Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad, detailing the journey of a young riverboat captain through the heart of Africa. In a similar film, Apocalypse Now, director Francis Ford Coppola details the perilous journey of Captain Willard, through the heart of Vietnam. Both works incorporate the horrors of imperialism and colonialism as underlying themes. Conrad and Coppola use the tools of their trade to depict these horrors in incredibly raw, and graphic, images throughout both works. Heart of Darkness’ storyline has Marlow discovering the natives of Africa via the river. During his journey they are seen as slaves, as enemies, and finally as followers of Kurtz. Upon Marlow’s discovery of Kurtz’s ‘tribe’ leaves him concerned. Through his writing, Conrad describes the way Kurtz came to the Heart, and began to make the ‘savages’ his own. This word choice, …show more content…
When Marlow focused in on Kurtz’s hut what he saw made his, “head snap back as if ... punched”(Part III,2). Then, upon further inspection, Marlow detailed a head; “It was black and dried and caving in. It’s eyelids were closed .. smiling, endlessly amused by the dreams of eternal sleep”(Part III,2). Conrad uses descriptive adjectives, and endless numbers of them, to paint a picture in the reader’s mind of this shrunken head. The heads are symbolic of the atrocities of imperialism in Africa. Through Conrad’s imagery the reader truly sees this. In a similar vein Coppola makes a point to include a scene in Apocalypse Now where a head is placed into Willard’s lap. Upon being placed, Willard begins to scream, presumably in terror. Here he is, in Kurtz’s kingdom, with the head of a beloved brother sitting in his lap. Coppola uses special effects to show detail in the head, and with actor reaction, the atrocities of Kurtz’s imperialism are truly