, is. Specifically in chapter three.

When chapter three begins, we are introduced to a poor ragged man who is entirely devoted to Kurtz. Which Marlow fears to be dangerous. He states that "It came to him, and he accepted it with a sort of eager fatalism. I must say that to me it appeared about the most dangerous thing in every way he had come upon so far." The man even tells Marlow that,"it was dangerous to ask Kurtz too many questions." Marlow fears it to be dangerous because of Kurtz's power and appearance of being indestructible. Kurtz holds a certain power,so that when he speaks everyone drops wha they are doing and listen to him. Such as when he hooked the Russian to every word he said, or got a tribe to go hunting with him by himself. He is powerful, yet he creates a sense of hopelessness,"never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." He is a person who places a thought of weakness in both humans, and the nature surrounding him. Nature is hurt by this man, and takes "its revenge on him" bye showing him what an evil man he is, "It whispered things to him, things about himself that he didn’t know until he was out there alone."

Kurtz is also a man who will get his way no matter what, which probably explains his cruel power. He threatened the Russian that he would kill him if he would not give him the little piece of ivory he was given as a present. He manipulated people, such as the tribe at the lake, to believe he has human strengths that don't excist, such as controlling lightning and thunder.
Wanting his way seems to be an obsession. He is obssesed, because he is obssesed with obtaining one item : ivory. He has become insane, the reader notes this, and so does Marlow, both audience members of the Russians story, "Why he is mad!". Yet the russian continues to praise Kurtz blindly, because he believes Kurtz is a good man in the end, even though he has tried to kill him several times. The russian, like the natives, worships Kurtz, and thats part of what Kurtz wants, so that he may obtain his central goal.

Kurtz is a man of death. He gets his way by killing people, and getting his way is killing people. He seems to be obssesed with death by the way his house is decorated. Thier are skulls and head on poles surrounding his house. Marlow describes one of them, " It was black and dried and caving in. Its eyelids were closed so it almost looked like it was sleeping on top of the pole. Its shrunken dry lips were slightly open, revealing a narrow white line of teeth. It was smiling, endlessly amused by the dreams of eternal sleep."The dreams of eternal sleep" show death, since death is forever. The head almost seems to represent Kurtz's madness. Its "endlessly amused" by death, just as Kurtz is. He is obssesed with his evil ways, "They [the heads] only showed that Mr. Kurtz had given in to his dark desires and that there was something wrong with him."

My personal views of Kurtz is that he is an almost demonic hypnotising dictator, who has all those, who have fallen, bow down to his feet. My view, I believe is the same view Marlow has. Yet there are those who worship him for his grand views, "on love, justice, conduct of life - or what not." All those who love Kurtz, seem to have come crawling on all fours for his love. They are scared of him, yet they are blind from the fires of his evils. Kurtz is a man, with a dark blank heart.

Wrong Way Every Way

After our class disscussion about the novels beginning and ending, I came home to finish the last few pages I had to read. We spoke about what all the dark symbolism meant in the novel, either than the fact that it was already placed in the title. We also spoke about how there is a sence of many evils in the book. We discussed how the excistence of ignorance is evil, yet how knowledge can also become corrupt, as well as evil. The novel appears to talk about different "evils." 'Evil' being a word which tends to be familiarized with bad in the 'Good' VS 'Bad' in religion. Realigion, like the novel, being a search for truth, moral ideas, and exploration of good. The novel also deals with these ideas, but leans towards an exploration of hypocrisy, and moral confusion.

The idea of something being 'good' changes with every persons beliefs and morals. Marlow, the central character, appears to question if the 'dictator' rule of Kurtz is 'good' or if the world of the English Empire is 'good'. Or atleast, which one is the better of two evils. He views racism, people suffering, cannibalism,the destruction of nature and other things in the novel. This leads him to reflect why humans do things the way they do, asking wether or not the world is insane, or if its just him. He views this insane world as a drive of creating issues with near death situations, creating a thoughts of moral confusion. The british empire is a ridiculous power hunger, while Kurtz is practically a death machine.

The book shows how the world is distorted by using two colors: black and white. Just how he questioned the lesser of two evils, he also is looking at the placement of two catagories, wondering what it all really means. Africa first being a blank page, than turning into a cloaked darkness. The sun is bright, yet the whole world is dark. What shows the bad and what shows the good? These colors end up showing how we fail to see humans as humans. We regard in selfishness to ourselves, have no sympathy for others, yet wish for other to sympathize with us.

The book shows that the world is distorted like a fog. Everything is obscure, and there are always two sides to one story, with no point of showing which side is right or wrong.

Moving Heart of Darkness

In Dreams by ~Maleda on deviantART
As I continued to read the novel, "Heart of Darkness" I began to envision the descriptions placed more and more as a painting. Eventually I could imagine the seens in my head, like a movie. Word by word, screen shot by screen shot. I realised I was enjoying the descriptions I was reading. I was learning how depictive and majectic Joseph Conrad is with his writing, and now I am sorry for what I said in my first blog. Offcourse, I still dislike the beginning, but the further I read in the book, the more I like of it.



Now I can envision Heart of Darkness as a movie. Perhaps it already is. There are objects, and moments which reappear, and the novel almost has an Inception sort of feel to it. It is not a dream within a dream, or maybe it is, but it does have sense of being in more than one places at once. There are various audiences, as well as different story tellers.



The first story teller is Joseph Conrad, who is the omnipotent writer of the novel. He tells us the story through his characters words. The character who tells us the story is anonymous, and he himself is reapeating the words of another narrator, Marlow. This centralized character, Marlow, is mainly telling his own story, but within his story he has other narrators who take the stage for a short moment to explain a moment of their life, or why things happen.



There are also several audiences. We are an obvious audience, there is an audience on the boat, and Marlow himself is an audience to the people he describes.



We have more than this Audience, Narrator thing going on (obviously). We also have several repeated objects and moments ( oh! do tell us blogger Annamaria!). Now you see, if I was making a movie about this book, I would pay close attention to these objects. Objects, such as the one animal which appears in about everysing chapter, the hippo. What does the hippo mean? I don't know yet, perhaps some symbolic feature. I think I will blog about the hippo next, seems rather interesting how often its repeated. We also have the words "black" "white" "bright" and "dark" appear alot. The contrasts bettween these words are very important, if there is a movie, I can imagine it plays with these colors alot. Part of that darkness, is the dark figure, or the white man that changes who it is depending who is seeing the person.



Overall, I think if there was a movie based on this book, colors, descriptions, repitition, and symbolism would be very important.
One paragraph, in particular, caught my eye, and I would like to conclud my blog with that excerpt from the book:
"I became in an instant as much of a pretence as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims. This simply because I had a notion it somehow would be of help to Kurtz whom at the time I did not see- you understand. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? Its seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream- making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingly of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of strugling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams..."

"Grotesque Masks"

What I found interesting in the novel, "Heart of Darkness" is that Black people are often talked about through out the book. Marlow speaks of them as below him, yet at the same time, he feels a confusion on whether or not to call them humans, he states that there is a "suspicion of thier not being inhuman." So he views these "savages" having simliar qualities to the English. He almost feels for them, referring back to a time when the English were slaves themselves (blogger can not find quote).

From very early on in the novel, Marlow refers to Blacks differently to the White man. He never states that he saw a 'white pale men who blended in with the white sky' (made up example) but he does describe in detail what the african men who are paddling a boat look like:

" It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afart the white of thier eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; thier bodies steamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks= these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of moevement, that was as natural and true as the surf along thier coast. They wanted no excuse for being there. They were a great comfor to look at."

This quote alone shows how he views these men. He appears to admire them, yet he points out qualities which appear odd to him. . Marlow refers to this event in the past, so at first, I thought this was from a near past, but since his story is so long, and he mentions other moments where he reacts to african americans. I am beginning to think we are hearing a story from a man who has experienced life for a while. Which makes me question if he will change his opinion over time, or if it will remain the same. At an early point of his story he refers to Africans as "black ants" which shows an animal quality to them. Perhaps his opinion will shortly change since he will be exploring the vast African continent. He is there to learn, and is constantly watching his surroundings, looking at the mysterious, unreachable black faces. Marlow even notes the difference in personality. When the Cannibals reach them, the black men are calm, and pay close attention to what is happening so that they may react well. Meanwhile the white man freaks out for a moment.

Because of all these references, I am beginning that the title of the book, really does deal with Africa and the people that live there. Its a book that describes a mans experience, and what he learned from there. Previous from reading the book, I thought it would be a dark depressive sort of book, which led to a romatic tragedy. I have not yet finsihed the book, but I do know that my first perception of the book was a mistake.

Heart Of Boredom

As much as I do enjoy reading a good book,reading Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, was much more like draging my feet through mud instead of sitting down to be captured by a good book. Now, don't get me wrong AP Literature enthusiasts. I know this is a collge level course, and I thouroughly appretiated the descriptions placed in the book. Because up to page 25 (where I have read unto) I could really feel the , "The tidal current" running, "to and fro" leading me not into "crowded... memories of men and ships" but instead it lead me to day dream, so I kept finding myself having to constantly re read passages.

I was not so thrilled by the start of the novel, and yes, AP literature is about understanding the text, but I was far more drawn to the start of previous novels I have read this year such as, Pride and Prejudice, and, The Count of Monte Cristo (A novel I have almost finished reading).

Reading to the entrance of this blog, I apologise if it appears rude and almost ignorant about the book ( which it probably is) , but I do not want to come off as a person who entirely hated what we are reading (heavens no!). If anything, I was impressed and inspired by several of the descriptions, which Mr.Conrad gives his character, Marlow, the honor to say.

I feel that the way Marlow was introduced was very random. We started the novel off with one person, who called himself "I" and he introduced us to Marlows story, describing the man as a "seaman, but...a wanderer too." From the first 25 pages, you can see that Marlow has wandered the earth, but has also wandered through history. His knowledge is seen when he tells of "old times" not just of his memories, but of history previous to his , like when the Romans first came to the sea "nineteen hundred years ago." He is a story teller and he goes on to tell the story of the Romans, "Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine-what d'ye call 'em?- trireme in the Mediteranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries," he goes on to explain more, but just this small passage shows part of his intelligence and experience.

I thought that everything Marlow said was very philisophical sounding. Such as when he said, "mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency-the devotion to efficiency." It is an interesting quote which your brain practically turns into a toungue twister.

The ups and downs of this mans life is interesting, and its almos random how he just suddenly starts talking about his life. Overall, I am still not that interested in the novel, but it's not all bad, there are still some interesting short stories inbettween, like the white man who tried to kill the african chief.