compare and contrast Heart of Darkness with Apocalypse now in the sense of imperialism and colonialism
... due to their own decisions; ultimately they are ordered to fight in Vietnam by their superiors, but Conrad's characters are fully responsible for their fate. Marlow is a modernist protagonist. He a wanderer and a sailor and keeps his distance from society, whose journey to find Kurtz leads him to a discovery of the darkness within all men. When Marlow was introduced in the story, his wandering and curious spirit is immediately apparent. “He…followed the sea…He was a seaman, but we was a wanderer too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life… But Marlow was not typical, and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that, sometimes are made visible by the spectral illuminations of moonshine.” (Conrad 9) This description clearly establishes Marlow as a man who would rather stand at a distance from society. The fact that is he a wanderer and not typical, indicate that he stands apart from other seamen. Marlow’s observations to the way a glow brings out a haze, also indicates that the meaning of the seaman’s observations only come with illumination. Even though the haze is always around Marlow, it is only discovered after light has made it clear (Csicseri). Marlow’s method of indifferent observer to his narrative’s closing lines, the bleak revelation about the journey that he has described through out the book. He lies to Kurtz’s fiancé about her lover’s final words because the truth “would have been too dark—too dark altogether” (Conrad 76) Here he has at last turned on the light and sees the haze. Darkness and depravity has been revealed to him. Coppola’s Capt. Willard, is a postmodern protagonist. At the beginning of the film, he is already a time-scarred war hero who has already taken his journey and knows that mankind is deprived. His journey to find Kurtz only confirms this knowledge and turns him darker still. When Willard is assigned the mission to terminate the deranged colonel, the solider laments, "How many people had I already killed? There was those six that I know about for sure. Close enough to blow their last breath in my face…I took the mission. What the hell else was I gonna do?" (Virtanen) Willard decides to find Kurtz almost out of desperation, as if killing an American colonel is just the next step after he has already killed the enemy. Willard is not a wanderer or a distant observer like Marlow, but a soldier and an instigator who is fully involved with the world around him. Willard does not need a glow to know that the haze is present (Csicseri). He is aware of the haze because he has experienced it first hand. Because of his active involvement in the world's depravity, Willard's final conclusions are in contrast to Marlow's. Marlow recognizes the horror of his experiences only at the end of his meeting with Kurtz. Willard's encounter with Kurtz only gives him more anxiety as he realizes that even though the American soldiers in Vietnam long for home, he has "been back there, and I know that it just doesn't exist anymore." (Virtanen) While Marlow was distant from the world before Kurtz, Willard was already living within the world before Kurtz. After Kurtz, the world around Willard has ...