Heart of Darkness: Entry 6

As Part III begins, and Marlow is still talking with the Russian trader at Kurtz's station, the trader tells Marlow that he must take Kurtz with him immediately.  He gives a long discourse on how he had first met Kurtz, how he had indeed enlarged his mind, and how he has been nursing Kurtz through several diseases.  The Russian trader admits that Kurtz had sometimes acted inhumanely; he had threatened to shoot the Russian over small amounts of ivory and had raided several countrysides, but the trader insists that Kurtz can not be judged on the basis of normal human beings.  But the Russian brings urgent news to Marlow, telling him that Kurtz is very ill at the time being and that there are no medical supplies available at the station.  He also informs him that the Company had recently ditched Kurtz.  As the trader is talking, Marlow spots the severed head of "rebels" on sticks encircling the station.

Suddenly, Kurtz appears on a makeshift stretcher accompanied by pilgrims and surrounded by natives.  Mention of Marlow is made to him, to which he replies that he is glad to see him.  He then boards the steamship while Marlow is noticing an extravagantly-ornamented native woman outside the ship, whom he is informed by the Russian trader is Kurtz's mistress.  The trader remarks that her influence over Kurtz has caused him much trouble, and even says he would have probably be willing to shoot her had she come on board.  In the meantime, Kurtz is yelling and criticizing the steamboat crew for coming solely for ivory instead of assisting him, which of course seems ironic.

Marlow is told by the steamboat crew manager that Kurtz's unsound and unorthodox methods will be reported to the Company, to which Marlow replies that Kurtz is undeserving and is a "remarkable man." From that point onwards, Marlow is considered in the same light as Kurtz, being alienated from the Company's more "civilized" agenda.  The Russian also informs him that Kurtz had organized the attack on their steamer in hopes that they would assume he was dead and abort the mission.  Marlow is asked to keep Kurtz's reputation in high esteem, but Marlow replies that he has overheard plans to hang the Russian.  After hearing this, the trader leaves the site by canoe.  It is now obvious that Kurtz was symbolic of the many faces of imperialistic colonialism, being a scapegoat for the manager and pilgrims, a traitor (having had an African mistress), a destroyer, and even somehow a wise man all along.

"She [Kurtz's mistress] must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul." (Conrad 106)
African headdress

Heart of Darkness: Entry 5

Marlow begins to discuss Kurtz, mentioning that he had a fiancee back in England, whom he called his Intended.  He speaks on the fact that Kurtz seems to talk as if he possessed everything--ivory, women, land, etc.  Although this somewhat troubles Marlow, he digresses on the subject, remarking that it is his fault that Kurtz's memory exists whatsoever.  It is apparent that Marlow's curiosity in Kurtz is rather unusual.  He recalls a report that Kurtz submitted to the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs, in which he writes, "Exterminate all the brutes!"  But Marlow suggests that Kurtz had undoubtedly assimilated into Native customs and rites, and that his words had a sacrificial basis. 

As Marlow struggles over the justification of the killings committed by Kurtz, he drops the thought altogether to return to his sailing, the dead helmsman at his feet.  He blames his helmsman's death on the fact that he decided to shoot at the natives on the shore without restraint, which is ironic considering that the whole crew's motives are unrestrained and imperialistic.  Marlow throws his dead body overboard, to the cannibals' disappointment.  As he and the crew discuss what blows must have been dealt to the attacking natives earlier in their passage, the Inner Station where Kurtz is supposedly stationed comes into sight.

A Russian trader on the shore steps onboard to speak with Marlow as the rest of the crew go to retrieve Kurtz.  He agrees that the ship's wistle works best at scaring off the natives, but says that they probably mean no harm, they simply just want Kurtz to stay (which seems contradictory, considering the supposed mass murders of natives on Kurtz's behalf).  The trader's portrayal Kurtz is odd altogether, as he says that one can only listen to Kurtz, not converse with him. 

"Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear--or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze." (Conrad 83)

This quote by Marlow seems to justify the motives of the very groups of people they acknowledge as "savages."

"[We whites] must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings--we approach them with the might as of a deity. By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded...Exterminate all the brutes!" (Conrad 92) -Mr. Kurtz in his report

This quote seems to portray the Hitleresque world view that the extermination of "primitive" peoples is an endeavor for good and the betterment of humanity as a whole.

M. Gandhi was outspoken in his oppositions to imperialistic racism and debasement of oppressed peoples. He advocated purification, altruism, patience, and civil resistance towards oppressors and unjust authorities. It is unfortunate that the natives of the African Congo did not have such a strong political and spiritual leader to organize civilized revolts against the powers that plundered them of their pride and resources.

Heart of Darkness: Entry 4

As we begin reading Part II of Heart of Darkness, the story proceeds with Marlow's steamboat heading along the river, as they supposedly approach the mysterious and enigmatic Mr. Kurtz.  They come upon a hut containing firewood that is next to a note claiming it is for Marlow's crew.  As they sail on, becoming more and more worried each minute that their boat will break down, they hear a desperate scream followed by the incomprehensible mumblings of unseen savages coming from the woods.  The whites onboard, being quite frightened by the outburst, are told by the leader of the cannibalistic savages on board that they wish to eat whoever screamed.  After not eating anything substantial in days except for rotting hippo meat, the cannibals were craving humans.  There has been no time for anchoring the ship to stock up on supplies.

As they continue onwards, getting closer and closer to Kurtz's station, their visibility becomes severely inhibited by a dense fog.  Suddenly they are swarmed by tribes of ambushing natives, arrows flying.  Marlow runs to hide in the pilot-house.  Marlow's crew fights back with rifles, and his helmsman (an African) is speared as his feet as he steers the ship.  Repulsed, Marlow hands the steering wheel over to his crewmen as he changes out his blood-stained socks and shoes.  At this point he is worried that Kurtz has been killed too. 

As Marlow tells this narrative, one of his listeners interrupts to note Marlow's "absurd" behavior. Knowing that this particular man was a rich man living a comfortable life, Marlow tells him that he is too ignorant of this lower end of life.  But he admits that while his actions may have been odd, they were certainly justified by his chief aim of finding Mr. Kurtz.

Mr. Kurtz's supposed uniqueness and superiority are summed up in the following key quote from Part II:

"The point was in his [Kurtz] being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words--the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness." (Conrad 89)

Perhaps this quote suggests that Kurtz is a very polar but acute man in his speech, being able to "illuminate and bewilder." Maybe he possesses the ability to disguise his truly dark intentions under a veil of light. Could this be a reference to the nature of imperialism? Or is Kurtz the embodiment of the ends and purposes of imperialism and conquest? We will have to wait until he is found by Marlow.

Political cartoon of British Imperialism: "The Ass in Lion's Skin"

Heart of Darkness: Entry 3

Marlow is currently on board a French steamboat as they begin the colonization and resource extraction processes along the coast of Africa.  His convoy periodically stops to land soldiers and other routines, making Marlow feel quite lonely.  When they reach the mouth of the Congo and Marlow boards a new steamboat, the captain of the ship informs him of a Swedish man who had recently come down for the same purposes but hanged himself just before their entrance into the African interior. 

When Marlow arrives at the Company station, he is disturbed by what he sees.  Old and dilapidated machinery, environmental destruction, and black slavery enforced by chains, rifles, and soldiers. Disgusted and reminded of the many downsides of human nature, and their extremes in what he saw in the Congo, Marlow walks to a grove of trees where he finds a group of dying native workers.  Marlow offers them a biscuit.  When Marlow meets the chief accountant of the Company station, he is informed that he will inevitably meet Mr. Kurtz: an agent with the Company that supposedly sends back more ivory than all the other agents combined, making him automatically destined for a position upgrade.  He tells Marlow to tell Kurtz when he meets him that everything is working nicely at the Outer Station, but the accountant refuses to send a letter, for a mysterious fear that it will be found in the Central Station. 

Key Quotation:

"There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it, of course.  It was as unreal as everything else -- as the philanthropic pretence of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work.  The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages...there is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look at the halter" (Conrad 61). 

This quote shows how oftentimes people disguise their truly selfish intentions under philanthropic titles and veils of lies.  Sometimes it is done with such subtleness that the man himself forgets his own facade.  These imperialists in Heart of Darkness had one chief aim: to generate riches for themselves by breaking the backs of African natives for the ivory that their land contained.  The last part of the quote quips at how some people seem to be above the general laws that unofficially govern the rest.  Had the natives of Africa turned to imperialism towards Britain, it would have undeniably been wrong; the Europeans, however, viewed themselves so honestly as superior to all other races, and so this heartfelt belief justified their actions in their minds.  I find this type of behavior very prominent in modern society.