FREE ESSAY ON HEART OF DARKNESS VS. APOCALYPSE NOW

HEART OF DARKNESS VS. APOCALYPSE NOW

In the article, "Narratological Parallels in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Francis
Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now" Linda Costanzo Cahir compares and contrasts both the
novella and the film. Both writers had the same theme and meaning in mind, but their
structure and technique was what made the stories different. 
In both the novel and the film, we see the central character (Marlow or Willard) as a man
drastically altered by a past experience. Each story begins with the main character
explaining how he was appointed to take the journey up the river. Both Marlow and Willard
made three unscheduled stops with the crew. The third stop being the "soul-altering
confrontation with the mysterious Kurtz" (Cahir 1). Although the plot is the same, the
stories are different. Not only in the way they are told, but also in the way the main
character endures the excursion.
Linda Costanzo Cahir speaks about the "recording eye." The narrator serves as the
"recording eye" in Heart of Darkness. Being invisible only between the teller and
listener, the narrator sees what is going on and reports back to the reader. We see what
the narrator sees just as we see what a camera sees. The narrator controls what we hear
and see at all times. Apocalypse Now is a more contemporary version of Heart of Darkness,
retold through a camera. "Coppola's camera retells Benjamin Willard's tale" (2). We see
everything through the eye of the camera. 
Another similarity between the two stories is the audience. Either by book or my film,
this story is being told to someone. In Heart of Darkness, the narrator is telling the
story to the other people on the boat, while in Apocalypse Now, Willard is telling the
story to the audience. "Like Chaucer's Pilgrims, Conrad's character (in this frame
portion if the story) are identified by their professions only; and they, too, passed the
time in storytelling" (3). I really like the way Cahir compared Conrad's characters to
Chaucer's characters. 
The Lawyer -the best of old fellows -had, 
because of his many years and many virtues, 
the only cushion on deck, and was lying on 
the only rug. The Accountant had brought out 
already a box of dominoes, and was toying 
architecturally with the bones... The Director, 
satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his
way aft and sat down amongst us. (Conrad 1)
In Heart of Darkness a story is told to the passengers on the boat: "the Sailor's Story,
or Marlow's Tale" (Cahir 4). I believe Conrad made the other characters known by their
occupation to show the difference between the characters and Marlow. One could view the
audience watching Apocalypse Now the same way. "Willard is not like the others, the
Lawyers, the Directors, the Accountants seated in front of him listening to his tale in
the movie theater" (5). We are listening to this story told by Willard, just as Conrad's
characters are listening to the narrator tell the story.
Although the two stories show Marlow and Willard's alteration through the journey to meet
Kurtz, there is no real moral. I believe both men learned the lesson of existence in
different ways. But the story itself was for entertainment, not to bequeath a moral.
Linda Costanzo Cahir believes the separate tales of Benjamin Willard and Charles Marlow
follow similar narrative patterns and arrive at similar truths. The stories are similar
in many different ways, but the stories are totally different in many ways also. "Coppola
understood the technique and theme, structure and meaning are inseparable entities. To
tell a story differently is to tell a different story" (7).
Cahir states, "Man's fascination with the abomination, his initiation in to the heart of
darkness is the same whether the descent is made by a Roman journeying up the Thames, an
Englishman up the Congo, or an American up the Nung" (4). Although the stories, Heart of
Darkness and Apocalypse Now's details are different, the audience gets the same thing out
of it. The story is still presented the same and the two men (Marlow and Willard)
"undergo the same realization. Each confronts moral terror in the form of human conduct
pushed beyond decent limits" (6). Both men are extremely disturbed and altered by this
encounter. 
I thoroughly enjoyed this article. I agree with many of the points Linda Costanzo Cahir
puts forth. Both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now follow a similar plot, but the
stories are truly different. Both stories show several similarities such as the plot, the
"recording eye," and the audience. Both writers had the same theme and meaning in mind,
but their structure and technique was what made the stories different.