Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness
             Placed in various time periods and settings, the novel Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, and the movie Apocalypse Now, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, both create the same mysterious journey with various similarties and differences. The journey's mystery lies in the scene; it is one down a river by boat, deep in the jungle. The jungle is populated mainly with wild animals and a few natives. The reason for the expedition is to search for a sick man named Kurtz, who is followed by the natives and his men from their previous missions. In Heart of Darkness, the journey to find Kurtz, who is an ivory trader who has gone too deep into the jungles of Africa in search of ivory, while in Apocalypse Now, Kurtz is a high-ranking officer in the military who has disobeyed orders and is now fighting the Vietnam war in Cambodia with his unit in his own fashion. The protagonists in both the novel and the movie go through various changes while on their mission to find Kurtz. Marlow, who is the rookie captain of a ship, slowly begins to envision Kurtz as an immortal figure. In the movie, Willard's state of mind ranges from being a demented soldier to a crazed assassin. Although they are on the same mission, Marlow and Willard face terribly different factors that affect their journey. The difference of experiences, location, technology, communication, and mindset all affect each character in different ways. Although they may have faced varying environments, in the end the result was the same, Kurtz is discovered as a sick and possibly demented individual. Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now are two strikingly similar yet subtly different stories that end in the same fashion.
             Since Heart of Darkness was based in the 1890's, Marlow experiences many things due to the lack of modern amenities and modern technologies. For example, a damaged steamer delays Mar...