Heart of Darkness questions please!?

Question

I don't understand Haert of Darkness, whose view point do we see in the begininng and what is the general idea of the story Marlow tells? How is it related to Conrad's real life experiences? ANy other information would be helpful too!

Answer 1

Ok, Heart of Darkness, by Conrad, is a story I had to read here recently for my World Lit II class. Basically, the story begins with Marlow, sitting on a boat, waiting for the tide to turn, on a river that "rested... at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks..."
When Marlow begins to talk, telling his story, he tells of the exploitation of Africa, in the name of imperialism and colonialism, on a journey from many years before.
Marlow is our eyes as we see the results of this doing "good" -- the blacks lying in heaps, the savagery of the clash of a society who is there to "help" the poor Africans, viewing them as inferior, and a people proud and brave. Marlow makes his view apparent, and Conrad through him, when at the end, having found the man he was traveling to see, and his dying, he travels to see the dead mans beloved.
While finding the man to have been pompous, arrogant, and distasteful, when the woman asks Marlow about his death, he says, his last words were of you... It seems Marlow felt pity for her, and was lost in the horror himself. For, indeed, the dying mans last words were, "Oh, the horror!"
In these words, you see, the man is talking of the darkness of humans souls, and of the things that men blindly do in self justification and greed. It is a good story, once you begin to understand.

The story begins to commence from Conrads life; he entered the merchant marine of France at 16; he seems to have enjoyed some covert escapades in Latin America and Spain, where he smuggled guns for "Don Carlos," the claimant of the Spanish throne. He later sailed for England at 20. Eventually he sailed the Congo in the midst of an "infamous chapter" of European Imperialism." He later described it as the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience and geographical exploration." Heart of Darkness, thus, mirrors and evokes his own experiences and beliefs.

You might be interested to know that Heart of Darkness is retold in "Apocalypse Now;" liberties were taken, changing the setting to Vietnam, but it is the same story retold.

Hope this helps. Also, spark notes also has some good summaries. Now if someone would write an analysis of Borges, "Tlon, Uqbar..." for me!!!! I haven't a clue... lol

Answer 2

That is just one horribly compiosed book. I honestly havent read it in a very long time but you can get help from various site s on the web like www.pinkmonkey.com or even cliffsnotes.com