Why does marlow travel primarily by boat

Again, this reading is more ambiguous than it seems. On the one hand, it implies that all peoples need a more advanced civilization to come along and save them; on the other hand, though, it also implies that the British would and did react to an exploitative colonial presence in the same way the Africans are reacting.

Additionally, moments of irony and narrative unreliability are scattered throughout the text, suggesting that Conrad does indeed provide a framework against which Heart of Darkness can be read as critical or ironic. Discuss the importance of the Congo River in this narrative. Why does Marlow travel primarily by boat and seldom on land? The river is a space that allows Marlow to be simultaneously within and removed from the African interior.

On the river he is isolated, a spectator. Marlow is unable to see into the interior selves of those around him; instead, he, like the doctor he visits before he departs for Africa, must base his knowledge on exterior signs. At the beginning of Heart of Darkness , the unnamed narrator discusses the fact that for Marlow the meaning of a story or an episode lies in its exterior rather than in any kernel of meaning at its heart.

Throughout the book Marlow is indeed confronted with a series of exteriors, of which travel on the river is a prominent example. The caravan that goes from the Outer Station to the Central Station provides Marlow with his only opportunity for travel inland, and he finds there only a depopulated waste scattered with a few corpses: it tells him nothing.

At the very least, travel by river lays before Marlow a surface to interpret. In its treatment of imperialism and individual experience, Heart of Darkness is on many levels a story about ambiguity.

If there is a hurricane, you always see the signs of it in the sky for days ahead, if you are at sea. They do not see it ashore because they do not know what to look for, he thought. As he journeys into the Congo, Marlow comes to discover ugly truth about himself and Kurtz. This has a great impact on Marlow and makes him a dynamic character. Marlow struggles throughout the novel to maintain some self restraint which everyone else seems to have lost out in the darkness.

This use of light and dark is one of the most effective devises used by Conrad. Works Cited Tennyson, Alfred Lord. Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems. New York: Penguin Books , Crain did not simply retell a story, but by sharing the struggles with each character he sought to portray the theme of an inner struggle with nature by using the literary devices of personification of nature, symbolism of the boat, and iron The surviving men were thankful to have survived, but learned that they really had no control over their lives.

Having survived the experience the cook, the correspondent, and the captain each believed that they could be interpreters for the sea. The novel begins and ends with a dark ominous setting aboard the Nellie. Here Marlow underlines England right before he part takes in his tale about the Congo. After reading Kurtz's report about his progress down the Congo, Marlow finds that Kurtz lied, and in part loses all the respect he ever had for Kurtz. However, Marlow still continues to pursue him.

Marlow continues his journey up the Congo River, penetrating further and further into the heart of darkness. Marlow can be an amazingly selfish character. You have to wonder if that was his conscious attempt to stay sane or if it was truly how he interacted. While in the outer station Marlow observed a group of Africans chained together, he had no compassion for these men he simply watched them.

Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Darkness, in whatever form, exists in the hearts of all mankind no matter what race, religion, or background. When one is separated from their source, home, and culture, the darkness of their heart can often lead to displays of greed, madness, distortion, and evil. It is apparent that the Congo River functions as the connection between Marlow and the one place that he truly feels at home — the Ocean.

The Congo River and Charlie Marlow interestingly both share the same source, but in different ways. Marlow is portrayed as, …show more content… The river permits him to gain access to the center of the African Continent without needing to physically traverse and penetrate it himself on land.

This allows Marlow to remain a man that is constantly separated, external, and thus apart from his surroundings.