FREE ESSAY ON HEART OF DARKNESS AND APOCALYPSE NOW

HEART OF DARKNESS AND APOCALYPSE NOW

Christian Rivas
5-20-2000
Period 6
Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now
Inside every human soul is a savage evil side that remains separated by society. Often
this evil side breaks out during times of isolation from our culture, and whenever one
culture confronts another. Whenever different cultures meet, there is often a fear of
contamination and loss of self that leads us to discover more about our true selves,
often causing madness by those who have yet to discover. Joseph Conrad's book, The Heart
of Darkness and the movie, Apocalypse Now are both stories about Man's journey into his
self, and the discoveries to be made there. They are also about Man confronting his fears
of failure, insanity, and death. 
During Marlow's mission to find Kurtz, he is also trying to find himself. He, like Kurtz
had good intentions upon entering the Congo. Joseph Conrad tries to show us that Marlow
is what Kurtz had been, and Kurtz is what Marlow could become. Every human has a little
of Marlow and Kurtz in them. Along the trip into the wilderness, they discover their true
selves through contact with savage natives. As Marlow ventures further up the Congo, he
feels like he is traveling back through time. He sees the unsettled wilderness and can
feel the darkness of its solitude. The deeper into the jungle he goes, the more awkward
the inhabitants seem. Kurtz had lived in the Congo, and was separated from his own
culture for quite some time. He had once been considered an honorable man, but the jungle
changed him greatly. Here, set apart from the rest of his own society, he discovered his
evil side and became corrupted by his power and solitude. Marlow tells us about the Ivory
that Kurtz kept as his own, and that he had no restraint. Kurtz went insane and allowed
himself to be worshiped as a god. It appears that while Kurtz had been isolated from his
culture, he had become corrupted by this violent native culture, and allowed his evil
side to control him. Marlow realizes that only very near the time of death, does a person
grasp the big picture. Kurtz's last supreme moment of complete knowledge showed him how
horrible the human soul really can be. Marlow can only guess as to what Kurtz saw that
caused him to exclaim The horror! The horror. Marlow guesses that Kurtz suddenly knew
everything and discovered how horrible the way of man can be. Marlow learned through
Kurtz's death, and he now knows that inside every human is this horrible, evil side.
The movie, Apocalypse Now, is based loosely upon Joseph Conrad's book. Captain Willard is
a Marlow who is on a mission into Cambodia during the Vietnam war to find and kill an
insane Colonel Kurtz. Kurtz, was an officer and a sane, successful, brilliant leader.
Like Joseph Conrad's Kurtz, this Kurtz shows us a man who was once very well respected,
but was corrupted by the horror of war and the cultures he met. In Heart of Darkness we
find that Kurtz's major fear is being white in a non white jungle. The story Kurtz tells
Willard about the Special Forces going into a village, checking the children for polio
and going away, and the communists coming into the village and cutting off all the
children's arms, is the main evidence for this cause in that film. This is when Kurtz
begins to go mad. Kurtz is facing a new culture and has a terrible time dealing with it.
This was the beginning of his insanity. This tells us that the evil side and the madness
in both Kurtzes were brought out by the fear of new cultures different from their own,
and their inability to deal with this fear. Yet, the difference of man and reality merged
for the two Kurtzes, one in the Congo, and one in Vietnam.
American Culture views it self as correct, and we see ourselves as powerful police of the
world. Our culture looked down upon the Vietnamese because they were more simple than us,
just as Europe and Marlow looked down on the Africans. Believing ourselves to be
superior, we had a lot of trouble dealing with the discovery that we are not. Apocalypse
Now makes a point to show us that the Chief of a boat armed to the teeth was killed by a
native in a tree who threw a spear. This opens Captain Willard's eyes to the horror of
the situation he now finds himself in. 
We live our lives sheltered in our own society, and our exposure to cultures outside of
our own is limited at best. Often, the more technologically advanced cultures look down
upon those that they deem to be simpler. On the occasion that some member of one culture
does come into contact with another, simpler culture, a self discovery happens. Both
cultures realize that deep down inside, all humans are essentially the same. We all
posses a good and an evil side, and no culture, not matter how advanced, are not accepted
from that fact. This discovery often causes madness as this evil side is allowed out.
Only those who have completed the journey into self can understand the actions of people
such as Kurtz. They are alone in this world of horror... The Horror!