Set in the 1900s, Heart of Darkness introduces a topic that would probably be hard to swallow today: the Caucasian male and the native savage. Knowing that this classic book was on our reading list, I was a bit underwhelmed by the book's topic considering all the acclaim for it. Perhaps I was not in the right mind set to read this piece of literature or perhaps Heart of Darkness has lost the language to communicate with the average reader. However, it is worth noting that Heart of Darkness has inspired many great works in all media (i.e. Apocalypse Now) so maybe the fault is not in the story but in the media it was told.
Let's begin with the narrative. Immediately, the reader are distanced from the setting by the language; words like "a cruising yawl" for exploration boat among others. We are then slowly introduce to the crew: the Captain, the Lawyer, the Accountant, Marlow, and our Protagonist. The pacing of the story continues in this manner: a slow reveal and little action.
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