This last part is also full of action. As the steamer departs after the jungle experience with Kurtz, it seems that Kurtz may still reach the end of the river and maybe come back to Europe to see his “intended”. But, the boat breaks down once again which takes a lot of time to repair. This has both and effect on Kurtz who dies before they repair the ship but also on Marlow who almost dies. Marlow is now in a bad state both physically and mentally. We can see that the expedition as a whole has weakened him physically. He has done many repairs and natives have attacked him. Mentally, his state is even worse as he has seen two people die before him and he has seen the horrors that are taking place in the Congo. This has a really great effect on him as he is not totally sane. At the beginning of the novel, we knew that his trip would be hazardous and tragic but not really in this way: even if he returns home he will never be the same as he is traumatized by what has happened here.
What I also liked is the end of the book because it returns to the image of the “heart of darkness”; here it is seen through the color of the sky. As we look at the book as a whole we see that there were numerous hearts of darkness and not only a single one. The Company and Kurtz could seem as hearts of darkness as their philosophy was to destroy a civilization. Moreover, we can feel that Marlow, who was in the beginning a good sailor, has now become a terrible man. He doesn’t want to follow in Kurtz’s steps but it seems his vision of the world has turned all gray: he cannot really be happy anymore after what has happened to him.
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