The Books Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and the Film Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola - Book Report/Review Example

Comparison The books “Heart of Darkness” By Joseph Conrad and the film “Apocalypse Now” by Francis Ford Coppola are both based upon the premise of one man’s journey into the heartland of Africa (Marlow in “Heart of Darkness” and Willard in “Apocalypse Now”), re-tracing the same path taken by another white man before them. The basic confrontation offered in both works is the transformation of man into beast that takes place in the depths of the uncivilized jungle. The book “Heart of darkness” is the searing account of Kurtz’s journey from civilization into the Congo jungle – sinking into the dark depths of his own bestiality, drunk with the power he exerts over trusting natives who are unaware of the manner in which they are being exploited. In the case of “Apocalypse now” the time and setting change. It is the Vietnam war and Kurtz is a Colonel who is running his own private army in the depths of the Cambodian jungles, elevating himself to God status among the natives, who is to be terminated with extreme prejudice. Yet, despite the differences between the two works, man’s descent into bestiality once stripped of civilization’s veneer, forms the crux of both stories. In the “Heart of Darkness, the main protagonist in the story is Marlow, who sets out on an obsessive quest - a journey down the coastline of Africa into its deepest jungles, to find Kurtz. In “Apocalypse now” Willard is the US Army Captain who is given the mission to infiltrate Colonel Kurtz’s troops and terminate him. Conrad’s book poses the question of what exactly civilization is – at the beginning of the novel the narrator Marlow states, “It seemed to throw a kind of light on everything about me….” but at the same time it was not very clear either. No, not very clear.” (Conrad 21) Civilization is a very important underlying theme in the book because it is this very civilization that purportedly elevates man above the status of beast into the status of manhood. As a result, the white men consider the natives as uncivilized brutes because they behead their enemies and are not exposed to the social norms and conventions of the white man. It is purportedly civilization that propels man towards progress and away from the evil within himself. But as Marlow moves deeper into the jungle, away from familiar things, he feels increasingly threatened, and his basest instincts are stirred by that fear. He views the still river and the dense vegetation as “an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention.”(Conrad 60). His increasing fascination with Kurtz rests in the fact that Kurtz also aimed to bring “civilization” to the uncivilized natives. Africa “has been one of the dark places of the Earth” (Conrad 65) and a “god forsaken wilderness” (Conrad 73), and Kurtz’s mission for the river is purportedly such that “each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.” (Conrad 107). A similar theme echoes through “Apocalypse now”, appearing to suggest that Kurtz has not in fact become a monster, but may be a man acting on his best and noblest convictions, as Willard reads a letter sent by Kurtz to his son. It says, “….I’ve been officially accused of murder by the army…..we acted, we acted like soldiers. The charges are unjustified.” Willard has also been exposed to the view of some individuals like a photojournalist who feel that Kurtz is some kind of hero: “The man’s enlarged my mind. He’s a poet warrior in the classic sense.” (Apocalypse now). Like Marlow, Willard also experiences the sense of growing threat as they move deeper into Vietnamese territory up the Nung river towards Kurtz’s camp. It’s as if the further they move away from civilization and towards the Vietnamese, the more bestial they become. The soldiers on Willard’s boat exterminate a boat full of Vietnamese civilians and Willard himself kills an unarmed girl. Firchow highlights Conrad’s perceptions of Africa from the existing Western viewpoint during that time, which led to “misconceptions and misrepresentations of Africa and Africans” as a result of which Marlow’s journey into Africa “became an analogue for the exploration of the hidden, dark regions of their inner selves.” (Firchow 20). As Marlow re-traces Kurtz’s path into the jungle, he must face the question of who is really civilized? He is forced into the realization that while the white man proclaims his entry into the jungle for the high moral purpose of civilizing the natives, the actual purpose is quite simply out of their greed for the wealth of the jungle resources. Thus the darkness of the jungle is not merely a physical darkness but also represents the moral and spiritual darkness that is the fate of the white man who travels into the jungle and forgets all the values of love, brotherhood and equality, sinking into the pits of greed, oppression and injustice towards the natives. As Willard learns more about Kurtz and the manner in which the manner in which the higher officers have been commanding the war, he is placed in a similar position where he begins to question the wisdom and sanity of higher military officers: “If that’s how Kilgore fought the war, I began to wonder what they really had against Kurtz. It wasn’t just insanity and murder, there was enough of that to go around for everyone.” (Apocalypse now). When Marlow sees Kurtz’s den deep in the jungle, with posts dotted with rotting human heads, he finds in Kurtz a man who has not only retreated deep into the dark jungle, but who has in a similar manner withdrawn deep into the darkness of his being, transforming himself into a horrid man who “had kicked himself loose of the earth” (Conrad 107) and “knew no restraint, no faith and no fear.” (Conrad 108). The darkness has overpowered him completely. Willard and his companions are met by a similar sight of heads on trees and dead bodies; “This colonel guy? He’s wacko, man! He’s worse than crazy. He’s evil. It’s fucking pagan idolatry. Look around you. Shit! He’s loco…..I ain’t afraid of all them fucking skulls and altars and shit.” (Apocalypse now). The ending of the book is significant because it is a symbolic representation of the horrors that are transacted in the name of civilization. In the name of progress, the white men had sunk into a level of oppression and ill treatment of the natives that was anything but civilized and was motivated purely by selfish greed. Kurtz is an example of the extreme depths of the darkness into which man can sink. He does not wish to return to the white man’s world in spite of the fact that he is sick because he has descended so far into the pit of evil and is enjoying his position of power so much that he has no wish to return to civilization. It is only at the time of his death that the full realization of the depths to which he has sunk really hit him. It is then that he also realizes the full extent of the horrors which the colonizing white race had perpetrated on the natives. His dying words are “Horror! Horror!” (Conrad 112). In one sense, it represents the horror of Kurtz’ transformation form a superior human being to the scum of the earth. He was a man who was a poet, writer, musician and a consummate artist who had started out on the journey into Africa with the noblest of intentions. Yet he is unable to restrain himself once he is actually in Africa, as the darkness of the jungle closes in around him, he is cut off from civilization and once this state of affairs occurs, he begins to reveal his dark side and sheds all his noble intentions to turn into a thief and a murderer. To top the list of offenses is the fact that he allows the natives to worship him as a God, which is a clear blasphemy and violation of the Christian principles upon which he was raised. He is unable to fully sink into the level of a beast, yet he cannot be a fine human being either, so he vacillates between the two and it is only as he lies dying that he goes through a process of self realization to see himself clearly. Horror. This is the same basis that Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now” uses to justify his descent into bestiality. “I’ve seen horrors…..it’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means….Horror has a face. And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and mortal terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared.” Yet, Kurtz has wreaked his own horror in the jungle, killing without restraint and making himself the feared king of the natives. Towards the end of the film, he agrees to let Willard kill him, but he wants his son to understand why he has become the person he is now and justify himself in his son’s eyes. It is the realization of the bestial depths to which he has sunk that propels his cry of “Horror! Horror!” as Willard kills him with a machete. With the death of Kurtz, both Marlow and Willard are worshipped by the natives and invited to take his place. But both protagonists walk away, repelled by the journey they had made into the heart of darkness of human bestiality, even as they both understand Kurtz’s reasons and justification for what has happened and how it has happened. References: * “Apocalypse Now” Directed by Francis Ford Coppola * Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness * Firchow, Peter Edgerly, 1999. “Envisioning Africa: Racism and imperialism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Read More