satisfied with what they knew. Kurtz’s Intended desperately felt she needed to know his last words, but the truth would have totally devastated her. Marlow told her a lie, but one she had to know.Kurtz’s painting of the blindfolded lightbearer told volumes about the nature of the world and of Kurtz. He knew what he was getting into, knew all that was going on around him in the ivory business and in the African world. Perhaps it showed that, until his journey into Africa, he didn’t wholly comprehend the darkness within the ivory business, and within life itself. Mostly, it seemed to show that we end up destroying what we profess to enlighten; because we go about our lives with blindfolds on, we are unable to accomplish the noble dreams we aspire to. We all see only what we want to see, and by refusing to accept the realities of our lives, we destroy what we wish most to preserve.Throughout the story, we catch glimpses of the savageness both in nature and in man. It seems, though, that the darkness in man, while always present, must have outside wildness to spur its awakening. It can be likened to a dormant volcano, harmless while sleeping, but, once awakened, vicious, fiery, and powerful. The search for truth oftentimes yields not the pleasant enlightenment expected and desired, but the wildness necessary to bring out the brutality and inhumanity in us all....
