Apocalypse Now Part Two
Video #1 - Kurtz’s monologue
“It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face. And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared.”
The part of the novel I chose to go along with this piece of Kurtz’s monologue is the scene in which Marlow has just met the Russian trader before meeting Kurtz and is looking through his binoculars at the house with the ruined roof and the “round knobs” on the posts. The “round knobs” on the posts are described as, “black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids - a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole.” The imagery used by Conrad gives the reader a grotesque disgust with Kurtz and his lack of restraint to satisfy his various lusts. The thought of a head sleeping is so calm and peaceful yet Conrad describes it as “sleeping at the top of a pole” which is not serene image at all; it is in fact horrifying. The contrast makes the reader stop for a minute to think about what they have just read. The heads form almost a gateway for the house; however, they are signs of terror and not of home. The monologue in Apocalypse Now expresses Kurtz’s unusual thoughts toward horror. He knows horror: he has committee a great act of horror by placing heads atop poles. He describes his relationship with horror in the darkness as well, which is quite fitting. The kind of horror Kurtz knows can be seen clearly in the dark; the heads exemplify the dark brutality.
