Kelly Nelson
Bosch
11-05-07
AP English Lit -12-4
Heart of Darkness
Date: 10-29-07
Pages: 90-98
#1 "I looked around, and i don't know why, but i assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark,so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." (94).
Marlow comes upon Kurtz's station and meets a Russian man. He sees a black man who's in charge of the wood cutters and feels this way after seeing him, hopeless, and dark. The heart of darkness is everything, the sky, land, jungle, river, it is hopeless and dark. He says it is impenetrable to human thought, and he speaks of the natives in a very dehumanizing way, so they are able to function in their odd sort of way according to the whites. Where as the whites are so unused to this environment they can't function correctly according to their standards at all, and so the heart of darkness is impenetrable to all human thought, therefore. It is pitiless to human weakness, again Marlow is only referring to the whites, because to him the natives seem uphased by the heart of darkness.
#2 :These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing -food for thought and also for vultures..." "...[T]here it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids -a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of teeth, was smiling, too smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber." (97).
At the station Marlow is looking through his binoculars, at Kurtz's house. He saw knobs on poles right under the window's to Kurtz's house only to find out that they were not ornaments, but heads, human heads. Marlow says the are symbolic and expressive. I don't understand how they are symbolic to him specifically.
Date: 10-30-07
Pages: 99-107
"Some pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms- two shot guns, a heavy rifle, and a light revolver-carbine- the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter." (101).
The first sigh Marlow has of Kurtz in the field by the station, he see's him in a stretcher. He is not well, and hardly able to stand on his own, yet he is like a god to these natives. Marlow compares him to the mightiest god in Greek Mythology : Zeus or Jupiter. Kurtz has guns instead of thunderbolts, which make loud noises, and strike to kill just like thunder and lightning.
Pitiful: Marlow does not seem impressed by Kurtz, he doesn't think him worthy of the title of god as the Russian man and the natives do.
#2 "[T]he heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing. Rebels! what would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers, -and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued tome on their sticks." (99).
Marlow was looking at the heads through his binoculars. They are rebells according to Kurtz and the Russian. Marlow doesn't believe it, he thinks that it is ridiculous. People keep giving the natives negative names when they don't cooperate with what the whites want.
Date: 10-31-07
Pages:108-116
#1 "I saw the inconcievable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself." (113).
Marlow is speaking of Kurtz who has nothing to hold him back, yet he still struggles with the morality of it all, of everything that is happening to the natives at the hands of the whites. Kurtz doesn't have religion to give him regret, he doesn't have fear, or restraint, yet Marlow can still see that Kurtz knows what is going on , and what he is doing is wrong, even though the natives love him, he is still stealing from them for his own profit. "struggling blindly with itself" reminds me of the painting by Kurtz . Instead of representing the other agents, it represents himself and his struggle to find out what is morally right; what he's been told all his life, or what he has experianced with the loving natives.
#2"...[T]hey shouted periodically together strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language; and the deep murmurs of the crowd interrupted suddenly were like the responses of some satanic litany." (114)
Marlow describes the natives actions as they take Kurtz away from the heart of darkness, away from the natives and away from the jungle and his station.
Date: 11-01-07
Pages: 117-128
#1 "He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: 'The horror! The horror!'" (118).
Kurtz in his dying moments in his last words, revealed to Marlow what he though about everything, after he recited some of his poetry. Everything about the heart of darkness is horrible, it takes a hold of your soul when you go into the jungle in the congo.
Date: 10-29-07
Pages: 90-98
#1 "I looked around, and i don't know why, but i assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark,so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness." (94).
Marlow comes upon Kurtz's station and meets a Russian man. He sees a black man who's in charge of the wood cutters and feels this way after seeing him, hopeless, and dark. The heart of darkness is everything, the sky, land, jungle, river, it is hopeless and dark. He says it is impenetrable to human thought, and he speaks of the natives in a very dehumanizing way, so they are able to function in their odd sort of way according to the whites. Where as the whites are so unused to this environment they can't function correctly according to their standards at all, and so the heart of darkness is impenetrable to all human thought, therefore. It is pitiless to human weakness, again Marlow is only referring to the whites, because to him the natives seem uphased by the heart of darkness.
#2 :These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing -food for thought and also for vultures..." "...[T]here it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids -a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of teeth, was smiling, too smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber." (97).
At the station Marlow is looking through his binoculars, at Kurtz's house. He saw knobs on poles right under the window's to Kurtz's house only to find out that they were not ornaments, but heads, human heads. Marlow says the are symbolic and expressive. I don't understand how they are symbolic to him specifically.
Date: 10-30-07
Pages: 99-107
"Some pilgrims behind the stretcher carried his arms- two shot guns, a heavy rifle, and a light revolver-carbine- the thunderbolts of that pitiful Jupiter." (101).
The first sigh Marlow has of Kurtz in the field by the station, he see's him in a stretcher. He is not well, and hardly able to stand on his own, yet he is like a god to these natives. Marlow compares him to the mightiest god in Greek Mythology : Zeus or Jupiter. Kurtz has guns instead of thunderbolts, which make loud noises, and strike to kill just like thunder and lightning.
Pitiful: Marlow does not seem impressed by Kurtz, he doesn't think him worthy of the title of god as the Russian man and the natives do.
#2 "[T]he heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing. Rebels! what would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers, -and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued tome on their sticks." (99).
Marlow was looking at the heads through his binoculars. They are rebells according to Kurtz and the Russian. Marlow doesn't believe it, he thinks that it is ridiculous. People keep giving the natives negative names when they don't cooperate with what the whites want.
Date: 10-31-07
Pages:108-116
#1 "I saw the inconcievable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself." (113).
Marlow is speaking of Kurtz who has nothing to hold him back, yet he still struggles with the morality of it all, of everything that is happening to the natives at the hands of the whites. Kurtz doesn't have religion to give him regret, he doesn't have fear, or restraint, yet Marlow can still see that Kurtz knows what is going on , and what he is doing is wrong, even though the natives love him, he is still stealing from them for his own profit. "struggling blindly with itself" reminds me of the painting by Kurtz . Instead of representing the other agents, it represents himself and his struggle to find out what is morally right; what he's been told all his life, or what he has experianced with the loving natives.
#2"...[T]hey shouted periodically together strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language; and the deep murmurs of the crowd interrupted suddenly were like the responses of some satanic litany." (114)
Marlow describes the natives actions as they take Kurtz away from the heart of darkness, away from the natives and away from the jungle and his station.
Date: 11-01-07
Pages: 117-128
#1 "He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: 'The horror! The horror!'" (118).
Kurtz in his dying moments in his last words, revealed to Marlow what he though about everything, after he recited some of his poetry. Everything about the heart of darkness is horrible, it takes a hold of your soul when you go into the jungle in the congo.