Heart of Darkness Review
It Begins: “The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.”
And it Ends with: “The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky- seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”
It was 104 pages and took me 15 days.
I would recommend this book to people that like to read between the lines. This is an adventure story where the adventure gets moved to the back seat so the underlying theme and morality can sit shotgun.
What I got out of this book is a frustration at having to think deeper than the words on the page. I generally enjoy searching for the hidden meanings and motives of the book. However, in the case of this story, I was more hoping it was simply an adventure story. It was positioned perfectly to be one.
I enjoyed the story only for the sake of enjoying the story. Unfortunately, the reason for Marlow to be on the boat searching for Mr. Kurtz was barely compelling enough keep my interest. I really only trudged through the book because I thought that the adventure would erupt as the page numbers rose. As the end neared I felt like the purpose of the story was really just thrown at the reader.
The darkness Conrad is revealing could be the loneliness and regret of digging yourself too deep into greed and personal want. Or it could be alluding to the deep green and humid atmosphere, the sooty characters, and the gloomy storyline itself. Perhaps it is referring to the shady power that corporate conquest has over its pawns. Regardless, in my opinion the ending was dull.
I’m glad I read the book but I’ll probably retire it to the un-illuminated corner of my shelf.
