African+Wilderness+as+Setting+and+Character


 * African Wilderness as Setting and Character **
 * How does Marlow describe the setting: the Congo jungle – the “wilderness”?
 * Consider imagery.


 * Marlow describes the setting as a living being – full of life, yet completely unmoving (“The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence.” p. 32) – that seems to be capable of both literally and metaphorically consuming a person (“Afterwards he arose and went out – and the wilderness without a sound took him into its bosom again.” p. 26) – comparable to the Vietnam jungle in //The Things They Carried//
 * Descriptions convey the setting to possess a beautiful stillness (comparable to the stillness of the setting on the boat, though the boat is a place of peace and serenity, has a sense of safety for Marlow and the other seamen), however it also contains nightmarish qualities that make the setting seem like a monster, and Marlow senses a pervading sorrow that stems from the wilderness and seems to cover everything around it ( “The oily and languid sea, the uniform somberness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of thing within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion.” p. 17)
 * Although the African wilderness is seen as an ominous setting, many characters see the wilderness as a place of shelter and safety (e.g. Dying helpers at the Company's station clinging to trees and dirt in their fear of death and suffering; Attackers of the steamer taking cover in the forest to hide)