Heart of Darkness Response #1

With much of this book so far, I have been spending more time trying to figure out the language of the author versus what is actually going on in the story. I have heard much about the book in regards to the difficulty of the reading; however, I did not expect it to be on the much higher level of language usage that it is on. Truthfully, any type of notes I have the ability to see have been helping me through my struggle of understanding the language. Although, I do think that the second set of pages we have to read (10-21) did not seem as struggle as the first set (pages 3-10). I think maybe it was because the first set of pages assigned caught me off guard.

As Marlow is telling this story, he mentions much detail of the interactions he has had between many people including the doctor, his aunt and Mr. Kurtz. He also talks about the contrast of the white and black, let alone does he mention what he sees happening to the black people.

At the doctor’s office, the doctor tells Marlow “I am not such a good as I look…” (page 11). That was the doctor’s response to when Marlow told him that he was surprised at him for not going out “there”. It is obvious that the place of Africa does not seem an actual place of interest for this doctor. He also tells Marlow that he never sees the men again after they go off to Africa, foreshadowing the fact that they either do come back dead or they do not come back at all because they are dead.

On page 17, Marlow says, “They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom”. Here he is talking about the black workers dying and how they were not really bad people, they were hard workers who were tortured terribly and now they are gone and black shadows. These black shadows, the now dead black workers, were starved, sick, and confused.