Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  (Originally published in 1902.  Page 126 - 186 The Edition: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction)   How to begin with the story.  Well first I'll say that it is in a storytelling framework, where the narration is about a person telling a story that another person has told them.  **SPOILERS AHEAD**

I:  This is the easiest part of the story, and that is probably because it is the start of the story and you haven't met Kurtz yet.  It starts off with a narrator describing his trip down the Thames river.  When the sun sets and the boat is completely pitch black, Marlow (another man on the boat) says "And this also has been one of the dark places on the earth" (129).  Marlow is the one who tells the story of his adventure down the Congo River.  Looking back at this part of the story the only thing I really want to write about is the women knitting black wool.  Right away this made me think back to when he said "tolerant of each other's yarns" (127) and my English Drama class and Greek Mythology. 
Background information needed:  In Greek Mythology it is believed that people have a Moira (the personification of fate) which cannot be changed that is made by two woman who are knitting it.  I would get more into the idea of Moira, but even after the class ended no one understood what it was suppose to do entirely. Read Oedipus the King if you want to read about how it was applied in plays.

II: This part was really boring so I don't really want to write anything about it.  All I remember is Marlow breaking down because he thought Mr. Kurtz died and he never had the chance to meet him. I don't even want to look at it really.

III: The conclusion. Yay! It's almost over!  At this point I started counted down pages till I would be done.  18 to be exact.  Finally we meet Mr. Kurtz.  And guess what! He is CRAZY!  Woohoo! Well most of the times.  Anyways, you meet him and its about their meeting and all that stuff. Blah blah, then he runs away, goes psycho? then Marlow carries him back?.  There are questions when I say this because I honestly have no idea what happened.  At one point they were in the trees, and Marlow is just talking, then Marlow is putting him on the couch, then he's back in London...? Kind of questioning what just happened.  Marlow does go and visit Mr. Kurtz "intended" and lies to her telling her that he said her name as his last words, when really it was "The horror!"(186). 

I have to be honest, I liked the first part.  I was really quite easy to get through and I was enjoying it.  If the entire book had been like that, maybe I would have read it faster than I had.  But alas, that never seems to happen.  Personally I kind of enjoyed it, there's just places where I keep questioning what is going on, and how something like that just happens.  Maybe it was the time period.  Oh.  Another thing about the time period being an influence on the writing, Marlow is a racist.  Legit.  But I don't think Conrad was.  That's what I love about authors.  They make up insane characters for you!

Happy Reading!