Blog #5- Willard and Marlow together forever

When comparing Conrad's novel and the film Apocolypse Now, I first noticed the similarities between the characters of each piece of work. The most obvious similarity between characters is with Conrad's Kurtz and Apocolypse's. Both are hunted diligently throughout their respective works and are basically set up to be idols. Although the Kurtzs in both gain their power unethically, they are both extremely well respected and the author and director emphasizes this extreme power.

Kurtz's power is extremely apparent in the film, where the hundreds of Americans, Vietnamese, and Cambodians seem to be hypnotized by Kurtz's strange philisophy which is much like Conrad's Kurtz. Basically, both Kurtz's realize the horror in their surroundings, whether it be the imperialism in Heart of Darkness or the raping of North Vietnam's countryside and the genocide of its people.

It is true that the two Kurtz's are extremely similar, and it is pretty obvious with how they possess the same name and almost the exact same roles, but I found the most interesting comparison to be between The Heart of Darkness's Marlow and Apocolypse Now's Willard. Both Marlow and Willard tell their stories, like a frame story, where Marlow's story is told by someone else on a ship and Willard's is through his voice in the background.

Additionally, both Willard and Marlow come to a realization in their journeys, even though each took them for different reasons. Marlow realizes that the civilization that is supposed to take place through Europe's imperialism of Africa really leads to more chaos and murder, while Willard, who already knows the horrow of Vietnam to a certain extent before his journey, comes to the realization that what his people are fighting for is hippocritical and unclear. Both Willard and Marlow come to terms with the view of each Kurtz and the ideals that they present to their followers. Willard and Marlow realize the hippocrisy of their people and that in many cases injustice is performed in order to achieve justice, which is a disturbing conundrum.

The parallels between these four characters in the two works really sutck out to me as a point of attack in this comparison. The similarities between the characters drove each of the works and sparked the comparison.