Hearts of Darkness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hearts of Darkness - Essay Example The novel ‘heart of darkness’, 1889, by Joseph Conrad documents the attitudes on racism and colonialism characterized by the European imperialism. The novel documents document the story of a European named Kurtz who explored the Congo and managed to establish himself as a god. The novel got adapted by Francis Ford Coppola into a film ‘apocalypse now’, 1979, which goes further to examine the imperialist effects on the victims and perpetrators. Unlike the novel, the movie gets set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A look at both the film and novel reveals just how imperialism had a profound effect on both the perpetrators and victims. Both the film and movie set out on a journey to find out just how the imperialist wars transformed the perpetrators. They reveal the madness that imperial action had on both the victims and the perpetrator. In ‘apocalypse now’, the story gets based upon Conrad’s novel but instead of focusing on the Congo, the film focuses on the unexplainable venture of America into Vietnam. Colonel Willard sets out with a crew on a United States Army patrol boat in search of Colonel Kurtz, regarded as one of the army’s most decorated soldier and has instilled his control deep within enemy territory (Coppola). At the end of both the film and the movie, the viewer or reader gets to witness just how the war transformed the character named Kurtz. The end of the film and novel reveal just what has become of Kurtz and his thought process. It becomes clear that the war transformed the European idealism of imperialism in Africa and the American idealism in the film. A clear impact of imperialism in both the film and novel can get witnessed on the character named Kurtz. In the novel, Kurtz has managed to slip deep into enemy territory to the farthest reaches of the Congo. There, he has established himself as a