"I don't see any method at all, sir."

The first time I read Heart of Darkness it did not really have any bite to it. I didn't really have a background built about the Congo region so I wasn't sure what to make of Conrad's book; second time around I have a greater respect for it (though I find it winded at points).

I love what Conrad does with the Kurtz situation, we get the feeling that most people do not like him and we hear even wish him death. I like this part because it keeps me a little more grounded. It is hard to read a history book like King Leopold's Ghost and not assume subconsciously that all Europeans were in on this big conspiracy to suck Africa dry of it's resources. I have to remember that they were all human being and susceptible to human emotions like envy and greed. They weren't all there working together to hold the African down, they were there on business. True, they were all there emaciating African villages but they weren't thinking grand scale, they were thinking about making a profit for themselves. Remember too, many of the people working in the Congo were not from Belgium, they were adventure seekers and people who wanted money. A few years in the Congo meeting ivory incentives could turn a small fortune for a man and Kurtz is making them all jealous

I don't know what to make of the cannibal reference. I realize the African says that he would eat the others that were threatening the ship, but look at it this way. Their meat was thrown out by the white people because it smelled bad, so now their diet consists of things the author doesn't really know what it is. I don't relish the thought but if I were working all day cutting wood with very little food to go on, I would eat a person. I'm not a vegetarian, let's be honest, I wouldn't go more than a week without substantial eating before I thought of tasting a human (cooked mind you!). But with Conrad labeling the Africans helping him as cannibals is really detrimental to the view of Africans in the eyes of Western readers! One could go on to assume that most Africans, perhaps mainly the helpful ones, enjoy eating humans. This sets Africans back, just as they are gaining ground to becoming, people in the eyes of Western society Conrad says they still eat humans! This is so frustrating, especially since it is often said that this book is about the horrors of colonialism. I'm done, on this note Conrad is frustrating me, feel free to finish my thoughts.

Did anyone catch the gender roles going on in the third part when they actually meet Kurtz and his village. When they see the lady decked out in all the ivory she is tabbed as Kurtz' mistress and that she is part of the reason that he is going "off the reservation" so to say. Isn't this just like early 1900's men to claim a woman must be behind such a great man's downfall! It comes from the image that a woman is either a good subservient housewife, or she is the cause of any change or problem of the man. I'm not sure what to make of this, I'm not a fan of all of Conrad's portrayals of African's in Heart of Darkness. But, giving an African woman the same traits as he would someones wife back in England means that he considers the African lady to be part of his shared society. Just a little something to think about.

Random question, what do you make of it that the decapitated of African's are facing inward toward Krutz' house?

My still favorite part though is the quote that was stolen to use in Apocalypse Now "the horror the horror" (scene not for the animal lovers). However, I digress, such a small line but really powerful and interesting to think about. If you go and read Wikipedia (which I am sure you did) or many other sources about Heart of Darkness it is interpreted that Marlow thinks Kurtz is reflecting on everything he did when making his famous last lines. That's nice and all, but I am more pessimistic than Marlow/Conrad. And yes I realize I am probably arguing against the author himself, but he is dead so he can not come and say I'm wrong. We have Kurtz out there chopping peoples heads off, doing other dirty deeds, we can use our King Leopold imagination to figure out more devious business he was probably doing. We also know that Europeans felt justified and were encouraged to do these things. What if Kurtz was talking about the Africans, what if his final statement was about the people he was dying around. Does that change how you read the end of the book. Think about it from the angle of a European who was dying away from home surrounded by people he was oppression not his loved ones, maybe then you exclaim "the horror".