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   cybil Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

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   The Accountant tells Marlow that Kurtz "Sends in as much ivory as all the other [agents] put together," so he's enormously successful. The Brickmaker describes Kurtz as "a prodigy ... an emissary of pity and science and progress, and the Russian (sometimes referred to as the "harlequin") contends that Kurtz "has enlarged my mind." All three of these glowing comments come from men who report Kurtz's positive traits, what the European community in Africa knows for the most part about Kurtz.

   Once Marlow meets the famous man, however, he is struck by Kurtz's lack of restraint, which Marlow deeply values, "in the gratification of his various lusts."  "He was hollow at the core." Although Marlow discovers the truth of Kurtz's character, he keeps that information to himself until he shares it with his friends in the frame story of Heart of Darkness.

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   Posted by cybil on Friday November 7, 2008 at 6:44 AM