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Heart Of Darkness Kurtz Meaning

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Heart Of Darkness Kurtz Meaning
Heart of Darkness tells the tale of a man named Marlow and his quest to find the almost mythical figure of Kurtz. Kurtz is a station chief working for a Dutch trading company at the very end of the Congo river. Kurtz, along with the other station chiefs who are working at various stations along the Congo river, are charged to harvest the plentiful natural resources of the large African continent, primarily ivory. Marlow, who is an experienced sailor and river boat pilot, is charged by the company that employs Kurtz to lead an expedition into the heart of the African Congo to find Kurtz and figure out why he has stopped shipping ivory. Marlow eventually finds his man, only to discover that Kurtz has slipped into madness. Kurtz dies on the trip back out of Africa, only to utter his last words, “The horror! The horror!”. Kurtz has also scribbled all over his report which he was to turn in to his superiors on the situation and people of the African continent. The scribbling read “EXTERMINATE ALL THE BRUTES”. These two phrases hold important meaning in Heart of Darkness, as it describes how Kurtz really felt at the end of his journey. Kurtz was described several times to Marlow before …show more content…
His last words are “ The horror! The horror!”. These words are symbolic of what Kurtz felt at realizing that he had become even more “savage” than the so called savages. Kurtz entrusts his papers that he was writing to Marlow. The papers were intended originally to be a humanitarian paper on the good Kurtz had done for the villagers. Scribbled across the papers now, were the words “EXTERMINATE ALL BRUTES!”. These words are an irony for the mission that Kurtz intended to fulfill. His humanitarian mission had degenerated into a mission of violence and exploitation. He no longer intended to help the people of Africa, he intended to kill them and take as much from them as they
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