Metaphorically Speaking

In Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness, the use of simple yet powerful metaphors provides the link of understanding between the audience and Marlow, the main character. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow tells of his experiences traveling down the river through the wilds of the Congo to meet the mysterious man named Mr. Kurtz.

Try driving this blindfolded on a bumpy road.

Throughout Marlow’s story, he tries to convey what it was like to captain a steamboat in order to help his audience understand his awkward yet successful attempt. In one instance he says, “…I managed not to sink that steamboat on my first trip. It’s a wonder to me yet. Imagine a blindfolded man set to drive a van over a bad road.” It is such a simple metaphor but it is significant because cars were still a fairly new idea in the 19th century. In fact, “the early steam powered vehicles were so heavy that they were practical on a perfectly flat surface as strong as iron. A road thus made out of iron rails became the norm for the next hundred and twenty five years (http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/carhist.htm).” With the knowledge of steam powered vehicles and the up and coming development of the automobile in the 19th century, Marlow’s audience quickly comprehends the gravity of maneuvering an unfamiliar vehicle. Interestingly, this metaphor used in the 19th century still applies to readers today; it shows the mark of great literature over time that readers from different centuries can relate to the same metaphor.

This is just one example of a simple yet powerful metaphor from Heart of Darkness connecting the reader to Marlow, but Heart of Darkness as a whole contains several instances that readers can also relate to ideas in the world today.

For example, as we have been studying Writing about Literature in the Digital Age, Marlow’s story of finding a book on his journey provides an apt metaphor in regards to exploring Goodreads, Amazon, and the Kindle. Marlow talks about finding the book and how the mundane writings “made [him] forget the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real.” Goodreads and Amazon provide features that allow readers to discover new books every day. Readers can take the recommendations and findings from Goodreads and Amazon and immediately escape into the stories on their Kindles with “1-click” as Amazon says. Then as the readers delve into the stories, they are able to see others’ notes and highlights throughout the story just as Marlow did in his book. Marlow describes his excitement at finding notes in the book by stating, “Such a book being there was wonderful enough; but still more astounding were the notes penciled in the margin…I couldn’t believe my eyes!”

Heart of Darkness could easily have been a 300 page book, but due to Conrad’s narrative by the character of Marlow and Marlow's use of metaphors, the reader comprehends and experiences more of the story in a shorter amount of time than it would take to write out or depict the descriptions.