Heart of Darkness - Part 2
by Martina

Characters

• The fireman: he was a man who was on the steamboat of Marlow and had the function of feeding the boiler of the steamboat;

• One of the pilgrims: he was the man who, after the death of the helmsman, drove the steamboat for a short time;

• The white men: they were the white men who were on the steamboat with Marlow;

• The black men: they were the black men who were on the steamboat with Marlow;

• The helmsman: he was an athletic black man that had been educated by the predecessor of Marlow;

• The Russian boy: he was a boy that Marlow and his company met on the right side of the river, shortly before arriving at the station of Kurtz.

Settings

The Congo river and the wood
The Congo river:("Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the water-way ran on, deserted, into the gloom of over-shadowed distances. On silvery sand-banks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once -- somewhere -- far away -- in another existence perhaps.) pag. 47
On the shores of the Congo river there was the wood, a dark place where the greater part of the cannibals lived, it was the place from where the stranger sounds arrived, but was also an attractive, involving, and mysterious place where the people who advanced towards the inside didn’t know what and who they were going to meet.

Summary

Marlow, after reconstructing the steamboat, started his trip to reach Kurtz. During the travel he told about all that he saw (the black men, the landscape etc,) but above all he gave his impressions on all that he saw. Some fifty miles from the station of Kurtz, Marlow and his company found the sign-board with the writing “Wood for you. Hurry up. Approach cautiously”, and they saw also that it was signed with an illegible word that wasn’t Kurtz, because it was a much longer name. Marlow got down from the steamboat and saw a book entitled “An inquiry into some points of seamanship”, and while he was approaching to take it, the director immediately shouted he had to come back. So Marlow, frightened, rushed quickly to the steamboat and carried the book with him. They continued the travel and most of the times he had to face the fog. About a mile and half from the station of Kurtz, they found a grassy islet in the middle of the river and, not knowing where to go, they decided to continue towards the west. During the travel they met some trunks in the river and so they were forced go slowly to avoid them. At a certain point they saw some arrows of wood arriving at the steamboat, then the helmsman tried to defend themselves with an unloaded carbine . The helmsman was hit with an arrow and died, so,
after his death , Marlow was forced "to drive" the steamboat. After two months of navigation they saw a building and they thought that it was the station of Kurtz, then Marlow took the binoculars and saw that it was really the station that they were looking for. Marlow and his company found a Russian boy on the right side of the river and they went up on the steamboat. Marlow and the boy spoke of Kurtz and then Marlow showed the book that he had found and the boy said that was his.

Personal comments

While reading this book what has struck me have been the detailed descriptions of the village, the wood, the sky etc, because according to me the author wants to involve us through such descriptions and to make us the true protagonists of the story besides Marlow, as in the first part of the book, when he describes everything in the minimum details just in order to make us understand the sentiments and the emotions that he and his company are feeling. Another thing that has made me curious has been on page 65 of the book when Marlow describes the helmsman wounded with an arrow, because I have noticed in that description all the altruism and the goodness of Marlow that, according to me, was difficult to show in that situation. Sometimes Marlow describes cruel scenes that, in my opinion, have the function to make us understand the horror and the difficulties that he and his company were facing, but there are also more serene and calm scenes. I have noticed also that in this book the descriptions aren’t very long. In fact, Conrad makes us understand all the scenes with a few words. When I have read some of his descriptions it seemed to me they were like photos, that is some descriptions
were made as in the light of a the flash; instead in other books, as for example the ones of Stephen King, the descriptions are longer and more articulated. Finally a negative note is, according to me, the stillness of the development of the events in the second section, unlike the first section that is more dynamic.

Relevant quotations

• “The man had rolled on his back and stared straight up at me; both his hands clutched that cane. It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side, just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing lustre. The fusillade burst out again. He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away from him. I had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering.” pag. 65
  
  I have chosen this passage because the it describes moment for moment all the the things seen by Marlow and it seems that we are watching the scene of a film.
   

• “… As soon as I had put on a dry pair of slippers, I dragged him out, after first jerking the spear out of his side, which operation I confess I performed with my eyes shut tight. His heels leaped together over the little doorstep; his shoulders were pressed to my breast; I hugged him from behind desperately. Oh! he was heavy, heavy; heavier than any man on earth, I should imagine. Then without more ado I tipped him overboard. The current snatched him as though he had been a wisp of grass, and I saw the body roll over twice before I lost sight of it for ever…” pag. 72
  
  In this extract I have noticed all the courage of Marlow. In fact I think that nobody in the world would have had the courage to touch his dead friend.
   

• "Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the water- way ran on, deserted, into the gloom of over-shadowed distances. On silvery sand-banks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once -- somewhere -- far away -- in another existence perhaps.” pag. 47
  
  It seems that the author isn’t describing a concrete landscape but that he is describing a painted picture.
   

• “They were discoloured, just awash, and the whole lot was seen just under the water, exactly as a man's backbone is seen running down the middle of his back under the skin.” pag. 61
  
  The author makes this simile when he describes some patches of the river. According to me it is important because it makes us understand that the travel, that Marlow and his company have faced, has been simple but it has turned out difficult for the presence of these patches.
  
  
  By Martina