Colorful

The color imagery in Song of Solomon really stood out to me in the beginning of the book. Robert Smith had a "little yellow house" (3). He had his "wide blue wings" stretched around him before he tried to fly away (6). The "red velvet rose petals" scattered around into the snow that would soak "through them" (5). And "white-coated surgeons" work in mercy hospital (7). I already think white must represent something treacherous because Mercy did not allow black patients until they admitted Ruth, and the snow is trying to ruin the red roses that they girls have worked so hard to make. I also think yellow could be something bad because Robert Smith was trying to escape from his yellow house. Escape on blue wings. Blue could be escape and red could represent toil.

Names also caught my attention. I feel like they must be important just because of how much they stand out: First Corinthians and Pilate are clearly biblical allusions. I wonder why it was so important to the whites that Mains Avenue wwas not called Doctor Street. Maybe because they do not want the black doctor to be recognized.

Whatever

Chapter 19 of King Leopold's Ghost gives several examples of murder not mattering to people. Just like the exhibit of the Soviet Union, the exhibit of the Congo has "no hint" of the "millions of Congolese" that died (293). The murder of the Congolese was considered insignificant at the time it happened, so exhibits of the Congo do not display its horror. The Company's nonchalance towards its treatment of the natives in Heart of Darkness shows how little the Europeans thought of the Congolese.

Another similarity between Chapter 19 and Heart of Darkness is European reaction to rebellion. The statues that have "every nail and blade" inserted into them to represent 'retaliation" remind me completely of the heads on poles that Kurtz used to instil fear in the natives. The Europeans were scared of losing power in Africa so they would terrorize the natives to make sure they kept their power.

Women

The women in Heart of Darkness all seem significant to me. I only remember four. The two at the beginning, one of whom "preceded [Marlow] into the waiting-room" (14). She could be important because she kind of marks the beginning of Marlow's journey. However, what I really noticed about Marlow's encounter with her was how he "only...just began to think of getting out of her way" when she "walked straight at [him]-still knitting with downcast eyes" (14). Marlow barely even thought of moving out of her way until she was about to walk into him. His actions made me feel like he thought he was above her. Then, at the very end of the book, we meet the "wild-eyed and magnificent" African woman (113). As Marlow and the crew leave Kurtz's station Marlow blows the steamboat's whistle to scare off the native onlookers, and "only the barbarous and superb woman [does] not so much as flinch, and [stretches] tragically her bare arms after [them] over the sombre and glittering river" (127). This woman seems powerful, steady amidst the terror felt by all around her. Finally, Marlow meets the lady that loved Kurtz. She seems to bring all the grief hat has happened in the novel together through a "feeling of infinite pity" (144). The scene with this lady repeats Kurtz's "very last words" in a "persistent whisper that seemed to swell menacingly" (145). She encompasses all the darkness Marlow has seen through her mourning of Kurtz. The women can be insignificant, powerful, or somber. Yet the men have power of them. Marlow treats the first lady in a way that makes her insignificant. The native is willful, but Kurtz and Marlow still leave her behind making her seem helpless. And Marlow has to save the last woman from overwhelming anguish that would have been "too dark" by lying about Kurtz's last words. Marlow alone lived with the knowledge of the "horror," at least until he told this story to his shipmates.

The End

Someone once told me the only activity proven to make people smarter is reading. I feel like if I could just understand Heart of Darkness a little better I could feel myself getting smarter as I read it. I am obviously no expert on literature but I feel it is the most well written book we have read so far this year and we have read some very well written books. I definitely started noticing black and white imagery more and more as I got towards the end of the book. A few examples really stood out to me when Marlow goes to visit the lady in the Kurtz's painting. "The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness. A grand pianio stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams..." (139). "She came forward, all in black, with a pale head" (139). "That great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness" (142). Even when all is dark around Marlow and this woman they are in the middle of a light because they knew Kurtz.

I really did not understand "The horror! The horror!" (130). Did Kurtz, in death, understand the true horror of the world? Or maybe of his actions?

Bald as Ivory

I am trying to figure out what Marlow thinks of Mr. Kurtz. He talks about Kurtz in different ways, usually making me think he does not respect Kurtz, but sometimes his commentary is not always consistent. His goal is to find find Kurtz, the man who is "grubbing for ivory" in the middle of the "wretched" jungle (77). At this moment, Marlow thinks of Kurtz as a man trying to find ivory by any means neccessary. Marlow's use of the word of "grubbing" gives a negative connotation. I picture a fat, greasy man grubbing at his food, scraping everything he can off his plate.

However, when Marlow starts to think that "Mr. Kurtz is dead...by this time," a "sense of extreme dissapointment" overcomes him for the sole reason that now he cannot have "a talk with Mr. Kurtz" (86). I think Marlow is so dissapointed because he wants to confront the man that seems to encompass everything that he thinks of as the "heart of darkness." Maybe that is why "of all [Kurtz's] gifts the one that [stands] out preeminently , that [carries] with it a sense of real presence, [is] his ability to talk" (86). I think ivory is a symbol of evil in Heart of Darkness. Ivory represents the white man's greed and evil in the novel. Marlow describes Kurtz as "an ivory ball" because of his bald head (87). Conrad turns Kurtz into the ultimate "white" man. His bald appearance actually reflects his personality: greedy and inhumane.

Evil

In Heart of Darkness, the characters seem to have an inner nature of evil. In the moments when they have nothing to lose, their true natures surface. I first noticed this when Marlow talks about the way people respond to hunger. Marlow says, "No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wait it out" (76). Marlow does not see how anyone can withstand the "devilry of lingering starvation" (76). Marlow is actually surprised that the black men on the boat have not turned to cannibalism in an effort to defeat their hunger. Heart of Darkness expresses the idea that black is good and white is bad, contrary to what just about every white man believes during the time Marlow's story takes palce. While Marlow believes any man would eat other humans rather than starve, the black men were able to excercise restraint in this situation, restraint that surprises Marlow. When Marlow threw the dead helmsman overboard it "scandalised" the starving black men, but he only presented a "first-rate temptation" when dead (94-95). The black men are starving, and they would happily eat a dead human, but they are not willing to kill someone to satisfy their hunger. Marlow, who is white, expects them to revolt and eat the rest of the white men.

The evil of human nature also shows itself in the battle between the men on the steamboat and the indigenous people. When the "savages" see the steamboat, they shoot at it. They do not try to make contact with the men on the steamboat and see if they are friendly. They immediately shoot arrows and throw spears. The men on the steamboat of course shoot at the savages in response to the hostile actions. When Marlow asks the harlequin why "they attacked," the harlequin replies "shamefacedly, 'They don't want him to go'" (100). I think the reason they attacked is because of the way Kurtz treats them. He treats them terribly because the nature of man is evil.

Landscapes

This book is pretty depressing. I was having a lot of trouble reading it at first but I am starting to get used to Conrad's style. Conrad's description of the landscape so far throughout the novel strikes me. It chills me sometimes. When Marlow begins his journey he watches the coast slip by before him, "smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, Come and find out" (20). The coast has so many different characteristics, yet it is "almost featureless," with an "aspect of monotonous grimness" (20). Conrad personifies the coast by using a series of varied actions and then juxtaposes them by calling the coast "monotonous." This gives the landscape a mysterious feeling that accompanies Marlow not knowing what to expect on his journey.

Marlow steps into the "gloomy circle of some Inferno" that he soon discovers to be "the grove of death" (27, 32). The "uninterrupted, uniform" noise of the rapids that fills the "mournful stillness of the grove" fits the scene. The people have come to die under this cluster of trees. The steady yet gloomy noise of rapids reflects the fact that these people are waiting for their inevitable deaths.

Marlow discovers that "there was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine" (60). Typically the thought of bright sunlight evokes happiness in a reader, but the excruciating brightness of the sun and the already miserable environment in which Marlow has to bear its rays make it painful. Conrad's contrast with the typical idea of sunlight grabbed my attention. Even sunlight causes sadness in the heart of darkness.