Heart of darkness post II

I am on holiday this week camping so have opted for short bursts of bullet points from a shortish book to make life simplier.


Bullet points from pages 47 – 80

* At the coastal station Marlow is first introduced to the name Kurtz, who is the chief of the inner station

* He heads to the central station and again the landscape is full of strangeness with a drunk man claiming to have responsibility for the upkeep of the roads and a black man shot through the head

* Once at the central station he is told his steamer has sunk and calculates that it will take a couple of months to fix

* The man running the station introduces the name of Kurtz again and tells Marlow he must go up the river to find out what has happened because he thinks Kurtz is unwell

* Marlow meets the chief bricklayer who confides that Marlow's influential contacts (his aunt) might be a factor in why he has come and in regards to his position with Kurtz

* His wrecked boat is left unrepaired because no one from the coastal station can be bothered to send him the rivets despite them being in abundance

* There is a slight break in the story while Marlow gathers breath and for a moment you are back on the boat in the Thames and a different narrative point of view describes how it is so dark that Marlow can't be seen only his voice heard through the darkness

* Chapter II starts with Marlow hearing a conversation about Kurtz a man who apprently sailed 300 miles towards supplies and civilisation only to change his mind and turn around in his canoe and sail back into the wilderness

* Finally with the ship repaired the voyage up towards the inner station starts and going up the quiet river into the haert of darkness is described like an eerie dream with signs of desolation (an abandoned hut with a warning of caution) and then sounds of natives scraming in the fog

With just a mile and a half to go before they reach Kurtz's station they are attacked and it is at this point things end for today. Kurtz and the end of Marlow's tale await tomorrow...