A Heart of Darkness

Before this class I had never read Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, but now I can see why many people find this to be the best written book in our language. The words he brings together create beautiful descriptions and pictures. I found his way of writing to be more interesting than the story, though that to is high-quality.

Conrad has this wonderful gift of drawing the reader into his story. My favorite line by this man can be found on page 70, "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." This was stated by Marlow right before he started his long tail to the other men. Before I read this line I didn't have much interest in the story.

What I found most intriguing about the before mentioned line was that it is pure truth. No matter what there is always fighting, always has been. It's sad to see that we base many things on color and religion. This quote proves to me that the white man had just a ego that others lives didn't matter, self gain is where our hopes lay.

What I found most inspiring about Conrad was his ability to draw pictures through his words and there are a few other quotes that help me step into the world of the Congo:

1. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -- all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. pg 70

2. Though the house was as still as a house in a city of the dead pg 76
3. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. pg 79

4. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be pg 82
5. One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don't know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. pg91

Every line I have listed stuck out to me as being profound. Heart of Darkness, is a work of art. Conrad created a novel of splendid poetic lines of adventure. I sank into the words as if they had attached an anchor to my feet. Africa is rotten but full of character.