Today’s Agenda
1) Read two chapters from King Leopold’s Ghost. Read “Meeting
Mr. Kurtz” first and then “Where there aren’t no ten
commandments.”
2) Ways to approach a discussion of literature.
3) Work on notes and preparations for your chapter discussion.
Historical Perspective
 Brutal form of colonialism in the Belgian
Congo
 Mistreatment of Africans
 Greed of the so-called “pilgrims”
 Broken idealism of Kurtz
 French man-of-war
 Grove of death
 Importance of ivory to the economics of the
system
Psychological Perspective Conrad’s suggestion that Marlow’s journey is like a
dream or a return to our primitive past
ID – we are all primitive brutes in a sense
Marlow’s insistence that Kurtz is a voice
Religious Perspective –
Pilgrims and pilgrimages
Christian missionary concepts
Kurtz’s messianic ambitions
FORM (also called “new criticism”)
 Division of 3s –
 chapters
 narrators
 breaks in narration
 females
 stations
• Babushka
• Images
Tomorrow…
We discuss ALL of Part I.