Heart of Darkness Part 2 RapertAP Lit Significant

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Heart of Darkness Part 2 Rapert/AP Lit

Heart of Darkness Part 2 Rapert/AP Lit

Significant Events/analysis • Overheard conversation between manager and manager’s uncle: fervent hope that Kurtz

Significant Events/analysis • Overheard conversation between manager and manager’s uncle: fervent hope that Kurtz is destroyed by wilderness-he is competition • Manager tasked with returning Kurtz, but keeps obstructing • “Anything can be done in this country” Uncle= Euros can do ANYTHING here-no checks on power – Marlow=emphasizes w/fear—what does man become when there are “no external checks”? – “…lurking death, profound darkness””=is it heart of land or man?

Significant Events/analysis • Journey down Congo – “travelling back to earliest beginnings of the

Significant Events/analysis • Journey down Congo – “travelling back to earliest beginnings of the world”/ penetrating unknown and untouched (by “civilized man” wilderness/overwhelming silence, size, “brooding” nature= “we were accustomed to look upon the form of a shackled monster, but there…monstrous and free”/timeless and eternal – Man is tiny/ “a sluggish bug between the walls of trees” • M is appalled, awe struck, entranced, terrified, fascinated – Kurtz is “it had taken him, loved him, embraced him…consumed him… [he was] its spoiled and pampered favorite”

Significant Events/analysis • Cries of natives/sightings – Inhuman to some…to M disturbingly haunting, awakened

Significant Events/analysis • Cries of natives/sightings – Inhuman to some…to M disturbingly haunting, awakened an ancient and instinctive kinship. • Longs to join—whites are terrified • Finds TRUTH in cries—the varnish of civilization is thin • Cannibals – Possess restraint, inborn strength – M has great respect – Dead hippo symbolizes wilderness (whites deny but can’t escape it)

Significant Events/analysis • Fog and Attack – Fog = moral and intellectual confusion— note

Significant Events/analysis • Fog and Attack – Fog = moral and intellectual confusion— note men are DEAF and BLIND – Attacked from forest-to keep them away • Arrows vs guns randomly shot • Note: helmsman is “improved” Africancivilized, thus killed by spear. Blood on whites who “improved” him – Marlow immediately rids self of blood (responsibility) in “merry dance of death and trade”

Significant Events/analysis • The Report – “Burning noble words” of idealistic motives to enlighten

Significant Events/analysis • The Report – “Burning noble words” of idealistic motives to enlighten – Eloquent expression of man’s highest capacity – Whites must be as gods to blacks • Kurtz in forest’s “utter solitude” – “Exterminate all the brutes” – Kurtz sets himself up as a god among the natives – Isolation and lack of restraint leads him to become “highest devil” presiding over “unspeakable rites” – Note: similarity to Lucifer (highest angel…desire to be god)

Significant Events/analysis • Comparison – Euros have butcher and police • Shield us from

Significant Events/analysis • Comparison – Euros have butcher and police • Shield us from horrors of real life • Do our dirty work • Protect us from ourselves and our base desires – Kurtz had only solitude • All Europe made Kurtz, therefore does he represent us?

Significant Events/analysis • Russian – Harlequin means demon or clown – Smiles/frowns. He is

Significant Events/analysis • Russian – Harlequin means demon or clown – Smiles/frowns. He is nervous. – Terrified and worshipful towards Kurtz • K enlightened him • Marlow – Disgusted by Kurtz yet transfixed by him