HOD: section 3

Now that I am more aware of the events taking place in the novel, I can easily read through the book with an understanding. In this section we still are involved in the story of Marlow’s trip to the Congo. His ship has been extremely damaged and he believes it to be on purpose so he can not reach Mr. Kurtz, an ill man who is in the interior. Several months go by while he is fixing his ship.

The white vs. black is very apparent again. Natives are always accused of creating problems. A grass hut is burned and a native is beaten badly for it. The white colonizers are seen as the high and mighty royalty, but in actuality the whites are “evil” and the blacks are good. This differentiation that proceeds through the entire novel seems to compete with itself. No matter how much violence the whites inflict on the natives they still seem to come out “smelling like a rose”, and the natives can seem to do no right.

Chaos is still an issue in the area and darkness is represented by the violence from the chaos and attitudes of those around him. The brickmaker is only "friending" Marlow to obtain information and has no intention of becoming an acquaintance of his. There doesn’t seem to be any “light”. However, the painting of the blind folded woman with the torch has a significance. The torch to me acts as a “light” being brought to the Africans. It is a sense of hope. I may be wrong, but that is my interpretation.

Also, a change in narration does happen. The last couple pages show a shift from Marlow to the Unnamed. Marlow finally takes a break in his story so that his listeners can fully comprehend his story. This is good because the man needs to breathe for once. He must be an amazing story teller or one heck of a talker.