In Heart of Darkness, the main character so far in the novel is a man named Charlie Marlow. The story starts out with Marlow and four others aboard the Nellie. The other characters are not really mentioned in the story, besides their professions. Marlow is really the only character given a name. There is a narrator who starts the novel, but it then switches to Marlow when he begins to recount his past adventures. The story moves in and out of these two narrators, which provides for a truly unique reading experience. The story feels like a story within a story, which really intrigues me.
The more I read Heart of Darkness; I begin to feel less like a reader, and more like a witness to the events as they unfold. The way Marlow describes the Africans he encounters in the Congo, makes me aware of the time the novel was written. “Now and then a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You see from afar the whites of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks…”I can see how this novel might be seen as being a bit racist, at times describing the Africans not as people but as inhuman beings. However through Marlow’s eyes I realize that he is an explorer, viewing things through a fresh sight.
posted by Christina R.
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What is the difference between being a reader and being a witness? This is a very interesting distinction.
ReplyDeleteDoes Marlow's "fresh sight" excuse his racism? Are you implying that an explorer has a more or less-biased view of new territory? The relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is an extremely important theme in this book and I'd like to see you all explore it.
The difference between being a reader and a witness is that as a witness, you have to be physically present in a time or place and actually witness something. As a reader, you are envisioning (or are trying to envision) the things stated in the book as you read, and are trying to actually convey your mind into the story and mentally become a witness. With the sense of imagery "Heart of Darkness" contains, one can actually feel like a witness present in the story with Marlow or one of his listeners.
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