Apocalypse Now
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In this section Conrad gives a glimpse of Kurtz. Marlow speaks of things that the reader does not know much about Kurtz. Its like he puts a little piece of a puzzle a bit at a time and the reader has to put it together later on in the story. He mentions Kurtzs origin such as the race of his parents and what Kurtz where he had been educated. He also mentions that Kurtz was entrusted
him with the making of a report from the International Society for Suppression of Savage Customs. Marlow speaks of his astonishment with the piece of writing and how Kurtz entrusted
him with his “pamphlet”. He speaks ahead of where he is in the story he is telling to the other men on deck. These bits and pieces of information dont really make much sense at this point in the book, but once the whole book is read, it will make much more sense because the reader will have all the pieces of the puzzle and just has to put them together.
He then interupts his discussion of Kurtz by mentioning that he misses his helmsman, even with his body still laying in the pilot-house. He admits that it was a bit of work to care and look after the man for his deficiencies, but the helmsman had been a great help for Marlow because he steered the steamboat. He claims to have had a “subtle bond” with the helmsman which he only realised after he was dead. He mentions how the look on the helmsmans face will never leave his memory. He then breaks off into anger, exclaiming how stupid the helmsman was for putting himself in that dangerous and fatal situation when they were being attacked by the natives. He says that the helmsman had no “restraint” just like Kurtz. After he ponders his relationship and bond with the helmsman, he changes from his shoes filled with the helmsmans spilled blood into a pair of dry, clean slippers and throws the helmsman a burial by throwing him overboard, noting that he had his eyes shut the