Heart Of Darkness Kurtz Journey

Heart of Darkness is representative of not only a geographical journey but also a metaphorical one of self-realization. As the protagonist, Marlow, tells of his journey up the Congo, the story reveals that everyone carries their own Congo within them. This Congo within us, similarly to the geographical Congo, is full of dark forces: fear, savagery, and the fascination of the abomination. While on his journey, Marlow meets Kurtz, a worker for the same ivory company who has established himself as a god among the natives. Although, unlike Marlow, who is in search of a new self-truth, Kurtz has entered the jungle without understanding himself. Because of this, he is unprepared for the darkness that awaits him within the Congo, and so descends into his own subconscious and becomes enveloped. Although Marlow travels to the same geographic location as Kurtz, his journey within himself takes a dramatically different path. The darkness tries
For instance, there is a consistent motif of bones in Marlow’s story. He is told of a man who was killed and whose skeleton was left in the jungle until the grass grew through the bones and were lost within the field. Here, we see the grass represent life and light, and the skeleton represent darkness and death. These opposites are connected within one another showing that light and darkness are present within everyone. Conrad is revealing that a sense of evil is omnipresent in the core of every human, society, culture, and can ultimately be found at the core of humanity. Marlow sees darkness everywhere and in everything, even when light exists. However, we tend to hide the darkness by moral deeds and civilization, it is essential to understand the two parallels as joined to find one’s true self. Marlow’s journey largely focuses on the question of which existed first and how can we balance them to be moral