Term Papers on Heart Of Darkness

Term Paper Title	Heart Of Darkness
# of Words	1501
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6

Heart of Darkness

                                                  11-27-94
                                                  Ewrt1B

The Horror!

     In Heart of Darkness it is the white invaders for instance, who are, almost without
     exception, embodiments of blindness, selfishness, and cruelty; and even in the
     cognitive domain, where such positive phrases as "to enlighten," for instance, are
     conventionally opposed to negative ones such as "to be in the dark," the traditional
     expectations are reversed.  In Kurtz's painting, as we have seen, "the effect of the
     torch light on the face was sinister" (Watt 332).
Ian Watt, author of "Impressionism and Symbolism in Heart of Darkness," discusses about
the destruction set upon the Congo by Europeans.  The destruction set upon the Congo by
Europeans led to the cry of Kurtz's last words, "The horror! The horror!"  The horror in
Heart of Darkness has been critiqued to represent different aspects of situations in the
book.  However, Kurtz's last words "The horror! The horror!" refer, to me, to magnify
only three major aspects.  The horror magnifies Kurtz not being able to restrain himself,
the colonizers' greed, and Europe's darkness.
     Kurtz comes to the Congo with noble intentions.  He thought that each ivory
station should stand like a beacon light, offering a better way of life to the natives.  He
was considered to be a "universal genius": he was an orator, writer, poet, musician, artist,
politician, ivory producer, and chief agent of the ivory company's Inner Station.  yet, he
was also a "hollow man," a man without basic integrity or any sense of social
responsibility.  "Kurtz issues the feeble cry, 'The horror! The horror!' and the man of
vision, of poetry, the 'emissary of pity, and science, and progress' is gone.  The jungle
closes' round" (Labrasca 290).  Kurtz being cut off from civilization reveals his dark side.
Once he entered within his "heart of darkness" he was shielded from the light.  Kurtz
turned into a thief, murderer, raider, persecutor, and to climax all of his other shady
practices, he allows himself to be worshipped as a god.  E. N. Dorall, author of "Conrad
and Coppola: Different Centres of Darkness," explains Kurtz's loss of his identity.

     Daring to face the consequences of his nature, he loses his identity; unable to be
     totally beast and never able to be fully human, he alternates between trying to
     return to the jungle and recalling in grotesque terms his former idealism.  Kurtz
     discovered, A voice! A voice!  It rang deep to the very last.  It survived his
     strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his
     heart....  But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it
     had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive
     emotions, avid of lying, fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success
     and power.  Inevitably Kurtz collapses, his last words epitomizing his experience,
     The horror! The horror! (Dorall 306).
The horror to Kurtz is about self realization; about the mistakes he committed while in
Africa.
     The colonizers' cruelty towards the natives and their lust for ivory also is
spotlighted in Kurtz's horror.  The white men who came to the Congo professing to bring
progress and light to "darkest Africa" have themselves been deprived of the sanctions of
their European social orders.  The supposed purpose of the colonizers' traveling into
Africa was to civilize the natives.  Instead the Europeans took the natives' land away from
them by force.  They burned their towns, stole their property, and enslaved them.
"Enveloping the horror of Kurtz is the Congo Free State of  Leopold II, totally corrupt
though to all appearances established to last for a long time" (Dorall 309).  The conditions
described in Heart of Darkness reflect the horror of Kurtz's words: the chain gangs, the
grove of death, the payment in brass rods, the cannibalism and the human skulls on the
fence posts.

     Africans bound with thongs that contracted...

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