HOD

Since my last post we have done very little other than discuss Heart of Darkness in class and most of my time out of class has been spent annotating the book and touching up on my note card activity.  Since it is all we have been doing i think it is appropriate for me to devote this post to HOD.  The topic for my envelope activity is savagery and primitive behavior.  This book is full of examples of both of these especially since it is located in a place where most of the people are considered savage and all of their behavior is considered primitive by the more "advanced" Europeans of the novel.  One prime example of some savages are the cannibals that Marlow works with on the ship.  He describes them as being inherently savage but having some degree of restraint.  He says, "Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear-or some kind of primitive honour?"(II, 14).   He doesn't know what it is that is holding these savages back from being savage and eating him and all of his men since the Europeans are severely out-numbered and the cannibals have to be getting hungry.  It is also ironic that the cannibals are starting to go hungry due to the fact that the white men threw away all of their hippo meat yet they still don't eat the men, even though it is their fault that they now have no food.  He also queries that it could be some kind of honour that is holding them back from eating the white men, but not just honour, some "primitive" honour.  The savages are not capable of following honour of the European standards, they are only capable of primitive honour, and only enough of that to not eat the men that they are working with.

There are also many images in the book of the men in the steam boat just floating by wild savages and seeming completely removed from them.  Sure they are as repulsed as anyone would be in the face of such utterly primitive behavior but the just float by like a phantom that isn't disturbed by and doesn't disturb its surroundings.  Marlow describes it as "feet stamping", "eyes rolling", and "hands clapping"(7).  These natives are not capable of comprehensible communication and just yell and scream.  Marlow then states, "we were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms"(7), illustrating how they are not effected by the savagery around them, they are unconnected.