Things fall apart/apocalypse - Essay Example

Similarities between Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness Both the movie, Apocalypse Now and the book, Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad effectively talk about a particular man’s lengthy journey through the cruel, dark wilderness of Vietnam and Africa. The mission of Marlow seems to be to rescue Kurtz from an inner station, Congo, while Willard intends to terminate the command of Kurtz up River Nung, by any necessary means. Moreover, there is more parallelism between these two forms of art, yet discrepancies also separate the two.

Although the various characters found within the two pieces seem to be different in their roles, but their intended purposes seem to be similar with regard to the general imperialism themes. Imperialism within both works exhibit the arrogance of the colonization truth together with the blinding of distinct operators (Lesley & Dan 65). Within the book, The Heart of Darkness, two types of evil are exhibited: the hollow and red eyed devil and the flabby and pale skinned devil. The flabby devils in the novel have been portrayed to be there to leech the system off and make good of them; for instance, the general manager seems to be constantly attempting to kill Kurtz off, not sending supplies, as well as not desiring to make the journey of rescue.

These devils just focus on making themselves better and do not care about what they are meant to do. Similar to this depiction, the American Soldiers within Vietnam depicted in The Apocalypse Now seem to exhibit the same tendencies (67). Each of the characters within the movie, apart from Willard the French Family and Kurtz, does not have a reason behind his being in Vietnam. All of them are complete idiots that Kurtz prefers to refer to as dilettantes within war but tourists within Vietnam. These aforementioned soldiers are completely blind to the actual situation before them: they do not seem to see every Vietnamese as any other human being, but as a potential threat (82).

Every individual soldier lacks a hint of the happenings around them.While there might be clueless goons, both the novel and the movie have individuals who are highly alert. However, the alert individuals are not really devils within the movie. Willard, the French Family and Kurtz are the aware individuals; all of them are capable of seeing right through the motives of the American army and the way in which the army had been so blinded by its subsequent morality. Once the crew gets to the French Family, Willard appears to read something from them.

All the household men talk about the way they had desired to be at the plantation. From their conversation, Willard deduces that there actually exists nothing worth struggling for in Vietnam. This family appears to have lost every belonging that they ever owned but they refused to give up their plantation. On the other hand, in the Heart of Darkness, no characters might have been assigned the role of a family, but most of the characters’ ethics relate back into Kurtz’s. Kurtz is, however, quite reluctant to abandon the inner station.

This place is his own and nobody could effectively operate it in the same way he does. He, in fact, plays the function of God in the movie and the novel.The oppressed within the movie and the novel, Vietnamese and Africans, appear to be very true to the things that they have. The Heart of Darkness exhibits cannibals, which are in the boat of Marlow and resist the most considerable temptation of hunger once they are ambushed and another man on board is murdered. The most ironical bit is that the oppressed remain capable of keeping self control and their sanity, while the imperialists grow greedier with time.

This could be because they could only be struggling for one common thing: their lives.Works CitedJeffries, Lesley, and Dan McIntyre. Stylistics. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print.