Marlow's narrative starts out portraying himself as a young strapping lad with a desire for adventure. He already had a background full so called adventure because he had spent six years on the Pacific, but his main interest was exploring Africa, specifically, the Congo River. He gets signed onto the Company and goes on to Africa to do his exploring as a steamboat pilot. Marlow quickly learns that adventuring in Africa is not that easy as he encounters many troubles while trying to get to the Central Station. Because of a problem on his steamboat, Marlow is forced to spend time at Central Station. He seeks the help of a brick maker and a mechanic to fix his boat. They are under the impression that he is someone of importance in Europe and treat him with reverence.
From the start of Marlow's narrative, the reader can tell that his interest in the exploration of the Congo River in Africa somehow objectifies the people there. There is a sort of a bitter tone to his tale, as he speaks with melancholic diction and draws out dreary images. He sets the African jungle as a terribly dangerous place, and proves his conjecture through a sub-tale of a pilot who got killed by tribesmen. There's a mystery surrounding Mr. Kurtz, someone whom Marlow has yet to meet which gives the reader some sort of premonition. Basically, Part I serves as a foreshadowing to the rest of the book.
When Marlow describes the journey on the Congo river, he uses such heavy diction and imagery. He compares the difficult trek "like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world". In a way, he was implicitly describing the savagery, not so much of the people, but of the surroundings. What struck me was when Marlow head some kind of inner voice in his mind commanding him to "try to be civil, Marlow." It seems as if the further Marlow travels up the river, the more "savage" he becomes. The reader already has the basic idea that the Congo River is a terrible place to be. It reminds me of the Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Fat Man Carried By Natives
After reading the essay that Chinua Achebe had written about Heart of Darkness, I think I have some sort of bias towards this book. I receive negative connotation from every word and I look deeper into the imagery to see what Conrad is trying to portray. Perhaps it's not so much Conrad speaking to the reader, or even the unnamed narrator, but it is Marlow, and his point of view. There are times in Part I where I start to question the validity of Marlow's narrative. He seems like a proud man, one that has been through a lot and wants to boast about what he has survived through. Could it be that he is exaggerating some parts of the story? At any rate, Part I successfully portrayed the image of danger and savagery that Conrad wanted to put in the reader's mind which has a lot of foreshadowing that makes the reader look forward to the other parts of the book.
