What horror is Kurtz recounting as his final words? Truths lie inside the inner soul of all human beings, it is just a matter of when and where they will come out. Kurtz choose to let his be known as his passing words. An epiphany, a passing glimpse, the realization of what he has created and destroyed, willingly, or blindly going about hacking through the jungle blindfolded, searching for something of extrinsic importance. The narrator of Heart of Darkness never lets the reader know what Kurtz was speaking about. I believe Conrad wanted his audience to judge for themselves the importance of Kurtz’s words. Finding literal, as well as deeper meanings, in the novel becomes very apparent when basing the context of Kurtz’s words from a thematic standpoint. His word’s can be broken down on three levels: the first, dealing with the obvious literally sense of horror representing all the dead Africans, who died at the hands of the Kurtz in his lusty quest for ivory

What does it mean to be savage? Is this some sort of jungle myth? Does this only happen in the deepest reaches of the African jungle? Can this happen to an ordinary man in the modern world? All these questions, I think were answered in Heart of Darkness. The true nature of humanity is disguised in a façade of colourful clothing and pomp societal values. What with laws and court systems, it is no wonder modern day man shows any signs of his ancient ancestors. Why should he? There is no need anymore for “barbaric” forms of behaviour, the type associated today with a less cultured society. With a butcher, and brickmaker on every corner, people no longer need to hunt and gather for the staples of their diets. Everything a person needs in their life is provided for them, through specialized tasks each human is assigned. Similarly, in the beginnings of American’s industrialization, each farm community provided every basic need, more or less on each homestead. Capitalists, had to wean the rural population into accepting the factory work, and specialized products, which most certainly, made life “better”. Humans are a very illustrious species, we learn to adapt and survive. The same holds true for our nature, Darwin’s theory of evolution, allows for individuals not able to adapt, to perish, and those left remaining to hold the characteristics necessary for integration with their physical surroundings. However, there is one problem with Darwin’s theory! Darwin did not take into account the basic feature that sets species groups apart from one another, and allows the dominant species to thrive. This comes in the form of a physical feature; for example, a tiger’s strength, a cheetah’s speed, a bear’s claws, etc. Humans, have the brain. When this characteristic was developed throughout the eons of evolution, it broke all the existing laws of nature, and humans formed new rules to suit their needs. One thing that remained, however, was our ancestral behaviours. Like a descendent beckoning at the knell of the bell, our savage inclinations stayed with us physically. The region of our brain that controls our most primitive of emotions, is called the hippomas campus. All our emotions such as hate, fear, anger, happiness, sorrow, and the fight or flight mechanism, is located in this forgotten region. Scientists estimate, that within the next 100 000 years, humans will no longer have this portion of the brain, but for now we still carry the first man within all of us. Kurtz was no exception, he was actually the rule. Symbolically, Kurtz getting of the boat showed a point of no return, where he had managed to take the first steps back to his primitive nature. The setting in the book was a good choice because many archeologists believed that the forerunners of homosapiens came out of Africa. Through out the book, Marlow’s accounts of how he was like a traveler through time, in a place forgotten many centuries ago, emphasized the imagery of the primitive state. The choice of Kurtz to live with the African, sleep with their women, eat what foods they did, speak their language, and lastly, and most importantly, shed any shred of civilized European behaviour, shows just how much of a savage Kurtz had become. The toll of this savagery showed

Some topics in this essay:
Heart Darkness, CEO Benefits, Symbolically Kurtz, Europeans Africans, African’s God, Africans Death, , Imperialistic Europeans, Ah Yes, Imperialism/Colonialism African, true nature, kurtz’s words, savagery kurtz, human rights, primitive emotions, heart darkness, labour force, darwin’s theory, africans died, european imperialism/colonialism,