So far, Heart of Darkness has proven to be a bit of a challenge to get into. It's alot of detail and description, so much so, that I find myself extremely confused. It's definatly a sophistacated piece of literature and it takes a lot of effort for me to keep up with. I really have to sit down and concentrate to get what's going on.
I can't deny either, it's a bit of a bore so far, but I won't judge yet, we've only just begun. But, Marlow really talks to much! The narrator says so, and I definatly agree! He says that Marlow tells a lot of stories that lead to nowhere, and that honestly made me feel like "Ughhh, wel then why am I reading all his nonsense story". I'm curious as to whether Conrad intended to make you feel that way while listen to Marlow or if he had some other motive. Maybe by having the narrator give us his opinion on the story as well as have Marlow drone on a lot, he is characterizing Marlow. If so, I already hate him. :D
One scene though, really got me interested. Starting on page 83 and ending on page 84. His experience in the wood with all of the dying black men. The description actually scared me as I read. He used so much detail that I could put myself in Marlow's shoes.
"One, with his chin propped on his knees, started at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner: his brother phantom rested its forhead, as if overcome with a great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or pestilence."
This detailed description of the setting really put me in the scene and succeeded in making me feel complete horror. I'm quite confident that this he intended, maybe making a statement about the horrible treatment and torture that we white men put upon these african people. We brought our diseases and our weapons and forced them to try and accept it, and we ended up doing tons of damage. It seems like Conrad is strongly against racism.
Although I've yet to really find much interest in the novela, I'm approaching it ready to find more scenes like the one I mentioned to keep me into it!!
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You're obviously not alone on that part - there's a too much description. Maybe the narrator (or Conrad himself) really did want the reader to feel the same way that he did listening to Marlow's, sometimes, babbling. That way if we suffer through all of the unnecessary parts, we might get to something interesting, like the part with the African workers from the company dying. Hopefully there will be more interesting parts to come.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the passage on pages 83 and 84 is powerful. I think that this use of imagery and sophisticated language is really one of Conrad's strong points. Even though it may challenge our attention span, it is also stimulating. He makes it easy to feel as if you were there as the story was unfolding.
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