heart of darkness first blog

the first ten pages of Heart of Darkness really foreshadow the rest of the book. The images and tones he uses in describing the Thames, England, the sky and water, and Africa lead to two possible motifs running through the novel. Option one: sailors chose to live on the Thames and at sea pursuing fun and adventure, the land is the world and it is never constantly good or bad, Africa is hell and so is enslaving people and the jungle and the exploitation of the societal differences between two groups of people, and the sky and ocean are heaven/god, but (notably) unattainable. Option 2: the Thames is purgatory and there are a bunch of excited and nervous dead people there who will either go and have an adventure and lead a great life (heaven) or go die trying to enslave people (hell), the land is the ever-changing world, the sky and ocean are god/heaven, and Africa is still hell. Marlow, in both options is a philosopher pondering the implications of destiny, life, death, etc. and, naturally, is excited to prove his preconceptions (philosophies) by sailing around doing stuff. the other people are just people and are ignorant to the wondrous happenings with which Marlow concerns himself. But either way, the book will end with Malow unraveling the mysteries of life and it will be a sad book because he will be in hell dreaming of heaven.