blog #5 - darkness and light

Out of the shadows, a blinding light

While the plot of both the movie and the book focuses primarily on the descent into the "darkness," at the end the audiences are left wondering what will happen to the protagonist when he returns to the "light." Marlow and Willard, though hardened adventurers in their own right, suffer through the depressing presence of Kurtz. Both react frighteningly to the "Heart"'s corrupted soul, and neither seem prepared to easily drift back into the civilized world.

In both instances, whether written or visualized, the setting and plot are integral to capturing the descent into the wild. Conrad twists readers' emotions with tales of slavery, savagery, and downright murder, all the while linking plot elements with sensual details. Apocalypse Now takes a similar approach with the Sanpan disaster and the catastrophe at the bridge; once Willard reaches the other side of both experiences, the whole aura of the movie turns creepy and insular. By combining plot and setting elements so effectively, Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now construe the original scenes in retrospect. After visiting Kurtz's camp, neither the Thames nor Toledo exudes the same appeal as they originally did for the protagonist or the audience.

In Plato's allegory of the cave, those who reach the light beyond the cave can never look into the darkness the same way again. Conversely, the protagonists in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, having witnessed the depths of human nature, will never view their advanced societies from their previous perspectives. Happiness, joy, and contentment will never carry the same attraction, now that the men's lives are forever linked to Kurtz's misery. Like in Plato's allegory, where enlightened souls cannot communicate their revelations to the ignorant ones, Marlow and Willand cannot translate the suffering of the jungle to the people back home. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow totally fabricates the actual story, instead telling Kurtz's sister that he lived nobly and died respectably. Though the Kurtz in Apocalypse Now tells Willard to relay all the events to his son, the assassin will never be able to convey the colonel's descent to anyone who did not venture into Cambodia.

Most striking for the audience is a glance back at previous scenes in either the book or the movie. How bright and exciting the Belgian outpost and the American headquarters seem, respectively, in comparison to Kurtz's crooked lair. Through environment and subtle irony, both engender the same reaction; readers and viewers must deconstruct deeply-held perspectives and assumptions. In Heart of Darkness, the exposed prejudice is the European pro-Imperialist attitude; in Apocalypse Now, it is the American romanticism of war. Both reveal a universality at the primordial heart of humanity. Neither questions the progress of civilization lightly.