Heart Of Darkness Summary

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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The Story is about the protagonist, Charlie Marlow, who recounts his journey to the congos of Africa while anchored on a boat, the Nellie, on the Thames River. Marlow , first, expresses a desire to explore the uncharted areas of the world, like the center of Africa. Charlie then gets the job as a steamboat captain from “the company” because of his aunt connections to and heads to Africa. His job is to transport ivory downriver. When he reaches the first station in Africa, his ship breaks down and takes a couple months to repair. This was the first time Marlow learns about Mr. Kurtz, an ivory trader who raised himself as a god in the tribes of Africa. When the boat gets fixed, Marlow goes up with a crew of a few “company” agents and roughly 20 natives in search for the ill Mr. Kurtz. As the story progresses Marlow gets a first hands look at the treatment the Agents have been giving them. These natives who are on board with Marlow are forced to do worthless chores among many other things. They travel miles and miles from station to station in search of Mr. Kurtz. Along the way, natives attack the ship and they run into characters such as the Russian. However, as Marlow gets closer to finding Mr. Kurtz he learns more and more, and his perception of Mr. Kurtz changes. When Marlow finds Kurtz , he is not the man Marlow thought he would be. When the ship was attacked it was actually and order from Kurtz to make the others believe he was dead and for them return to Europe. Kurtz boarded the ship with Marlow, however soon after he tried to escape and return to the tribe, where a beautiful native, supposedly Kurtz mistress, has great influence over him. But then Marlow finds him and convinces Kurtz to leave once and for all. Kurtz in his last dying breath entrust a packet of documents with Marlow on the way back to Europe. In the end

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