Camouflaged Mystery

The story continues as Charles Marlow keeps narrating his voyage. I mentioned in my last blog that Conrad uses vivid imagery and detailed description. Instead if giving action he narrates situations calmly and gives emotion to them by description. Another thing that caught my attention as I read was the sense of mystery. But it is a different mystery not the once I was used to. I had read mystery books before like Nancy Drew. Where they give you hints through out the novel and you read to find out what the next clue is going to be and everything makes sense at the end. I would not qualify this book as a mystery novel in fact I´m pretty sure it´s not, still it creates doubt to the reader. In comparison to the other mystery books, this one does not give you hints, it tells us story and by vaguely mentioning characters, situations, and places it creates mystery. One page 84 a Mr. Kurtz is mentioned for the first time.

“He was a first class agent” (84).

“Mr. Kurtz was at present in charge of a trading post , a very important one, in the true ivory country,. Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together. From the moment I read that questions ran through my mind. Why would Conrad mention him? What role is going to play in the novel?

When they mention him again, the narrator states, “there were rumors that a very important station was in jeopardy, and its chief Mr. Kutz, was ill. What station? Are Kurtz and Marlow going to have to work together in the future? Questions arise again.

The head of the company then mentions to Charles “Mr. Kutz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the company.” (89)

“I heard the name of Mr. Kurtz pronounced, then the words “take advantage of this unfortunate accident”. One of the men was the manager.” (90) my immediate reaction with this sentence was jealousy, men that were supposedly working together with Kurtz want to take advantage that he is ill, because they are jealous that he is loved that much.

Finally, in page 92 Marlow asks “ who is this Mr. Kurtz and the answer does not help us much “the chief of the inner station “ I don’t know about you but still after knowing who he is I want to know more.

The examples sated above are just a few of the times that the mentioned. I suspect that further into the novel he will really appear instead of blending in the story and being part of situations like he is right now. Although he´s currently not playing part in the novel he can be seen as an example. Most of the times that Marlow is talking to someone higher ranked than him they mention Kurtz. Others are jealous and plan to take advantage of the fact that he´s ill. So far the novel has not been really exciting. Still Conrad includes little aspects like this one of Mr. Kurtz so that the reader will want to continue. It´s like camouflaged mystery because all the talk about Kurtz does give the reader some clues. What makes it different is that right know that novel does not revolve around Kurtz but around Marlow. Kurtz was up to know “just a word” (94).