Monday, April 14, 2014

In Heart of Darkness, what does the helmsman symbolize and how is he significant?

In addition, the helmsman lacks restraint, a quality Marlow very much admires. The cannibals, oddly enough, do have restraint, for even when they exhaust their food supply of hippo meat and go hungry for some time, they manage to restrain themselves from eating the people on the boat. Earlier one of the cannibals had indicated they would eat any natives on the bank whom the boat had passed by had any of these people been killed. When they're actually hungry, however, this crew on the boat doesn't eat anybody. Marlow does, nevertheless, deposit the helmsman's body in the river so they won't be tempted to eat him.

Kurtz as well lacks restraint. He "had given in to his various lusts," according to Marlow, and sunk to utter depravity. Both he and the helmsman die, as ms-mcgregor has indicated, because of their actions.

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