BLOG ASSIGNMENT #3

1. What is the climax of the story?
2. What was the social commentary?
3. Why did you like/ dislike the novel?

1. The climax of the story is that Kurtz was actually not that good of a person. Marlow heard a lot about Kurtz since the beginning of the voyage and he got to meet him at the Inner Station. Marlow discovered that Kurtz being abandoned, had obtained a lot of uncivilized actions like having greed for ivory, etc. He was beginning to behave like an animal.. When Marlow and his crew went to Africa, they wanted to civilize the people there by looking for Kurtz.

2. I believe that the social commentary of the book is that greed has brought out the worst in people. We don’t realize that greed has taken the best of us so Conrad wrote this book to hint to us what the world has become of. When greed takes over us, we will do anything to get what we want and not care about what we’re doing to other people.

3. I disliked to book because Conrad put so much detail into everything so this gets me pretty bored of the book and it makes me get distracted easily. Whenever I’m reading it, I think to myself, “More details, I’ll just scan through this page then.” Also I disliked it how I didn’t even know when the “adventure” began. Marlow was being introduced to the reader, then all of a sudden, he starts talking about his adventure to Africa.

protagonist - marlow

As I read further into the book, I've learned more about Marlow. He is smart, hard working, and proud of himself and what he has accomplished. There's one part in the book where the navigation up the river as difficult and this gave him the feeling of being cut off from everything else in the world. They've also got attacked by Natives, but Marlow didn't feel worried. I would've been scared. Later on, as he was walking along the trail to find Kurtz, he was reminising about his journey with the knitting women, there were pilgrims shooting rifles into the bush. He then thought he would never get out of the woods. I would not imagine he would feel this way because through out the first part of the book, he seemed strong.

At first, I agreed with the Conrad being "racist" point of view, but after reading Fernando's point of view, I agree with him that this negative portrayal of Africans makes the social commentary stronger. I see the Europeans as people who would punk on any race of people just to get land and just to win. They are the type of people who "gets whatever they want" and if they don't they'll harm anyone in their way. People have always seen African American's as slaves being chained up, etc.

Heart of Darkness - Protagonist.

Charlie Marlow is the main character in this book. After the first few pages of the book, he is speaking in first person. He has been hired as the ships (the Nellie .. right?) captain.He is accompanied by four other people, a company director, an accountant, a lawyer, and Conrad?. He is like a pilot (sunburnt neck, broad shoulders, set of blue clothes) and an idol (sunken cheeks, yellow complexion, straight back, ascetic aspect, arms dropped, palms of hands outwards). He was the only man of many who still followed the sea, but he doesn't represent his class. Being a seaman, he also lead an wanderer's life.

BYE!

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