Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Has Marlow gone through a metamorphosis?
As the rest of the novel unfolds we see Marlow continue to change as a character. He is still considered a racist due to his ignorance. But besides that, we can see that he has grown the most out of all of the other characters. Knowing this, is it safe to say that he has grown enough to go through a metamorphosis? When he finally gets close enough to seeing Kurtz jn part 3, the Russian begins to reveal some pretty gruesome information about the beloved Kurtz. He tries to back it up with some talk about love and wisdom, but Marlow is having none of it. He decides he has no more respect for Kurtz. I know this is not the end of the novel, but does this much count as a metamorphosis? Or is there more to it? And what's this all about "you can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man" business? Why is he so special?
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I think he does go through a metamorphosis. The day we had the Socratic seminar an interesting point was brought in my class as to how the river played a role in the book. The thought that came to me was that the further and further he went down the river the more of his morality he lost, such as a trade off of his morality for materialistic possession. So he made if really far down the river showing that he gave up a lot of his morality in my opinion thus he transformed into something different. However i wasn't clear on what he exactly transformed into.
ReplyDeleteI do believe Marlow does go through a metamorphosis. At first Marlow didn't really know the effects of imperialism but once he goes to the Congo he starts to see the effects and his experiences changes him not to like what his country is doing.
ReplyDeleteI think the question as to why Mr. Kurtz is special is that he was the only one that would appear to be in the same mindset as Marlow. Therefore, marlow now sees Mr. Kurtz as differentiated than the rest.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Marlow learns more and more about Kurtz and his true intentions. Also, Marlow's perspective of how civilization has changed when he starts to see how the natives are being treated as he travels down the river.
ReplyDeleteI believe he has since during the beginning of the novel Marlow was clueless about the occurrences of colonization done by the company. Towards the end of the novel, Marlow becomes more aware and sees first hand what goes on but he doesn't do much to prevent it so I feel like he hasn't fully gone through a metamorphosis.
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