HOD post 2

In the second part of Heart of Darkness I have also found some sections that I could relate to personally.

            Marlow seems to be following the path that is foreshadowed upon him. It is noticeable that Marlow begins feeling connected to the natives on board with him but restrains himself as he is now becoming more and more of “Kurtz” so to speak. He also blames the Helmsman’s death on the Helmsman saying that it was his own fault for shooting at the natives in the first place. He throws out the dead body as if it were a body of an animal. Marlow is beginning to show mild symptoms of becoming the man he condemned at the beginning of the novel. Marlow wondered, “what would become of men like that” and now he is getting to taste it first hand. Another thing that was interesting in this second part of the novel was the fact that all it took to scare off the natives was a little taste of technology, the steamboats whistle.

            As Marlow continues on his journey up the river he loses touch with his beliefs that he had at the beginning. He begins falling into Kurtz’s ideology with each bit exposure to his idolization, “You don’t talk to that man, you listen to him.” (Page 98) Along the way people put Kurtz up to be an icon of wisdom. Each person he talks to idolizes him more and more until Marlow grows a certain fascination for him. When Marlow comes to the realization that Kurtz might not be alive he can’t bear with his disappointment. He wants to meet his idol, the famous Kurtz. Marlows journey was much like mine, climbing through the social ladders of the elite of Bogota. The higher I went in grade level, the more I became like everyone else. I had lost touch with my adventurous soul that I started out with and I had lost touch with my strong beliefs that were once unbreakable. I no longer paid attention to the underdogs; I paid attention to the backpacks everyone slung on their shoulders. I idolized celebrities and super models and their ability to purchase their way into fitting in just right with today’s society. I envied their fashionista life styles and their wise fashion advice. Marlow and 10^th grad me had something in common. We were becoming what we had always vowed not to.

            Another thing I found interesting and rather humorous to connect to personally was the steamboat whistle. All it took for the natives to stop attacking the boat was the sound of the whistle. The natives had never heard the whistle before and thus were startled by the loud noise. It reminds me of when I was six years old and living in La Paz, Bolivia. My mom has always been a passive person wanting to see the good in everyone. She wasn’t one for yelling and being snooty so when my maids were caught doing things they weren’t supposed to, she called my over to her computer. She said “Sophia, lets play a trick on Julia and Brigida” I was all into playing tricks on my maids, so I agreed. We had just gotten a desk top computer and my mom had just discovered the “app” where you could type something and the computer would say it allowed. So we typed in “Brigida I can see you, be on your best behavior” and hid under the desk with the mouse until Brigida walked by. We hit play and the message began playing. We watched, hiding our giggles as brigida’s laundry basket went half way across the room as she ran in the opposite direction.  She never did anything she wasn’t supposed to. She was convinced the computer could see her and would tell on her. The little bit of technology that Brigida wasn’t exposed to, was all it took for her to stop misbehaving on the job. Like Marlow and the natives, all it took was a little bit of unexposed technology to get what my mom wanted.