Heart of Darkness

Marlow experiences greater ethnic differences as his ship is burnt down and gets word that a villager whom some thought was the arsonist was beaten as punishment.  When he got better he ran into the forest, ironically, the villager is using the darkness as his protector, living under the shadows.  Marlow also finds out more about Kutz, and finds out he is really good artist who is on mission for the company to find out more about life "on the other side".

Heart of Darkness and Freud Presentation

“Civilization describes the whole sum of the achievements and regulations which distinguish our lives from those of our animal ancestors and which serve two purposes-namely, to protect men against nature and to adjust their mutual relations.” Freud establishes the idea that man's animalism is what controls desire and fear. This forest type ideal turns men into barbarians and unsociable wolf men who can not be what we understand today to be "normal". This idea is similar to how Conrad carves Marlows journey as we see through Marlows eyes that the men he surrounds himself are emotionless fiends who do not care for anyone but themselves and their greed, the only feeling they really have. This makes Freud’s research of the unconscious and Conrad’s journey into darkness is remarkably similar. This combo of darkness is shown in the image we have at the bottom that shows man breaking away from the beastly desires of darkness but obviously not an easy "journey"

Heart of Darkness pg 26-31

In these pages, Marlow meet Mr. Kutz.  Kutz is a very quiet and seemingly sneaky character.  He does not do much and does not make "to much noise", but the ship that Marlow had to command, is soon sunk as Mr. Kutz a boards, coincidence?  Further Kutz becomes ill and Marlow takes the time he has to get to know others such as the general manager, whom him and others for some reason seem to keep Marlow away from Kutz.

Heart of Darkness & Freud

Freud presents man like a beast.  He writes that true character is surrounded by sex, lust, emotion, violence, greed, and everything that we would see makes "blood boil".  Freud's idea of men being all bad and only improve in with the better of their own experiences, drives away from the usual, simple biblical context where every child is born good.  Freud is seemingly not a philosopher but an Anarchist who wants to see the world turn from the bad to good.  His pessimistic view, although very controversial and enormously oversteps its boundary, also causes thought for concern, provocative culture, and as well well thought ideas.  The writing in Heart of Darkness is similar to Freud's beliefs because every man you come across in the book is bad, committing evil, and is only driven but greed and self-satisfaction and pleasure.  The African slaves, the accountant, the idea of elitism, Marlow's thoughts they are examples of Freud's beliefs because they fuel war.  War fuel anarchy, but for a reader all this entices, makes us belief in the other side of things.  Do I agree with Freud, NO, but like I said in class, he is the 19th/20th century Howard Stern, he might say awful things, but what he says, no matter if you like him or not, you want to hear what he says next.

Heart of Darkness pg 17-26

In these pages Marlow I feel sees images of himself as he describes his scenarios very depressingly. He sees black African slaves chained together and under the guard of another slave. He says “devils” of violence, greed, and desire, but that in Africa he became acquainted with the “flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly.”  This quote presents thats Marlow has become more accustom with a lower level of existence of black people.  As well as meeting the white company chief accountant who as well presents himself in a devilish manner.  Symbolically I feel that Marlow is facing his demons head on.

Heart of Darkness Chp 1 (cont.)

Not only is Marlow's job acceptance important because he sees his Aunt and is hired by The Company for the purpose that Marlow can bring help, fortune, and change to the Belgium's colonial assets.  The key moment in this is change.  I feel that this moment in time Marlows traveling symbolizes that idea of change that is constantly talked about in the chapter.  Also the fact that Marlow has Fresleven's head and brings it to the doctor shows that Marlow is quite wealthy and powerful as the doctor says that he is surprised that he didn't end up like Fresleven as well, dead in Africa, because nobody ever gets out.  At the end Marlow feels like he's going towards the center of the Earth, seemingly foreshadowing events to come and maybe hinting at a type of Darkness in the heart (the center).

Heart of Darkness Setup

I think that the way story opens out there will be a lot of flashback reading.  Marlow is already shown to have a flashback to back to when he was a sailor, sailing through Asia for 6 years and other stints in Africa.  I feel that his story will obviously be the main one but the other 4 people on the boat with him aren't there just to fill up space but to maybe let Marlow's new present character develop so we the reader can digest the information from his past and his present.  Maybe that contrast will give the character not more life but in a sense shine a brighter light and put a different perspective towards what he does and how what he does, whether it will mimic what he did in his stories or not.