HoD Post - Chapter 1, Part 2

In part two, Marlow has finally reached the Central Station, and quickly immerses himself in his surroundings. When first introduced to this new setting, one may take note of Marlow’s child-like instincts of being overwhelmed with the new environment. He appears to have an obsession with of the people that he interacts with on this trip and at the station, from the white accountant to the brick maker and every character in between.

Throughout his encounters with the accountant, manager, and brick maker, one name reappears, Mr. Kurtz. Although Mr. Kurtz has not yet been physically introduced to the reader, we can only image how mysterious and influential of a person he must be. Ever character who Marlow meets has nothing to say but good things about Mr. Kurtz. He is described as an “exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the company,” and being a “remarkable person.” The general manager, even comments on how influential Mr. Kurtz is though he is set to take the manager’s position. Other depictions of Mr. Kurtz include his artistic ability, seen in the remarkable painting that is found to be dark and notable to Marlow. The painting, for me, is comparable between the darkness of the art and the darkness of the tone in the first chapter. This connection is further enhanced with Marlow’s perception and obvious reflection on the piece and it’s characteristics.

Although Marlow admits at the end of the chapter that he is not “very interested in him” (Kurtz), throughout the entire chapter ever occasion where his name is brought up brings perked ears and full attention to any dealings concerning this mysterious man.

Section two is also able to reveal Marlow’s comfortableness that is being gained as the story ventures on. Not only have his opinions of the African people appeared to change, but he begins to participate in acts influenced by pressure, perhaps, when confronted with others who raise interest in him and his connection with Europe (like the brick maker and rivets conversation). Has Marlow become too comfortable?

E.C. Post: Light vs. Dark

In his story Barn Burning, William Faulkner employs light/dark and white/black imagery to highlight Abner's actions and emotions. Darkness is a symbol of mystery, not knowing what will happen simply because we use our eyes to understand our surroundings. Faulkner uses this darkness and black night to signify the evil, mystery, and crime of Abner constant barn burning. Anytime any abuse or hurt occurs in the story, black and darkness is present. Moving away from the symbolizing the night, the darkness can also be found in Abner's being and soul. This blackness symbolizes Abner's lack of clarity. His constant disgust with the wealthy has made him into someone who does not really care for anything but revenge.

The lightness corresponds with the fire contrasting against the dark night's sky. In this fire carries Abner's burning emotions for revenge. The white heat and lightness carries a significance of being pure and without sin; ironic because the barns were being set on fire through hatred. The revelation and purity that Faulkner disguises into the burning of barns also signifies Abner trying to start a new being although, in many cases, it is not to his families advantage.

On the spectrum of color, black and white are polar opposites. Abner finds himself in the middle between the two shades, neither completely good or evil. Faulkner even refers to Abner as being “gray” and metaphorically dead, highlighting Mr. Snopes' lack of clarity and obsession with revenge. At the end of the story, Faulkner contrasts black and white. After Abner is shot during the night, his son Sarty exits during the dawn. This transition connotes Sarty's new life (ironically resulting from death) away from barn burning and away from the constant tyranny of his father.

And the Darkness continues

Prior to reading the second section of chapter one I was somewhat unsure of what to expect: would the somber and gloomy tone of the first section continue, or would Conrad completely alter his previous tone by finding light in the inevitable darkness of the story? My question was quickly answered when Marlow first encountered the accountant. Marlow's first impression of the accountant was that he was a fairly well-kept man that wore nice, clean clothes and was prompt on his work. As Marlow spent more time with the accountant, it became clear that this man was only interested in achieving more wealth for himself. His actions were completely selfish -- while black men were dying all around him, all he had to say about the situation is that their groans were distracting him from getting his work accomplished in a timely manner.

As the section progresses, it becomes more evident that all the white men Marlow has the pleasure of meeting are only interested in their selfish ways of living and are completely set on gaining more wealth by traveling. The men Marlow communicated with seemed to have a rather manipulative and condescending vibe about them. The accountant, for example, tended to act irritated and exasperated when having to speak to Marlow, as if he didn't have the time or patience to talk to him because he had better things he could be doing. Throughout Marlow's conversation, it seems that in all of his descriptions he is able to find both good and bad things in people. This leads to the assumption that Marlow believes that everyone has darkness within them.

While this section focuses mainly on Marlow's encounters with the accountant, manager, Mr. Kurtz (who he never actually met), and the fat man, we are suddenly forced to shift our attention to Marlow's sunken boat. After traveling for so long and after finally reaching his destination, Marlow discovers that his boat has been flipped and sank in the water. Irony seems to ring true, huh? But what strikes me as odd is that he simply brushes this news off as if it isn't all that important. He does, though, attempt to repair his boat which ends up being irreparable. Even so, he is still unaffected by the situation and goes on with his content life in the darkness of the situation.

i h8 darkness

in this section Marlow finally reaches the central station up the river. this trip, to my predictions, was against the current being that it flows out of Africa towards the ocean, which in turn makes the trip proceed at an extremely slow pace which puts emphasis on the things he saw on the way. unexpectedly, by the time he arrived his steamboat had been sunk which just seems like a bunch of bad luck.

soon after he realizes that his boat was mostly underwater Marlow sees a grass hut burning which leads him into finding the "brickmaker" by which he engages into a long conversation mostly about a man named Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz intrigues me as a character. he is claimed to actually be a "prodigy" ,by the "brickmaker", of art, specifically in paintings. Marlow seems as a celebrity would (not exactly a loved celebrity though to some people), yet mysterious, which is what compels the interests of the many people. Marlow seems skeptical towards Kurtz from the way he doesnt care about the cruelness he indirectly treats the African salves with. but now Marlow has seemed to change from the beginning of the trip; now he is used to the treatment of the Africans as compared to the beginning where he has never seen anything like it and was essentially innocent. he almost is becoming blind to it, which could be symbolic to the "darkness".

It was very tedious to read this second half of chapter one because it was 98% details.

I'm starting to get a heart of darkness...

I swear, this book is bringing out such a variety of undesired, negative emotions in me. Just to list a few: frustration, confusion, disgust, pity, boredom, anger, annoyance. The majority of characters that have been introduced so far are greedy, pathetic, and indifferent snobs. Particularly the fleshy “white companion” Marlow traveled with over hill and dale for two hundred miles really tugged at my last nerve. I would never be able to endure an arduous journey like that with such a wuss of a man that required you to “hold your own coat like a parasol” over his needy, flaccid body. His proud admission to having been driven to the extreme wilderness of Africa by the insatiable desire “to make money, of course” paired with his superfluous weight caused me to mentally place him as a shade in the Third Circle of Hell as depicted in Dante’s Inferno; the level at which gluttons are punished with eternal foul, slushy rain.

Further reading and discovery of equally as revolting new characters encouraged my connection of the various characters to the shades representative of certain sins encountered in Inferno. For example, the manager is obviously not the most cunning of people but “inspired uneasiness” and seems generally corrupt. He would fit perfectly as a shade of falseness and treachery in the Eighth Circle.

As for this mystery man Mr. Kurtz, he could be compared to as Satan, who in the Inferno, seemed ever present, the awaited grand finale. Mr. Kurtz has so far been described in legendary vagueness but apparent greatness. He is the brains behind the whole operation occurring in the Congo and it is my assumption that like Satan, he will be none other than an egotistical swindler.

Who is Mr. Kurtz Really?

This second part of chapter one shows a shift in Marlow's character. At the beginning, Marlow was appalled at the brutality of this imperial system he has never encountered before. He is very focused on this new life of his and is trying to experience as much of the new things as possible. But in this second section, the system of imperialism is no longer new to him. He has been around it for awhile and has begun to become accustomed to it. This shows through as he travels towards the Central Station, where he shows a loss of all abandon and care for the African people and how they are being treated. This is then enhanced by the fact that he nonchalantly shrugs off the fact that his boat has been submerged. Marlow begins to realize that this is just the way things are and that he simply has to deal with them, even if he doesn't agree with them.

Another important aspect of the story arises in this section: Mr. Kurtz. This man appears elusive to Marlow, yet, through the dialogue of the other characters, Marlow understands the power that Mr. Kurtz has. He is a man who almost becomes a legend to Marlow because of his power and mysteriousness. However, Marlow does not see any true component of Mr. Kurtz as substantial. This correlates directly with his comparison of the people he meets in the station. Marlow describes these people as “paper mache,” and “hollow.” I think this may relate to how everyone wants to fill Mr. Kurtz position when he is finally promoted. Mr Kurtz is empty and hollow, similar to how his position will be soon. Also, I think that this “hollow” personality may, as we find out more about Mr. Kurtz, his official job in Africa, and his imperialistic system, describe a possible callous attitude towards the Africans that is accented by an unending feeling of greed. I think that Mr. Kurtz is a man who is hollow because he feels no remorse or feelings for the Africans that he treats poorly and is only focused on money, with no important or valuable characteristics or traits. It seems almost as though Mr. Kurtz may have a heart of darkness..... probably not but it was worth a shot.

Hm, TMI.

Marlow goes detail CRAZY in this part of chapter 1. He tells of every single detail about a person he meets, sometimes (quite often) going a little overboard on the amount of description. However, I feel like this is significant in showing that he was greatly interesting and intrigued by the people he was meeting at the station. In the first half of the chapter, the center of the story revolved around gloom and darkness, often filling sentences with hose words exactly. While there was still evident gloom in this second part, I noticed a shift in the tone, from completely negative energy to an unknown energy, kind of like an adrenaline from being somewhere new. The emphasis on this second part of the chapter is now about the new people he meets and the descriptions of the place he is in.s

The descriptions of the station often come in rambling outbursts, along with other thoughts coming from Marlow's mind. Again, random and not vital information to the story is being told, but somehow this strikes me as significant in how insignificant it seems. His attention to detail has got to mean something in the long run or else the outburst of information would not have occurred.

Also, I find it ironic that after the journey he has taken so long to tell about that his boat sinks. After all that, wouldn't you think he would be SO angry? It seems strange and does not fit in with what I would expect, which also leads me to think these descriptions and fascination he has with the people he meets must be significant to the story.

Stuff about things

While the vast majority of my last blog was nothing more than mad ramblings clumsily assembled to masquerade as a coherent thought about the darkness within the book. So in this blog post after many hours of careful deliberation I have decided to ramble to myself (and Neri) about the importance of light within the small portion of the book I read. Now what motivated my apathetic ass to look deeper in to this subject is the fact that in most non-Heart of Darkness stories light is customarily represent purity and infoulablity, but in this story it seems to represent the illusion the white people try to create of having a perfect benevolent utopia. The first piece of evidence for this thought has to be the disheveled supply room at company station. Marlow points out the light that seems to illuminate the room as though it were an object of beauty and something to be venerated, but in reality the room is loathsome and [expletive deleted]y. But still kind of relevant to my light shenanigans, are my mad thoughts on how light relates to the dark thought the book. Aside from seeing as how light points out flaws I also see as representing that is known and tangible. We should know by know that absolutely nothing on this planet is “perfect” and the light reflects reality. But back to the point I am sloppily trying to make, because the dark represents complete flawless mystery but the light show the fundamental flaws of our own shallow reality.

Shine the light so the shadows may spread.

Marlow furthers my thoughts of him as a pseudo-Virgil figure by figuratively going deeper into the “heart of darkness”, where he is now at Central Station where his boat has already been wrecked before he got there. The wreck itself seems to be pretty significant to the story line, but what meaning could Conrad have for it? “I did not see the real significance of that wreck at once, I fancy I see it now, but I am not sure.” (Pg.18). this seems to imply that the entire experience in Africa is so dark that not even hindsight is 20/20. What could this be foreshadowing that would be so bad as to black out Marlow’s memory. Marlow is quite the intriguing figure in my opinion. Every time that I pick this book up I am more interested in his thoughts and how he perceives the land.

The wreck of the boat itself can be fleshed out to a much higher extent however there is much more to be discussed here. While Marlow is in the station itself he seems to detest the white men that are there, he describes the manager as “He had no learning or intelligence.” (18) however, he also contradicts that as saying that the manager had something shadowy about him that couldn’t completely be ascertained by simply studying the man. Many things about the manager seem almost judgmental and otherworldly. He made a round table when annoyed by a fight about precedence amongst white people. This gives hint to the idea that he believes in equality where his negro was given the task to “treat the white men, under his very own eye [the manager’s], with provoking insolence.” So is the manager a sort of Devil’s advocate? To sort of rub in the face of the whites that the black man is still equal even though still under a servitude, or even a comment on how the white people under the manager are also slaves in their own sense?

Ch. 1 Pt. 2

In this second part of chapter one it seems that Marlow starts to not relate literally almost everything to darkness and gloom, although these words are still mentioned numerous times throughout the text. Rather than looking at the landscape and the river the whole time, Marlow continuously explains into great detail the people he meets at the Central Station, down to what their nose looks like, and what they do with their ridiculously long, unmanageable beards.

Marlow is a very spacey guy, and will randomly break out into rambling descriptions about how disgusting the land smells, or what the moon looks like on the water while he leans against his dismantled ship while someone tries to come up and talk to him. He seems a bit skeptical towards everything so far in his journey, and doesn't really know what to think of the people or places that he encounters, that's why i think he is always so judgmental on the new places and faces he sees.

The irony breaks loose when we find that after his long journey on foot to the central station that his boat lies on the bottom of the river some miles away. Normally a person whose boat has been sunk would be flipping out on the people who did it, but Marlow doesn't seem to care that much about his bottomed out boat. Even when he cannot seem to muster enough rivets to repair his hull all he does is lean against his landed ship at the station and observe the landscape in all its darkness and mystery.