There are many parts to the song that have strong connections to both the film and the novella. To begin with, the very name of the song The End has a very strong connection to the name Apocalypse Now. There are connections within the lyrics as well. The first part of the fourth stanza of the song is where the similarities first become clear. It reads:.
Lost in a Roman, wilderness of pain.
And all the children, are insane.
All the children, are insane.
Waiting for the summer rain.
There are several connections in this stanza. The first line about the "Roman wilderness of pain- is a reference to Heart of Darkness. Near the beginning of the novella, Conrad's protagonist, Marlow, remarks on how the Romans must have felt coming to England as colonizers in much the same way that the English were going to Africa. This furthers Conrad's theme of the paradox of colonialism by providing another example of how the English, read Europeans, are no better than the native Africans because they too were once the savages being colonized and "civilized."".
The next three lines all have clear connections to Apocalypse Now. The two lines about the children being insane are connected to the Vietnam War because the soldiers fighting in Vietnam were often times teenagers and the war made them crazy. This is displayed in Apocalypse Now by Laurence Fishburne's character, "Mr. Clean."" Finally, the reference to waiting for summer rain suggests that these children could be normal if less dark times, i.e. summer, would come, and the rain could wash away the insanity.
After a reference to the west, which will be dealt with shortly, the fourth stanza ends and leads in to the fifth and sixth stanzas which deal with the idea of a snake. They read as follows:.
Ride the snake.
Ride the snake.
To the lake.
The ancient lake, baby.
The snake is long.
Seven miles.
Ride the snake.
These lines are related to Heart of Darkness. There is a scene in the novella where Marlow is looking at a map of Africa and sees the entire continent left blank, except for the river Congo.
