In my opinion, chapter 2 was much more exciting than the first chapter in the fact that it went into such great detail. Marlow seems to have grown up a lot from when he first went to Africa. Conrad uses vivid imagery in this story, so when Marlow is describing the landscape you can picture it perfectly. It does not sound like a fun or happy place to be. It sounds dirty and miserable, with no happiness or cleanliness. Marlow has grown in his opinions and thoughts of the Africans, of Kurtz, and of his leaders. He begins to think that Kurtz is not worth dying for and that his entire expedition will be for nothing, since he sees Kurtz as spoiled like a “princess.”
Marlow does not respect the Africans, but in a way he understands them. He listed the cannibals as hard workers, and they surprised him. They never ate human meat in front of him and they never once tried to kill and eat him or any of his crew during the journey to find Kurtz. He saw a group of Africans on the shore at one point that were dancing and yelling. He did not bother them and did not feel the need to stop. Later on in the chapter, Marlow and his crew were attacked by an angry group of Africans that were only doing it because they were trying to protect themselves. It killed one man on board, but they kept going up the river to find Kurtz.
Megan, I agree with you in regards to the second chapter being more exciting. It certainly had a lot more going on. What you mention about the vivid imagery was something that I also picked up quite often. The dark, negative images he creates seems to deter the reader from ever going to Africa, in my opinion. The oppressive and fearful atmosphere he creates are pretty scary. I also agree, somewhat, with your view about the Marlow's view of the Africans. I believe that he respects and understands them, especially the cannibals, but he still believes himself to the be superior. This is exemplified through his actions of throwing his shoes before throwing the dead slave over the ship.
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