Even though I’ll still be working on my final project… it’s time to move on to Slaughterhouse Five (and I actually have it now!)

So I am done with the first fourth of the novel… and so far, so good. I have been looking into Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism a little bit, and it’s pretty tough to explain, let alone understand.  Maybe I will take that on in another post. I’m headed to Washington, D.C. tomorrow and am looking forward to spending close to ten hours in the car with Howard Roark!

Here is Ayn Rand’s website if you want to take a look around…

http://www.aynrand.org/

The novel I have chosen for the final project is The Fountainhead, and yes, it is about 800 pages. For a while now, I have wanted to read both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - and this project seemed like a good chance to do so. My old dog’s name was even Atlas. Since The Fountainhead is kind of a precursor to Atlas Shrugged, I figured I would read that one first. So I went to Barnes and Noble last week, found it, and sat down and started reading it. So far I’m only about 50 pages in [I’ve been reading it while I bike at the gym! :)] and it’s pretty good.  Under my pages, I’m going to keep a summary of the book (chapter by chapter) so I can help myself remember everything as well.

I am posting the trailer for the movie here so if you’re interested you can watch it.

“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.

Pick a scene from the book. Find its equivalent in Apocalypse Now. Discuss how each scene represents or is meant to represent a larger theme.

The scene from Heart of Darkness I chose is the scene in which the boat is going down the river, becomes snagged, and then all of a sudden is attacked. Marlow recalls, “Sticks, little sticks, were flying about – thick: they were whizzing before my nose, dropping below me, striking behind me against my pilot house.”  The arrows of the savages have little effect on Marlow’s men or his boat.  As Marlow realizes the sticks are actually arrows, he displays the lack of understanding present among the men. Even one of the soldiers on the boat makes a joke out of the circumstances by fashioning head gear to make it appear as if he was shot through the head with the arrow. The men on the boat start shooting into the bushes in response.  Marlow then pulls on a line that sounds the whistle; the natives become frightened and run off into the jungle. This scene appears in Apocalypse now, however, the boat was not snagged; it was just cruising down the river.  In this scene in both the novel and the movie, Marlow’s pilot is killed with a spear; he falls to the floor with one last exclamation (or question), “a spear.”
I think the main theme both Conrad and Coppola are trying to get across to their audience is the concept of civilization, or lack thereof.  Marlow cannot understand civilization as anything but a veil hiding the barbarian reality of the human condition.  The concept of civilization in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now is superficial.  The level of civilization is proportional to the surroundings in which the men are in.  The physical and mental environments have an impact on the men whether they realize it or not.  For example, the men on the boat are not much more civilized than the natives who attack them; they use their Winchesters against the native’s bows and arrows.  This comparison between the cannibals and pilgrims is an example of the savagery of civilization.  Though the men think that they are coming to “civilize” the natives because light and civilization are positive forces, they have actually lost aspects of civilization themselves by coming into the heart of darkness.

Source 1: http://www.cyberpat.com/essays/coppola.html
Source 2: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/pdfs/Critical%20Arts/cajv1n4/caj001004006.pdf

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

Analysis:

I chose this stanza because I like the allusion about time.  The verse from the book of Ecclesiastes is, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”  I agree with this completely; everything happens in its own time and for a reason.  The repetition Eliot uses allows the reader to understand the importance of time in this poem.  Prufrock is running out of time to share his love.  The line, “And time for yet a hundred indecisions” exemplifies the fact that Prufrock cannot make up his mind about what to do with his feelings.  That is why I chose the moving image of the fog: it is as if Prufrock is in a fog and cannot see clearly.  The song “I can’t explain” also fits this stanza well; the lyrics include the lines, “Can’t explain… I think it’s love… Try to say it to you…When I feel blue…” These lyrics apply to Prufrock in that he is afraid that he is going to grow old before he is ever going to find love.  The entire poem has an air of confusion and indecision that is illustrated through this stanza.

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