Heart of Darkness chapter two notes

Chapter 2, we’re at the central station.

There are three stations, (just for reference sake)

  1. Outer
  2. Central
  3. Inner

At this point in the book, Marlow is at the Central Station.

He is laying on top of his steamboat at the beginning of the chapter.

 

1st note:           Manager is having conversation with uncle

                        Conversation about the state of affairs with Kurtz.

                        Problem: Kurtz is a “new type” of employee, manager is an “old type.”

                        (In the first days of the colonization, the original intent was getting loot.)

As a result, the colonies were exploited, made to do work, and therefore, colonies are in a bad state.

Now, Europe has a new movement, in which they’re trying to hire new employees that would bring “law, order, reason, Christian consciousness.”

So, the old employees don’t like the new employees, because they still want loot. (Ivory)

In brief: Managers talk about Kurtz and how he’s no good, and needs to die. (All while Marlow was listening.)

 

 

Marlow’s stuck in central station. He needs rivets to repair his ship.

 

The Uncle of the manager takes “his own” expedition into the jungle to look for ivory.

He takes a few guys, and we know that it’s not going to be successful.

 

Note:    The book often makes references to fat people. For example, “Marlow and the fat guy.” -> in reference to this, the Uncle is short and fat. This basically says that colonizers are generally short and fat.

 

Marlow goes upstream, after getting his boat fixed.

He takes several people with him.

He has a native whom helps him steer. (Helmsman.)

Has a group of men from the same tribe. (Cannibals.)

Has another native that loads the boiler.

Also, he has pilgrims. (The White folks whom are interested in this business.)

 

Note:    Marlow is really “peed on.” He doesn’t get much respect, he’s just there as a boat captain. He is important as a captain, but as far as the company goes, he doesn’t have much say.

 

Starts going, and travels for months. And they get 800 miles in.

Marlow thinks of Africa as a homogenous place.

(Due to not understanding differences between tribes.)

There’s a lot of dead hippo meat for the cannibals, but it begins to rot, and it starts to run out.

It makes Marlow a bit worried because the cannibals may eat him, or the crew.

Slightly humorous to Marlow, because the cannibals have filed teeth. (Pointy)

They go past a village,

Then past an abandoned station.

Here, at the station, there’s a giant pile of ivory.

Marlow gets off the boat, and finds a navigation and a journal.

The journal fascinates him. Mainly because: it’s real to him.

Everything has been unreal to him.

After finding the journal, there are scribbles, because it’s written in Russian.

 

Symbol: The journal - Anything that looks like Europe, (symbol of civilization)

 

So, the crew loads the ivory onto the steamer.
Marlow takes the book as well.

The boat crew begins to have trouble on the boat. They keep hitting the showles(spell?) [basically, the rises on the river]

Fog begins to set in, and sounds can be heard from the jungle (like drums, and presence of people.)

Marlow, at this point, is not sure what’s going happen.

In the morning, the crew is attacked.

They are attacked by natives with spears.

As a result, the pilgrims are scared, and bust out their rifles, and start shooting above the heads of the natives attacking.

Finally, a white man, and a helmsman is killed.

Captain Marlow is disturbed, so he throws his pair of bloody shoes overboard.

After having done this, he finally realized that there’s no place to get shoes, and he did something stupid.

The only thing that makes the natives go away is hearing the boat’s foghorn.

The pilgrims feel like they’ve repulsed the attack, yet Marlow thinks that pilgrims are just morons.

Finally, one of the pilgrims says that this must mean that Kurtz is dead.

Marlow finally realizes that he didn’t really want to see Kurtz at this point, Marlow only wanted to hear him.

They get further up, and see a man standing on a bank.

The man looks very weird. He has clothing that’s been torn, ripped, and patched over and over again. Thus, he looks like a clown. Looks like a “harlequin.”

He is one of Kurtz’s followers, he is also, the russian.

The Russian had got there, because he went alone from Europe. He took a boat by himself, and came down by himself.

The Russian has become part of a cult.

Kurtz and the Russian are insane. They both represent a loss of order.