Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (of my personal interpretation) is an understanding of the difficulty of the world in itself. By interpreting the world, it goes beyond one's self, and one's judgment of each other. With judgment lies compassion and cruelty that is a found based upon one's image and the way they are portrayed. This novel is fundamentally based on a sailor (Marlow) and his journey up the Congo River to meet a man (Kurtz) he soon finds dark and empty. The characters in this novel are faced with violence, ill health, confusion, and above all imperialism (ironically, this book was written during the 1890's during which many small places have been taken control by Europe). Above all of this, Heart of Darkness is a novel that portrays compassion as well as cruelty that I found through the characters Marlow and Kurtz.
             Compassion is a value that I found in this novel through the main character Marlow. (And in some cases I found cruelty that was brought upon Marlow by others). He is in certain ways a classic hero; a proficient man who is tough, honest and very independent. This makes him compassionate. Although people have beaten him in some ways, this makes him question life and people as well as being pessimist. To "hide" from others and life around him, he works and works and works. What made me think of Marlow as a compassionate man is when he went back to comfort the woman (Kurtz's fiancée), who never knew what her fiancée Kurtz really became over time. Instead of telling the truth, he allowed her to believe Kurtz was the man she knew and loved rather than saying he was an "illusion." He tells her the truth is "too dark" to tell, yet he says the last words out of his mouth was her name; when in reality his last words were "the horror, the horror." Marlow could of told the truth, but why ruin this woman's emotions. H...