Term Paper on "Europe and the World the Horror"

Term Paper 3 pages (1379 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Europe and the World

The horror! The horror!" are the haunting last words spoken by Kurtz in both Joseph Conrad's 1902 novel Heart of Darkness and in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film production Apocalypse Now. Both Kurtzes are portrayed as legendary demi-gods, both to the conquered peoples and to the milieu. As such, Conrad and Coppola present their Kurtzes to symbolize the psychological end-products of colonial or imperial enterprises, including delusional self-aggrandizement. Both Kurtzes are emblems for their respective European societies, men who draw attention to the fact that colonialism is destructive for the psyche of the oppressor as well as that of the oppressed. The respective heroes of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now: Marlow and Willard, demonstrate that a spark of humanity can rise from the ashes. Both stories end with "the horror, the horror," but Conrad and Coppola still manage to offer a glimpse of hope, however small. Neither Conrad nor Coppola shrink from depicting the more visceral destruction wrought by colonization: the blood, gore, and chaos that besiege both sides and that especially devastate the oppressed. On the silver screen the imagery leaves less to the imagination, and Conrad's novel is less graphically intense, yet both the film and the book unequivocally make a statement against imperialism and colonization. Coppola's movie was thematically and structurally based on Conrad's earlier novel, but the two stories do diverge considerably in terms of setting, plot, and characterization. Conrad exposes the devastation wrought by colonialism and imperialism in central Africa, and Coppola drew much upon Conrad in his depiction of the root causes of the horror, the horror, of the Vietnam War. In spite of their obvious differences in form, plot, and structure, as en enterprise that can destroy the very soul of humanity.

Both Coppola and Conrad use nature, notably the jungle, to emphasize the eventual meaninglessness of human activity, to strengthen their portrayals of basic human instincts like anger and fear, and to draw out the differences between the European colonizers and their victims. Especially in Heart of Darkness, the jungle also serves as a means to explain some of the motives behind colonization: the desire to rape natural resources and the symbolic desire to tame wild people. The Africans have been living in "the heart of darkness" for thousands of years; for the European invaders, the jungle is another enemy; it is hostile and they view it as such. In Part One of Heart of Darkness, Marlow states, "Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him." In Apocalypse Now, conflict between man and nature is more evident on-screen, with visuals, rather than with direct dialogue. The soldiers feel almost as antagonistic toward their hot, humid, bug-infested environment as they do toward the war and their enemies. Part of their survival is dependent on their ability to make peace with the jungle. One of the most moving attributes of Coppola's film is its setting: the closeness of the jungle, and its simultaneous impersonality.

In many ways, Conrad and Coppola both compare the jungle's detached amorality with the figure of Kurtz. At the end of Apocalypse Now, Willard notes of Kurtz: "Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway." Marlow hinted at a similar ambiguity in the relationship between the European and the jungle: "He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination -- you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness send similar messages, presenting colonization as part of the debased human instinct for destruction. Just as the jungle can kill without mercy, so too can a human being. In Apocalypse Now, the jungle is highly symbolic: the Americans are not there primarily to rape natural resources as was the Company in Heart of Darkness. However, both Kurtzes make a sort of peace with the jungle, and… READ MORE

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