"Heart of Darkness" and "Apocalypse Now"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how both "Heart of Darkness" and "Apocalypse Now" depict the inherent cruelty and devastation of colonialism and imperialism: "the horror, the horror" of hostility, violence, murder, rape, and destruction. It discusses how neither Conrad nor Coppola suggest that any good comes from colonization even if war does permit heroes to emerge and how in addition to the macro-cosmic consequences of colonization, both "Heart of Darkness" and "Apocalypse Now" show how imperialistic practices wreak havoc on the individual and collective psyches of the oppressor and the oppressed.

From the Paper:

"Both Coppola and Conrad use nature, notably the jungle, to emphasize the eventual meaninglessness of human activity, to strengthen their portrayals of basic human instincts like anger and fear, and to draw out the differences between the European colonizers and their victims. Especially in Heart of Darkness, the jungle also serves as a means to explain some of the motives behind colonization: the desire to rape natural resources and the symbolic desire to tame wild people. The Africans have been living in "the heart of darkness" for thousands of years; for the European invaders, the jungle is another enemy; it is hostile and they view it as such."

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