Compose a Critical Analysis on "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness
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Introduction
Heart of Darkness is a fictional story that revolves around the main character Marlow. The story depicts the life of colonialists in the African continent. Taking the reader through the journey of the main character Marlow, the story shows how misguided influences gets in the way of their initial plans. What then follows are unachieved dreams which end on self-destruction. The discussion herein revolves around Kurtz and seeks to show that he was misguided by his influences. In the paper, various examples have been given to show that indeed the life of Kurtz was misguided by his influences and hence the resulting effect.
Kurtz the god
Besides his ambitions and hard work, Kurtz is seen as a god. Those who know him talk highly about him and they appear to revere and adore him. Marlow, for instance believes that Kurtz has certain abilities that no one else has. Although Kurtz may be hardworking and ambitious, he also portrays elements of greed (Conrad, p. 56). He takes advantage of the fact that the people he leads are uncivilized and unexposed. He appears to look down on them and assumes that they will not question his actions. Although he is influential, his greed misguides him into becoming a person not worth of respect bestowed on him. The people in the society think highly of him, yet he is misguided by his influences and loses the respect.
As a result, the initial plans he has are aborted by his love and greed for money. He realizes that he can make a lot of money through the sale of ivory. He therefore turns to the very people who have looked up to him for guidance. As a god, Kurtz was supposed to help the African people gain civilization (Conrad, p. 36-9). They saw him as more superior to them and believed that through him, they would get the help they needed. Unfortunately, his limitless ambitions came in the way and he lost track of direction. A good indication to show that Kurtz loses direction is the fact that he end up self-destructed. He is too ambitious and his focus of illegal ivory trade turns him into a person that not even him can recognize any more. Therefore, one indication that Kurtz was misguided by his influences is that he dies having not achieved his goals. He realized way too late that he had gone off course. It is as if he would have wanted to hold to life longer and undo the wrongs that he did. Unfortunately his health failed him and he passed on.
As a god, Kurtz possesses all the features. He was strong, wise and ambitious. One cannot, however, help but notice that his name was interpreted to mean one of little stature or short in height. This means, therefore, that his name contrasted with the position that he held. It means that Kurtz could not possibly live up to his name of a god. It was as if to suggest that even if he had the features to liberate the native Africans, he was bound to fail (Conrad, p. 35). In his death, Kurtz recognizes that he has let down and disappointed all those who looked up to him. Looking back, he realized that pretty much of what he did was for his own benefit. He did not help the native Africans who had looked up to him for guidance. His death was a shame as he knew that he ...