journeyhod The Inward Journey in Joseph Conrads Heart...

Inward Journey in Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is a book about one man’s journey into the depths of the African Congo. He travels to a place where, ’the changes take place inside’(Conrad 15). For a man named Kurtz, his journey went deeper into Africa then he could have ever expected. Kurtz’s journey into Africa ended up being a journey into the darkness within himself. At the beginning of the journey, Kurtz was a good man who believed in bringing civilization to Africa. You see some of Kurtz’s good intentions in a lot of his writings. When Marlow was reading them, he said, ’†¦He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, ‘must necessarily appear to them (savages) in the†¦show more content†¦When the Russian was talking to Marlow, he said, ’I offered to go back with him. And he would say yes-and then he would remain-go off on another ivory hunt-disappear for weeks-forget himself amongst these people-forget himself-you know’(Conrad 56). Once Kurtz got into the wilderness, he spent a lot of time by himself. Even when the Russian offered to go with, Kurtz would still go off on his own to do his ivory hunting. Marlow even saw the isolation in Kurtz’s life. He said, ’There was nothing either above or below him-and I knew it. He had kicked himself l oose of the earth. Confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to piece. He was alone’(Conrad 65). Marlow knew that Kurtz was alone in his life since he lived in the wilderness. He knew that no one really knew who he really was, ’He was alone’(Conrad 65). Although Kurtz was alone, that loneliness helped him in the end. Through isolation, Kurtz was able to see who he really was. The main place where Kurtz finds himself is on his deathbed. Marlow says, ‘But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude-and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating’(Conrad 57). Marlow is saying that since Kurtz has been in the wilderness,