Katie Philpott HoD chapter 2

I am so glad to see that Heart of Darkness is finally going somewhere! The first chapter was slow to say the least, and I fell asleep multiple times. It was nice to finally read something that kept my attention.
On page 30, Marlow describes the process of going up the river. I can’t help but relate his description of the area with his earlier description of how England must have looked to the Romans when they first came to the land. The fact that it was like “traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world,” hints at its “prehistoric” nature. The author does this to highlight the nature of the jungle and how dangerous it is. This also shows the overall greed of the white man. They are willing to risk their lives in such a hostile environment all for the sake of money.
Marlow hints at the very real possibility of losing your sanity when he says “When you have attended to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality-the reality, I tell you-fades. The inner truth is hidden-luckily, luckily.” I feel like this is his attempt to show how easy it is to lose one’s grip on reality, especially in such an emotionally and physically straining environment. I also think this is how he justifies the true “heart of darkness.” It isn’t necessarily the Dark Continent itself or the horrific ends to which the white man is willing to go to in order to make a profit. I think the true heart of darkness is when a man loses himself and his grip on reality. He becomes a sort of machine and loses everything that defines who he is.