Heart Of Darkness (That of Mr. Klimas???)

Quote: "True, he had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while I had been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot.”

This quote, from part three of Heart of Darkness, speaks of when Marlow was confronted with evil, and overcame it. Kurtz exemplifies pure evil, a man corrupted by his environment until he was no longer capable of controlling his animalistic instinct. Upon meeting Kurtz, Marlow is faced with a decision: Evil, or honorable? As evident by the quote, Marlow opted for the latter.
When one makes the decision to become evil, there is no turning back, it is a permanent decision. Kurtz descended into the clutches of evil and was unable to regain control of himself. Marlow, at this moment in time, saved himself from a life of misery and despair. Marlow journeyed into the "heart of darkness", but escaped just in time.
Though Marlow and Kurtz were clearly intended to be alter-ego, this quote shows their difference: Marlow was strong enough to resist evil's temptations; Kurtz was weak and succumbed to it.

Theme: The Fallacies of Imperialism

The imperialism of the whites is hypocritical. The whites feel that they are "liberating" the native tribes. They represent their conquests as attempts to aid the natives. The whites feel that imposing white values and sentiments on other cultures is beneficial to them. What they fail to raelize, however, is that these other cultures are rich in their own ways. They have deeply imbedded moral codes and customs, much moreso than white culture. Imperialism is quite simply a euphemism for racism, as whites are automatically assuming that their way of life is "better".
Also, imperialism is hypocritical in that the imperialists seek to "cleanse" native tribes of "savagery" and "brutality"; the whites champion the very characteristics that they set out to abolish. This is reflected in the novel when the natives are viewed as savages and subhuman, even though the whites are much worse in that respect. The whites are the true savages.

Reaction:

This is quite a dense book indeed. Conrad's verbose and dense syntax provide for a dull read. With all due respect, it was the most boring book I've read thus far in high school. The purpose of the book was not completely lost, however, but it was not powerful. This book failed to motivate, inspire, or influence me in any way. The dismal and caliginous tone of this novel did not help either. Though I appreciate Conrad's contribution to the world of literature, I doubt this will be a book I opt to cite on my SAT writing portion...One clash with Conrad's work is enough for me.