If Kurtz really is the idea to conquor the earth, then his words must also be part of that idea. "Exterminate all the brutes" p.123 he wrote. "Everything belonged to him" p. 121. But, he "was little more than a voice" p. 120, and voice can do nothing but speak. They can promise falsely, make plans, discuss various topics, but they cannot do anything. It is the body which carries out the voice's commands. And who is then the body in this story?
The blacks, of course. Their bodies are constantly being described. Their "black" skin, their strong muscles, their breaking, weak, and emaciated bodies. Their labour is directed by the voice - the voices of their masters.
But then, two more descriptions come into play.
That of the "Buddha" - Marlow - the enlightened one. He knows what happened. He knows what was going on. He talks, and talks - and his listeners are so silent, we don't know they are there. Why did he not talk to others? Enlighten them? Now, no one takes him seriously, "it was just like Marlow...No one took the trouble to grunt even" p.68.
And that of those who sat with him. We are unsure if they even payed much attention. One must have, for he - every so often, interrupted Marlow's story with a slight account of what was happening, or what he thought. But the others - who knows. And at the end of the novel, and story, they just moved on as if they had never heard Marlow's words.
We are the others, by we, I mean readers. We read the book, but we didn't comment, or break Marlow's train of thought, we did not ask him. We had questions, we skipped over words he said, we sometimes even dosed off amidst his rambling. But every so often, we were the attentive listener. Yet, at the end, they picked up with their lives, and moved on. Just like we will. After turning the last page, we will go on with our lives, and only every so often visit what knowledge Marlow informed us of.
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