Marlow has finally reached his destination of Central Station after a long, gloomy, and depressing trip....just to find that his boat is at the bottom of the river. Is it me or is this really ironic?
Marlow, though, spends little time fretting over the ferry, instead he is fascinated by the people that he meets, particularly the manager. There is also a lot of discussion about an elusive, Mr. Kurtz, who has yet to appear in the story in the person.
Mr. Kurtz, as we can surmies, is a very powerful and influential man, known by all, at least by reputation. He is a great artist as well as being in charge of a trading post that produces more ivory than all the others put together. He is expected to rise to great things and to come take the manager's job away.
Marlow has a thing for noting every minute detail about a person, from their appearance to their speech to their actions. This not only shows Marlow's attention to detail, but his wonderful memory.
The gloomy imagery continues in the second part of this chapter, but there is a slight shift in tone, indicating Marlow's views have changed, that he is a little less naive and innocent than he was before. Marlow's outlook, from the beginning, had been of the negative sort, not really seeing the good in much, but now he seems to be less forgiving to tbe people surrounding him, particularly the Africans, which he has taken to insulting.
The second part of chapter one was just as detail-orientated as the first fifteen pages and just as gloomy and dark too.
Wonderful observations, Cassidy. I think too that Mr. Kurtz might be an important character. The second part of this chapter is dark and gloomy, but I feel like it wasn't emphasized nearly as much as it was in the first part of the chapter. I feel like more time was spent discussing fairly random and unnecessary details in this part in contrast to using the word "gloom" too many times in the first part. But great post, I agree with all of it!! :)
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