Heart Of Darkness Hero's Journey

From an archetypal point of view, the story of Heart of Darkness follows the so called hero's journey, and from this we can see that although Marlow's journey is indeed heroic, he eventually succumbs to the darkness that lies deep within all of us. Marlow follows the pathway of the hero's journey; the separation, initiation and the return. First, Marlow is shown aboard on the Nellie in the Thames river recapping his story to his companions about his journey to Africa into the heart of darkness. He recaps how as a young boy he loved maps and travelling and so he was looking for a new ship to sail for a new voyage. His call to adventure is evident when Marlow is fascinated with the Congo's ''snake like'' shape, and hopes to get a job as steamboat

In addition to that, he's nervous and skeptical upon hearing that once someone's gone into the heart of darkness, there's no coming back and no ordinary man comes out sane and well. After the refusal of call, comes crossing the threshold. In Marlow's case crossing the threshold is when he signs the contract to set sail down the Congo on the French steamer. He commits to leaving his ordinary world and sets foot in a land of unknown rules values and most importantly people. Once he sets foot in Africa he has his first glimpse of the unruly inhuman behaviour towards these so called ''negroes'' and natives. He's horror struck at the current situation in which this civilization is taking place in, and how the company is in a terrible state of despair. Next he's put through a series of challenges and is tested by enemies/allies various times, this is referred to as the road of trials. Upon arriving at the central station, Marlow is yet again disappointed to find out that the steamer has sunk, once he has it fixed he makes his way to Kurtz, however it almost seems impossible to get to Kurtz with the endless amount of encounters and problems slowing him