Prompt Seventeen

• What is the significance of Kurtz’ soul going mad?  What caused his insanity?

Kurtz, having been away from "civilization" for so long, began his own demise when appointing himself basically ruler of the natives. While he was playing jungle god, he slowly began to deteriorate from the inside. Without being caught up in the hustle of actually encountering any authority, the corporate fears of being reprimanded and consequences of abandoning a moral code were non-existent. So, Kurtz did just that. His self-regard as well as his empathy were completely removed by his thirst for power and once he quenched it, his former sanity was reduced to a void full of corruption. However, to say that it was merely his own doing is incorrect. The human condition is what renders Kurtz a mindless maniac. Humans are over calculating and analyzing of everything they come across, more subconsciously than conscious. The internal conflicts proved to be the infliction on the way he was used to function. He thought about his life back home, he thought about the position of power he was in, he thought about survival, then his brain shut down and reverted to primal instinct. No more worry. No more pain. Just the soulless body and it's instinct to exist.

Prompt Fifteen

• What is the importance of ivory throughout the novel?  How does it function as both a literal and figurative image?

In all honesty, the first thing I thought of when I read this prompt was the song Ebony and Ivory by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, which isn't that far off from the figurative representation of the ivory in this novel. Though the resonating line of "ebony, ivory, living in perfect harmony" is comically ironic with reference to my theory, it made me think of the contrast between the skin color of the two men and the natives. Ivory represents the white men themselves; the desirable aspect of the literal ivory exists only amongst them, in a way further exploiting the racist tendencies of all involved in the industry. White and black in relation to color definition is interestingly employed in this novel. Black is technically the absence of color, while white is the entire spectrum gathered and intensified. This symbolizes the natives having "nothing" in terms of worldly possessions while traders along with Marlow and Kurtz have "everything", or at least wish to have it all.