In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the narrator introduces 4 different men on the deck of a ship that's waiting for the water to calm down. One of the men, Marlow, decides to tell the men about his journey in the Congo River in Africa. Marlow then tells them his story of how he got a job from a European Trading Company. At this point, the main focus of the book is about Marlow's adventure while sailing through the Congo River. Along the way, he runs into several battle grounds with the Natives on the land, and he also hears about a man named Kurts. Kurts is a man who is supposed to be the best man in the Company because he brings the most ivory out of all the workers, although Marlow comes to the conclusion that Kurts has died because of an attack from the Natives. There are also rumors of Kurts turning into one of the Natives and attending rituals. Marlow continues to travel through the Congo River and ends up at the 3rd station. There, Marlow finds out that Kurts has gotten crazy because of his ruthless attempts at obtaining ivory, and Marlow declares that Kurts has become a savage himself. Kurts is then taken there, but he has gotten very sick. A Russian that Marlow met asks Marlow to not say anything that could harm Kurts' reputation as the best worker, but Marlow refuses. Later that night, Kurts is found out of bed and on a trail that is headed towards a fire. Marlow convinces Kurts to go back and the next day, all of them leave. While on the way back out of the Congo River, Kurts becomes weaker and weaker until he eventually dies. Marlow leaves the Company because of what he learned throughout the trip, and while he is back home people related to Kurts come and visit. Marlow visits the fiance of Kurts and tell her that his last words were her name, but in reality Kurts' last words were "The Horror". Marlow ends his story there, and the sea has calmed down, allowing the ship to head back to London.
Characters
The main character in this book is Marlow, however, the novel isn't in his perspective. The narrator of this story doesn't even have a name, and is also listening to Marlow's story just like the reader. After Marlow meets Kurts, he finds that Kurts has been turned into a savage because of the horrible ways that Kurts used to obtain ivory. No one back at the Company knows about Kurts' ways of obtaining so much ivory except Marlow.
Opinion
So the beginning of the book was reeeeeally slow for me. And I had some trouble in finding out what was going on. It wasn't until after Marlow made it to the second stop where I found it getting pretty interesting. Although I needed help from SparkNotes to figure out what was going on at some points of the book, I thought that I understood some of the darker meanings and metaphors that really made the book a whole lot darker and interesting to me. By the time Marlow gets to the last station and finds the heads on the posts, I really got into the book. The dark and scary tone it was portraying at that point stood out to me, and I found myself thinking that this is a pretty dark book. When Marlow meets Kurts, it's then that I realized that this book took a whole 180 in what I thought it was going to be. The way that Kurts is described in the beginning of the book, like a great man who everyone should follow, really makes the reveal of how Kurts actually is a LOT more surprising. Just thinking about how mad and crazy Kurts got turns this novel into one of the most twisted books I've ever read.
Although it took some time for me to really get into the book, I thought that Heart of Darkness was overall a decent book. I give it like, a 3.5/5 only because it took FOREVER to get to the good parts, and also because I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't looked up what the deeper meanings of the book were, and what the metaphors were. The symbols and themes were the real things that made me like this book, because it made the book seem darker than how it already was without having to know the meanings to them. However, since I couldn't really figure it out on my own and needed the help of SparkNotes and other tools to know the hidden meanings, I found it very difficult to really understand the deeper meanings. Even now, i'm still a little vague on what some of the symbols were.
So while I was slowly reading this book, I was reading other books as well (The Last Time We Say Goodbye, and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe). Both of these books mentioned Heart of Darkness and both gave positive inputs on it. At first I wondered why such a boring book was mentioned and was thought of as a brilliant and fantastic. But then I realized that both of the other books mentioned how tragic it was, and because of how tragic and sad it was, it was considered as a good book. Heart of Darkness uses the tragic events, and the dark tone to help make this book unforgettable. I figured that it is widely liked because it is dark and horrid. This is also one of the reasons why I actually liked the book; because it impacted me by showing this sort of tone.
Heart of Darkness is not a book that I would read for fun. NOT AT ALL. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, or that I regret reading it. Because I don't. I'm glad I got a chance to read this classic, and that I got to read something I wouldn't normally read. I usually don't enjoy books that we have to read in class, but this was actually surprisingly good.
Opinion
So the beginning of the book was reeeeeally slow for me. And I had some trouble in finding out what was going on. It wasn't until after Marlow made it to the second stop where I found it getting pretty interesting. Although I needed help from SparkNotes to figure out what was going on at some points of the book, I thought that I understood some of the darker meanings and metaphors that really made the book a whole lot darker and interesting to me. By the time Marlow gets to the last station and finds the heads on the posts, I really got into the book. The dark and scary tone it was portraying at that point stood out to me, and I found myself thinking that this is a pretty dark book. When Marlow meets Kurts, it's then that I realized that this book took a whole 180 in what I thought it was going to be. The way that Kurts is described in the beginning of the book, like a great man who everyone should follow, really makes the reveal of how Kurts actually is a LOT more surprising. Just thinking about how mad and crazy Kurts got turns this novel into one of the most twisted books I've ever read.
Although it took some time for me to really get into the book, I thought that Heart of Darkness was overall a decent book. I give it like, a 3.5/5 only because it took FOREVER to get to the good parts, and also because I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't looked up what the deeper meanings of the book were, and what the metaphors were. The symbols and themes were the real things that made me like this book, because it made the book seem darker than how it already was without having to know the meanings to them. However, since I couldn't really figure it out on my own and needed the help of SparkNotes and other tools to know the hidden meanings, I found it very difficult to really understand the deeper meanings. Even now, i'm still a little vague on what some of the symbols were.
So while I was slowly reading this book, I was reading other books as well (The Last Time We Say Goodbye, and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe). Both of these books mentioned Heart of Darkness and both gave positive inputs on it. At first I wondered why such a boring book was mentioned and was thought of as a brilliant and fantastic. But then I realized that both of the other books mentioned how tragic it was, and because of how tragic and sad it was, it was considered as a good book. Heart of Darkness uses the tragic events, and the dark tone to help make this book unforgettable. I figured that it is widely liked because it is dark and horrid. This is also one of the reasons why I actually liked the book; because it impacted me by showing this sort of tone.
Heart of Darkness is not a book that I would read for fun. NOT AT ALL. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, or that I regret reading it. Because I don't. I'm glad I got a chance to read this classic, and that I got to read something I wouldn't normally read. I usually don't enjoy books that we have to read in class, but this was actually surprisingly good.
