Heart of Darkness Part 2 Rapert/AP Lit

Significant Events/analysis Overheard conversation between manager and manager’s uncle: fervent hope that Kurtz is destroyed by wilderness-he is competition Manager tasked with returning Kurtz, but keeps obstructing “Anything can be done in this country” Uncle= Euros can do ANYTHING here-no checks on power –Marlow=emphasizes w/fear—what does man become when there are “no external checks”? –“…lurking death, profound darkness””=is it heart of land or man?

Significant Events/analysis Journey down Congo –“travelling back to earliest beginnings of the world”/ penetrating unknown and untouched (by “civilized man” wilderness/overwhelming silence, size, “brooding” nature= “we were accustomed to look upon the form of a shackled monster, but there…monstrous and free”/timeless and eternal –Man is tiny/ “a sluggish bug between the walls of trees” M is appalled, awe struck, entranced, terrified, fascinated –Kurtz is “it had taken him, loved him, embraced him…consumed him… [he was] its spoiled and pampered favorite”

Significant Events/analysis Cries of natives/sightings –Inhuman to some…to M disturbingly haunting, awakened an ancient and instinctive kinship. Longs to join—whites are terrified Finds TRUTH in cries—the varnish of civilization is thin Cannibals –Possess restraint, inborn strength –M has great respect –Dead hippo symbolizes wilderness (whites deny but can’t escape it)

Significant Events/analysis Fog and Attack –Fog = moral and intellectual confusion— note men are DEAF and BLIND –Attacked from forest-to keep them away Arrows vs guns randomly shot Note: helmsman is “improved” African- civilized, thus killed by spear. Blood on whites who “improved” him –Marlow immediately rids self of blood (responsibility) in “merry dance of death and trade”

Significant Events/analysis The Report –“Burning noble words” of idealistic motives to enlighten –Eloquent expression of man’s highest capacity –Whites must be as gods to blacks Kurtz in forest’s “utter solitude” –“Exterminate all the brutes” –Kurtz sets himself up as a god among the natives –Isolation and lack of restraint leads him to become “highest devil” presiding over “unspeakable rites” –Note: similarity to Lucifer (highest angel…desire to be god)

Significant Events/analysis Comparison –Euros have butcher and police Shield us from horrors of real life Do our dirty work Protect us from ourselves and our base desires –Kurtz had only solitude All Europe made Kurtz, therefore does he represent us?

Significant Events/analysis Russian –Harlequin means demon or clown –Smiles/frowns. He is nervous. –Terrified and worshipful towards Kurtz K enlightened him Marlow –Disgusted by Kurtz yet transfixed by him