Hollow Men/Heart Of Darkness Essay, Research Paper

The second part of the poem has changed two a first person speaker, describing his incounters with his experiences to get him to where he is now. The speakers observations have made him a hollow, unemtional man. “There the eyes are/ Sunlight ona broken column”(23-24). In heart of darkness Kurtz has somewhat of this same thing in front of his hut he has” the heads of rebels” on stakes(222). Both the speaker and Kurtz had no emotions these type things had no effect on them for they felt no sympathy for anyone. No only are they emitionless but they also are unable to make a decision the “Behave as the wind behaves”(35). Marlow and his men on the Nellie are also becoming hollow. Abort the ship ready to sail up the river, ” the wind was nearly calm…wait for the turn of the tide”(135). The are guided by a higher power which they have no control over. One who is hollow has no desire to have control over his life or is affected by his surroundings.

The third part is focused on the description of the twilight kingdom. The speaker explains the area as,” This is cactus land / Here the stone images/ are raised,” (40-42). As marlow and his crew are sailing up the river deeper into the jungle, during this voyage the comment is made ‘At last we opened a reach. A rocky cliff apperared…”(153). The parallel of the sceanery seen by the hollow men seems never changeing either, trees on the shoreline or the scattered cati across the open desert. The first two lines of the second staza proposes a question on the phisical features of “death’s other kingdom”(40-41). Marlow walks to the central station, during his trek he walks ” up and down stoney hills ablase with hills; and a solitude a solitude, nobody, not a hut”(160). Marlow has seen on this walk what he may imagine the depths of hell may resemble. Often the hollow men wonder what the appearence of the next destonation maybe, like them their views are strickly physical.

Part four contains further descriptions of physical features of the terrain. The stars mentioned throughout the poem, again they appear “In the valley of dying stars”(54). The stars represent the lives of the hollow men just present but soon to disappear. In the next stanza it mentions they “gathered on htis beach of the turmid river”(60). The river is reprenting hope an with them just observing from the beach their is no hope for them. The Heart of Darkness creates a similar situation, “The tranquil waterways leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky– seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness”(252). Both of the terrians explained are full of darkness and rivers, these represent the death reached at the end of one’s life.

Part five the final realization is made about the hollow men. The commparisons of what the hollow men are and what everyone else is can be detected in the couples of lines. One of the differences is “Between the idea/ And the reality” (72-73). On Kurtz’s death bed this is appearant,” The light was within a foot of his eyes”(239). The reality would be being able to actually see the light but instead he has to die base on the idea that their is light. “The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham…”(237).