First Outside Reading Book

For my first outside reading book, I chose to read Heart of Darkness. It was written in 1902 and it's only 72 pages long. Let’s just say the font size was probably size 5. It felt like I was reading a 300 page book. The actual story was hard to follow because of the language. I selected travel as my topic for this project and this book kind of matched up. It was long and I'm not quite sure if I completely followed the plot. The main character Marlow sets out on a journey down the Congo River. Marlow's journeys led to him discover himself and others around him. I predicted that he would grow due to his exposure to a new land, and he did. His travel experience was not exactly pleasant, though. He describes his journey as being dark. He longed for companionship, which was interesting to me. I always suspected that when a person travels, they have a person that tags along for the journey. I never really thought about having to travel alone and how lonely that must be. Marlow was traveling on a steamboat with "pilgrims" or basically people who practiced cannibalism. He had a partner with him, but still he felt so alone. I think it's easy to sympathize with Marlow on his trip. He set out to find Kurtz the ivory owner in Africa, and when he got there he was disappointed. Kurtz didn't end up being the great person he thought he would be. It's easy to relate to because often people set out on a journey with high hopes for a great time, and sometimes that works out, but sometimes people let you down. Even though this book was long and boring at times, the message is clear, even after a hundred and eleven years.