Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

   PLOT overview

        Heart of Darkness is the story of Marlow, a sailor, who describes to his shipmates the unusual experience he had traveling upriver in the Congo and the effect it had upon him The story starts out with these 5 dudes sitting on a boat. There is a lawyer, an accountant, a military guy, the narrator, and some dude named Marlow. Then Marlow tells them his story. He starts out telling them how he was sailing around, all over the place. He jumped from boat to boat experiencing new things. Many of these boats were ivory boats, sailing around looking for ivory. His rich powerful Aunt got him a job as the captain of a steamer in Africa looking for Ivory. . Then he arrives at the "station". He sees a lot of overworked black slaves. He meets this handsome accountant guy. The accountant tells him about a dude named Kurtz. Kurtz is one of the best "agents" (he gets a lot of ivory). They take a trip to the central "station". They get there and see that their steamboat has sunk. The manager of the central station doesn't know where Kurtz is.

       That night Marlow talks with one of the agents. The agent says good things about Kurtz and how he'll probably be promoted in the big company. However, the agent kinda hates Kurtz because they are competing for similar promotions. Marlow pumps the agent for info on Kurtz. Marlow is very curious about this dude named Kurtz. Then the Steamer is fixed so they continue with the trip. They head toward Kurtz’s station to find out what the hell happened to him.

      They sail on the river and then they are attacked by spears and arrows. It’s the African savages attacking them. They shoot back and try to pop some caps in their asses. They finally blow the steam whistle and the noise scares the savages. Then they get to the "Inner Station". A Russian dude is there and he’s taking care of Kurtz because Kurtz is sick. The Russian sailor dude tells the crew that Kurtz went psycho and started killing the African savages and stealing their ivory. He became their leader and was treated like a God. Marlow sees sticks with heads on them (like Lord of the flies). Marlow is kind of scared because he knows Kurtz has a big African army that will do anything he wants them to. Kurtz was the one who told the savages to attack Marlow’s steamboat. So now the crew has Marlow in their "custody".

     The night before they leave, Kurtz tries to escape back to his followers (the African savages). Marlow catches him and doesn’t let him go. They take Kurtz back and that’s where he says those famous lines "Oh the horror..The horror!!" . Then Kurtz dies.

     Marlow gets sick, but then gets better. He goes back to Brussels. He visits Marlow’s fiancée who he left at home. In the book she is called the "Intended". She asks Marlow what Kurtz’s last words were. He lies and says it was her name. She cries.