Nicole's Entry on Part II of Heart of Darkness

After reading Part II, I more so understand why Conrad incorporated the tedious parts he did into Part I. This is a journey of how a man, (Marlow), seems to be the only one left with some liveliness inside of him, but his surroundings continue to bring him down. On page 106, Marlow speaks of how the view from the steamboat made him think of the past, "Trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once - somewhere - far away - in another existence perhaps. There were moments when one's past came back to one, and it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself." From this, the listener gets the idea that this is a good thing, the traveler has not forgotten his past. One would think that the traveler's past must be innocent compared to the idea of work the man is on his way to contribute to. But then Marlow says, "But it [a memory] came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remember with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence." That was Marlow's way of admitting that he was scared about where he was going to be living and working for a while, even his old thoughts were too overwhelming for him to think about. That quote is yet another of Marlow's inconspicious thoughts. We have to read imbetween the lines to find out what Marlow truly thinks about a situation, because so far, he has never blandly told the listeners how he feels.

Knowing that Marlow is not only telling the story to the reader, but to a crew of men, (who apparently are mostly not awake or even listening), informs us that Marlow will speak less of how he truly feels. He doesn't want the other men to know if he was scared or not, or depressed like the man before him was. Maybe Marlow wanted to kill himself just as one of the men before him did. We the readers, are these men on that boat, except we're listening much more intently. But we cannot listen to every single word exactly, we need to dig deeper to find out what Marlow wouldn't tell his men.

What Marlow said on page 108 was a way of Conrad revealed his idea on imperialism. "We penetrated deeper and deeper into the hart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the reiver and remain sustined faintly, as if hovering in the air over our head, till the first break of day. Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we could not tell." I think Conrad added this to inform the reader that he thinks there is a "curtain" seperating the natives and the whites for a reason. This also signifies that he believes the whites are ignorant of many things about the natives. The white men don't even know what the natives' music is for. Just like in part one Marlow did not know the meaning of the rope tied around the native's neck.

The journey is also so ominous (as Marlow has said many times), like the "curtain of trees," that it is like a warning for the whites not to enter. I believe Conrad was once were Marlow was, just to make some money and experience the sea at the same time, and was just as ignorant of how inhumane these whites treated the natives.