Heart Of Darkness 7
Man's Journey into Self in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now
Inherent inside every human soul is a savage evil side that remains repressed by society. Often this evil side breaks out during times of isolation from our culture, and whenever one culture confronts another. History is loaded with examples of atrocities that have occurred when one culture comes into contact with another. Whenever fundamentally different cultures meet, there is often a fear of contamination and loss of self that leads us to discover more about our true selves, often causing perceived madness by those who have yet to discover.
The Puritans left Europe in hopes of finding a new world to welcome them and their ...
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occurrences of this century. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi counterparts conducted raids of the ghettos to locate and often exterminate any Jews they found. Although Jews are the most widely known victims of the Holocaust, they were not the only
targets. When the war ended, 6 million Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, and others targeted by the Nazis, had died in the Holocaust. Most of these deaths occurred in gas chambers and mass shootings. This gruesome attack was motivated mainly by the fear
of cultural intermixing which would impurify the "Master Race."
Joseph Conrad's book, The Heart of Darkness and Francis Coppola's movie, Apocalypse Now are both stories about Man's journey into his self, and the discoveries to be made there. They are also about Man confronting his fears of failure, insanity, death, and cultural contamination.
During Marlow's mission to find Kurtz, he is also trying to find himself. He, like Kurtz had good intentions upon ...
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tells us "his... nerves went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rights, which... were offered up to him (Conrad, 208)," meaning that Kurtz went insane
and allowed himself to be worshipped as a god. It appears that while Kurtz had been isolated from his culture, he had become corrupted by this violent native culture, and allowed his evil side to control him.
Marlow realizes that only very near the time of death, does a person grasp the big picture. He describes Kurtz's last moments "as though a veil had been rent (Conrad, 239)." Kurtz's last "supreme moment of complete knowledge (Conrad, 239)," showed him how horrible the human soul ...
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"Heart Of Darkness 7." Essayworld.com. January 24, 2006. Accessed December 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-7/40152.
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