End of Heart of Darkness

I have now finished Heart of Darkness and I have a few thoughts about the book as a whole.  First, as I mentioned in my first post, the imagery was fantastic and continued to be so throughout the entire book.  Second, the storyline was slightly challenging to follow.  I'm not sure if it was because the book was written around the turn of the century or if it was because Marlow was speaking to an unknown "narrator" who was then relaying the story on to the reader, but I found the storyline a bit hazy.  After I completed the book I read the sparknotes and shmoop summaries and found that I had followed the storyline fairly well but things still seem a bit hazy.  My final thought is about Mr. Kurtz.  The aura surrounding Mr. Kurtz was a fascinating thing to read.  While this aura being set up by Conrad may have contributed to the confusingness of the book, I think it worked beautifully to portray Mr. Kurtz as this god-like, evil and secretive figure.  The appearance of Mr. Kurtz in the last third or so of the novel made the novel much easier to complete as I felt it dragged a touch in the middle.  The one thing I found the most fascinating about Mr. Kurtz is how the aura surrounding him convinced his fiancée that he was a good man despite this being the contrary.  This was incredibly apparent when she came to see Marlow a year after Kurtz's death and still was mourning the loss of a "great" man.

Beginning of Heart of Darkness

I have read the first 16 pages of Heart of Darkness and I have taken away one major thing from Conrad's work.  His imagery thus far has been fantastic.  His description of the Thames, Marlow making his way to find the Belgian company and Marlow's first experience climbing the hill and meeting the accountant in the Congo are fantastic.  Conrad's imagery does an exemplary job of implanting the reader into the seen.  He describes every bit of every thing in the scene.  For example, when Marlow first arrives in the Congo, Conrad describes how all the natives looked and delved deeper than their physical appearance to Marlow's observations of how they seemed to feel mentally about thier state.  This writing allows the reader to feel present in the events of the novel and engages the reader making the reader want more.