Okonkwo's journey is one of self-imposed exile. So, too, is the journey of the Kurtz character in Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Thus, Kurtz takes the place of the protagonist as being the symbolic character catalyst in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart. The Kurtz character is more similar to the Okonkwo character than either Marlow or Willard. For this reason, Kurtz can be considered a default protagonist. The journey that Kurtz took has already happened, though. The reader of Heart of Darkness and the viewer of Apocalypse Now does not know how Kurtz got to that point. All we know is that Kurtz lost his mind, went insane, and is now a freak example of the heart of darkness of the human soul.
Even if their exile is self-imposed, Okonkwo and Kurtz remain a world apart from the rest of society. Psychologically and spiritually, Okonkwo and Kurtz are exiled. Their journeys are tragic in the sense that they are no longer in control of their bodies, minds, and souls. Regardless of how the Kurtz characters got to the center of the jungle and lost their minds, they are certainly portrayed as being insane. The journey is one that took them to a point at which no human being can return. They have seen the heart of darkness. Okonkwo is the same. He has not only seen but, like Kurtz, acted out the heart of darkness. The Kurtzes and Okonkwo have killed. They know what it is like to be insane and to be disconnected from the rest of humanity. Their journeys are not journeys to enlightenment but to hell.
Achebe actually portrays Okonkwo's exile as also being at least in part self-imposed, even though he was technically banished from the community. After all, Okonkwo must take responsibility for the beating of his wife and the death of Ikemefuna....
Euro v Afro Centric Perspectives The unfolding of events can be told from a variety of perspectives that are highly influenced by an individual's background and personal prejudices. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe provide two distinct and polar perspectives. Heart of Darkness, and consequently the film adaptation Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, provides an Anglo-centric perspective on colonialism and imperialism, whereas
Willard's internal trauma is representative of the shock many Americans must have felt at seeing the violence inflicted in their name, and thus his killing of Kurtz represents a kind of superficial destruction of the "bad seed" that supposedly tainted the otherwise respectable and honorable American military. By focusing on the "primitive" evil embodied by Kurtz, the film allows the more "subtle and civilized manifestations of evil" in the form
Real Hearts Going After Apocalypses Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was one of the first works of fiction to explore modernist notions of reality, and specifically, what makes an experience "real." "Apocalypse Now" can, in many ways, be thought of as the transposition of Conrad's ideas onto a modern war. Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato investigates similar themes concerning mental and physical interpretations of reality and is also placed in
Close up shots are also used in this sequence to depict the soldiers that are flying in the helicopters during the attack. By using close up shots, the camera implies that the soldiers are being seen from the point-of-view of someone that would be flying alongside the men. Additionally, when the beach is being bombed by jets -- during which Lt. Col. Kilgore gives his infamous napalm speech --
And why not?" This novella is, above all, an exploration of hypocrisy, ambiguity, and moral confusion. It explodes the idea of the proverbial choice between the lesser of two evils. As the idealistic Marlow is forced to align himself with either the hypocritical and malicious colonial bureaucracy or the openly malevolent, rule-defying Kurtz, it becomes increasingly clear that to try to judge either alternative is an act of folly: how
Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart, And Apocalypse Now The shadow of colonization: Projecting European anxieties onto nonwhite peoples The Jungian concept of 'the shadow' is not that 'the shadow' is inherently dark or evil: rather, it is a hidden part of an individual or collective subconscious that is a repository of all of the aspects of society wishes to hide. The shadow' may contain elements of forbidden
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