The Heart of Darkness

Human behavior is dictated by basic desires and instincts. All our actions, even those that were initially undertaken with good intentions, are ultimately corrupted and guided by our inbred human nature. As humans, our primary motivation in any of our actions is our craving for control and power, and our false notion of righteousness serves as a justification for our barbarism. Author Joseph Conrad explores the stark reality of human nature in his novel Heart of Darkness, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's twentieth century rendition of Conrad's novel, Apocalypse Now relates the themes explored in Conrad's novel to the modern world.

In both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, the desire for power is the most dominant incentive behind the actions of all major characters. In the 1860's the underlying reason behind the Belgian colonization of the Congo was the desire for the leaders of that country to expand their power over their European rivals by spreading their overseas empire. In Apocalypse