all "Heart of Darkness" Anotations

Pg. 3-11

“Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had an effect of making us tolerant of each others yarns,” (pg. 3). “He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life,”(pg. 6).

17 October 2007

These people are on a ship, where they must work together to survive. They all tolerate each
other in every way. It is like a family, all of them must work together to make it work. The main protagonist is said to be a seaman, whom according to the books are people who live in one place and one place only, and serve the sea. But Marlow is a wanderer, he travels. It means that he does not want to settle and become like everyone else. He drums to his own beat.

“They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it, blind--as is a very popular for those who take a darkness,”(pg. 8).

Its talking about the Romans and what they did to get to where they were. They murdered for things in great numbers. They would hurt anyone blindly as long as they want or got what they wanted. It is like tackling people in the dark, you just go with caring who you attack or kill. These people had no hearts, darkness replaced it. Kind of compared to the sea, it is violent and does not care who it hurts when aggravated because it is unstoppable.

Pg. 11-19

“She was determined to make no end of fuss to get me appointed skipper of a river steamboat, if such was my fancey,”(pg.12). Calamites, “bad panic,”(pg.13). Deserted, mad terror.

18 October 2007

Captain Marlow is telling these five other guys, while they are waiting, stories about how he had gotten to where he is now. He tells how his aunt would do anything for him and how he was sort of in control of her, which says that too much over-confidence leads to failing. The words calamities, and bad panic, deserted, and mad terror talk bout an event, but infer that if Marlow goes around treating people they way he does all there will be is madness and chaos. He will be treated the way the chief was. Maybe not physical, but mentally, darkness will fill his heart.

“It is queer how out of touch women are,”(pg. 19). “I don’t know why-a queer feeling came over me that I was an imposter,”(pg. 19). “Smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, inspired, or savage,”(pg. 19).

Captain Marlow is explaining how they day has come for him to set off on his trip. But in this novel there is a sense of male superiority. For example, when he is with his aunt, he takes her comments as if she knows nothing about what he does and never will. Then feelings of not being ready or not earning a reward, the only reason he got that captain job was because one was dead, so he could have felt that he didn’t earn it, but was given it as a last resort. Those different words are used to show the different emotions going through one’s head when a dangerous situation is coming or will come.

Pg. 19-27

Isolation, uniformed, somberness, truth of things, “You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening,”(pg. 21). “Faces like grotesque masks,”(pg. 21). Oppressive, “I saw the black people run,”(pg.23).

19 October 2007

There is much racism going on in the beginning of this novel. The racial profiling puts these African people in a state of depression and isolation. People see them as savages and point them out by what they can see, the whiteness of different body parts such as eyes. The captain describes them as ugly and black, while he calls the people who are white, people, and not white people. He doesn’t call the black people, people, but puts the title of black to differ them and show them as savages as uncivilized.

“I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, ball all
the stars! These were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men-men, I tell you,”(pg. 25).

The captain sees how some of the Africans are treated, locked down in chains, treated as if they are wild animals, so he compares these poor treated Africans and their masters to other things. He has seen many horrid things, but never none such as these. Marlow describes the masters as devils, to show that the darkness Marlow talks about is in them. They act just like the way they want to get what they desire. They treat the Africans so bad to fell greater, to feel as if they are gods.

Pg. 27-35

“Yes; I respected his collars, his vest cuffs, his brushed hair,”(pg. 28). “But in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance,”(pg. 28). “Did not sting, but stabbed,”(pg. 29).

20 October 2007

Appearance in this novel seems to be a way to depict and sort people. Seems like Marlow has a perspective like many people today that people dressed up nice are civilized and good, those dressed in rags are poor and uneducated. At one point, Marlow says that these huge flies don’t sting, but stab, which might be a connection to the place where he lives. The place seems quiet, but when carefully analyzed, it’s a place that doesn’t hurt and put people down, but a place that tortures and kills. Not a small wound, but a big hole.

“He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it! Uneasiness,”(pg. 34). “Provoking insolence,”(pg. 35).

This quotation explains that there are mutual, good people in this novel. People who do no give a flying flute about thing, and take no sides. This man that Marlow met was an authority figure, or is, and he was or is obeyed, but he gives people no sense of fear nor love. This man represents a figure hat is looked upon as a foundation for the structure of authority in this novel. He is obeyed and listened to, but it seems as if he takes no sides, just does the job and works as a base to keep the job going.

Pg. 35-44

“The word ivory rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed,”(pg. 37). “It has been hopeless from the very first,”(pg. 38). “The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading post where ivory was to be had,”(pg. 39).

22 October 2007

There is a theme in this novel where all that matters to these people that work in this African territory is ivory. To them, they will do anything to get the treasure they desire. It is almost a sin to only think, eat, breath, and sleep ivory. It can be said that the house burning up was almost a sign that goodies are not the only thing in this world that matters. These people desire ivory and need it. It is a drug addiction, sort of a poison that fills the head.

“I believed it in the same way one of you might believe there are such inhabitants on the planet Mars,” (pg. 43). “There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies,”(pg. 44).

People in this novel are not easily gullible to certain things. The know the differences between what is the truth to what is a lie. They have no imagination which goes back to being cold and having a heart of darkness. People who have this don’t believe in anything and have to fun time laughing or even remotely believing a story if the imagination meter is not filled by the power of a heart. When it comes down to lying, people enjoy it, they get a kick out of it. It is a moral thing to do, if one lies, one is moral.

Pg. 44-52

“No sensible man rejects wantonly the confidence of his superiors,”(pg. 45). “Inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone any mere man,”(pg. 46).

23 October 2007

It is saying that no man who want to be great and wants to live in a good-manner lifestyle must respect and listen to the superiors of “high rank” than them. So, if people such as Mr. Kurtz and Marlow do not want to end up as all the poor black people, they better listen to their superiors. The quote (second one) says “feared neither God nor devil, let alone mere man,” which ties in with the title of the book. To have no fear of God means to have no love for him, which mean’s one’s heart cannot get any darker than that. To fear no devil nor man means one is cold and has a heart which cares for on one but themselves.

“Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood,
greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage,”(pg. 50).

The men of the time who are large and in charge are described. It talks about the ways they acted towards others and how their emotions are so expressionless that they intimidate very easily. They talked as cruel buccaneers who rarely talked at all, and when they did, they had a shrill in their voice that, just sounds evil and mean. Cruelness is there middle name.

Pg. 52-60

“Why not? Anything-anything can be done in this country,”(pg. 53). Endanger position, “Out last them all,”(pg. 53). Humanizing, improving, instructing, “Black display of confidence,”(pg. 54).

24 October 2007

Well, it is basically saying that there are no rules whatsoever, that anything can be done. Even if it is an endangering position, who cares? These men think like teenagers today, they think they are invincible to things/life and unstoppable. They humanize, improve, and instruct how and when they want, they show confidence in what they do, but a confidence with a display of cold, darkness, as if they have a heart of darkness. And believe in only ice cube of a heart.

“There was no joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine,”(pg. 55). “looked at you with a vengeful aspect,”(pg. 56). “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness,”(pg. 58).

This novel is so far just been dark and evil. Not even sunshine can brighten up a day, seems like all everyone want to do in this novel is sit and stare with no emotion. Well, the heart of darkness is the forest in which the tribes of Black people live. It can be that is called the heart of darkness either because the tribe is black and have the same colored hearts, or because the men above the steamship hate those people and show hostility towards them.

Pg 60-68

“I assure you to leave off reading was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an old and solid friendship,”(pg. 63). Sober truth, “What did it matter who was manager?”(pg. 64).

25 October 2007

This is the moral part you can say of the novel. Marlow uses a book and subjects such as these to get away from everything around him, and escape. He gets sort of frustrated with the fact that titles such as manager, director are given to people even though others do or work harder than those give the title. We start to see s frustration change in the way Marlow see how folks with the title treat cruelly those without one.

“State of trance,”(pg. 65). Winchester, rotten hippo-meat, half-cooked dough.
When the word Winchester come to mind all that is thought of is death, hate, darkness, despair, and murder. This gun is a great symbol to the story. The story is dark and hateful just like this rifle was. The hippo-meat and half-cooked dough represents the black slaves and how they live in life. There life is like rotten hippo-meat treated badly and with a nasty taste behind it. With the half-cooked dough shows the life lived by the slaves, they live and are treated as half a person, half of nothing, while the white man is full.

Pg. 68-75

“Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with curiosity of their impulses, motives capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity,” (pg. 69).

26 October 2007

This quote ties in with the book very well. It is talking about how it is normal for any person to stare at someone else because of the differences in their appearance. Hence, in this book, they are staring at the black people because of their skin color. To them, it is more like a deficiency that they are not whit, a need that they have to be white. With the “Heart of Darkness,” is what they believe is the heart of the black man, because they are not white.

“I did not think they would attack, for several obvious reasons. The thick fog was one. If they
felt the bank in their canoes they would get lost in it, as we would be if we attempted to move,” (pg. 71).

To me this is a very racial comment toward the natives of the land. Marlow is talking about how they would be stupid to attack if they did because he believes that they wouldn’t be able to beat them because him and his crew have a big boat, while they have canoes. It could also be that fear of losing to someone of poorer class that he is in denial that they will be safe. But just to sound safe, the narrator compares them to themselves to kind of leave that sense that they are being racists and judging towards the natives.

Pg. 75-83

“I couldn’t have felt more lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life,” (pg. 79).

27 October 2007

Throughout this whole novel, being on a ship with a bunch of guys is always kind of lonely somehow. With this quotation, Marlow is saying how he felt desolated, how he felt alone and cold, and how he would had felt more desolation if he would have been robbed of what he believes to be the rest of his life. He believes that being a steamboat captain is his life, and believes that it will always be his life. He also would have felt more desolated if his beliefs were to be shunned and limited the way it is for the black people in this novel.

“He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land-I mean literally. You can’t understand. How could you? With solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by king neighbours ready to cheer you or to fall on you,” (pg.82).

In this quote, Marlow is probably calling the people in charge of the whole operation the “devils,” because they are mean people who treat others wrongly, and he is slowly starting to process what he is seeing and how it is wrong. He is also saying that people’s ignorance is like solid pavement under one’s feet because for it, for the reason of ignorance people are stupid and let others control what they think, kind of like the people, “ready to cheer you or to fall on you.”

Pg. 83-91

“He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, ‘must necessarily appear to them savages in the nature of supernatural beings-we approach them with might as of a deity,’ and so on, and so on,” (pg. 84).

29 October 2007

This quote is from a book Mr. Kurtz wrote in the novel which basically says that white are supreme and that the Africans are nothing but savages and uncivilized, uneducated people. All this book spells out in reality is the ignorance these people have toward the others. All it is saying that the only way Kurtz and the other workers/people can feel superior and grand is by making others seem low and nothing.

“His face was like the autumn sky, overcast one moment and bright the next.”

The person mentioned in this quote, which is probably Kurtz, is saying that this person is kind of bi-polar. The have that intensity to be happy and joyful and okay one moment to being mean, and evil the next. This could sort of mean that this is what living in someone else’s country does to a person. Turns them upside down and full of hate and remorse and also of joy and happiness. If one were to be somewhere they liked, and how people around them that they liked, they
would not be or have a face like the autumn sky.

Pg. 91-99

“If the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this bepatched youth,” (pg. 93).

30 October 2007

Marlow uses this to express his feelings toward the home in which he is now living. He uses this young man sort of like a medium in this quote to tell everyone that where he is living, uncalculating, unpractical things always happen. That the place in where he is living is a hard place to live, an unpredictable thing can always happen no matter what.

“The woods were unmoved, like a mask-heavy, like the closed door of a prison-they looked with their air of hidden knowledge, of patient expectation, of unapproachable silence,”(pg. 96).

The scenery in this novel is portrayed as that of a scary movie or an abandoned ghost town. It looked heavy and thick, like a prison door. This is how the attacks of the natives are explained throughout the whole novel. They are explained as hidden knowledge, as if they didn’t have any to begin with, and their patient selves not to attack to soon, and they unapproachable silence, basically calling them savages who cannot talk to people because they are uneducated and uncivilized.

Pg. 99-107

“It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and glittering bronze,” (pg. 101).

31 October 2007

This is saying, that a man who probably wanted a death sentence looked like it carved from ivory, because that is want to mostly long for while in Africa. He looked liked death carved out of old ivory talking and being friends the “menaces,” also known as the Natives, the black people. And that all they did was hear him motionless and without any movement. It can be compared to a death wish, a wish to not live, because in the eyes of this white men, all savages, all natives killed and were evil people who had no mercy for others.

“But I don’t understand these matters. I am a simple man. He thought it would scare you away- that you would give it up, thinking him dead,” (pg. 107).

Marlow is finally starting to realize that he does not have the answers to everything. That he does not have the correct answers to questions and things he thought he had once. He says he is a simple man that only does what he is told to do. Sort of like being tested by others to see if he is loyal or not. Maybe rescuing Kurtz was on of those tests. But the reasons why, are not understandable especially to Marlow who is oblivious to what is really happening around him. He is always so narrow minded and only focuses on things he thinks he knows, and never thinks outside the box before he performs a task

Pg. 107-115

“A steady droning sound of many men chanting each to himself some weird incantation came out from the black, flat wall of woods as the humming of bees comes out of a hive, and had a strange narcotic effect upon my half-awake senses,” (pg. 108).

1 November 2007

The people mentioned in this quote are the natives (black people) of the land that are probably performing on of their daily rituals or a celebration as part of their culture. But since the white men living on that piece of land are completely oblivious to the sounds and the texture of that, they do not know what is going on and do not know how to control it. Compared it to bees coming out of a hive, which could also mean, that they think that they chant is an attack or a task to collect something, hence that bees only come out for those reasons. Anyway, this chant had a drug-like affect, an addicting affect on Marlow because he had never heard it before.

“I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself,” (pg 113).

This quote ties in with the whole book basically. This describes the white men of the book, they had no restraint to kill or to get what they wanted, and mess around with someone else’s culture. They had no fear to kill or to do what they wanted, but they struggled with themselves all the time. Probably to figure out what the hell they were doing. The also describes Marlow. His ignorance toward the black people knew no restraint, or fear, as he was brought up and yet the struggled with the ignorance to figure out that what he was doing was wrong and that they are people just like him and the others.

Pg. 115-123

“I lived in an infernal mess of rust, filings, nuts, bolts, spanners, hammers, ratchet-drills-things I abominate, because I don’t get on with them,” (pg.117).

2 November 2007

Marlow compares the nuts, filings, rust, bolts, spanners, and hammers to the people he lives around and place where he live too. He describes it as an infernal mess. He lives around people and in a place that to him is hell. He hates it all because that is not how he wants to live and get along with things. To him, he kind of realizes that they way the white men of the land treat its natives is wrong and should not be done.

“I know that the sunlight made to lie, too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon these features,” (pg.123).

This quote compared to the title of the novel is sort of like the same. The heart of darkness is kind of like the evil and savagery in one person. Well, since in this quote it is mentioned that not even the sunlight in a person could make on stop lying than who knows what could. The people felt no manipulation of light and pose that could at least bring out some truth. So basically it is saying that a liar will always be a liar.

Pg. 123-132

“Perhaps it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfillment of one of those ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence. I don’t know. I can’t tell. But I went,” (pg. 124).

3 November 2007

Marlow is basically saying that all humans have impulses and things inside of them that make them do things without knowing or without thinking about what they are about to do. He is saying that things, bad, good things that happen, often refer back to the impulses humans take. Compared to the novel, it could explain all the violence and evil traits through out the whole novel. The reasons why people from both sides were kill was the result of the impulse loyalty people have in them. The real reasons of why these things happen is unknown, and according to Marlow, will never be know.

“Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha,”(pg.131). “An overcast sky-seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness,” (pg. 132).

The book is now done, but Marlow is not. All the adventures that he has gone trough has developed and helped increase his mind and the perspectives he now has on others. It has also contributed to the sadness of his heart and mind. At the end it mentions that the overcast sky lead into the heart of an immense darkness, which means that only ignorance and the reality of not wanting to look at the bigger picture only brings sorrow and pain.