age of anxiety, war poets, forster, conrad, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica age of anxiety, war poets, forster, conrad e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! the 2Oth century Queen Victoria died in 19O1, then her son Edward VII came to the throne. However, nothing changed both socially and from the point of view of the literary production. Some authors, such as H.G.Wells, continued the standards of the Victorian novelists. Virginia Woolf, one of the most important writers of this age, referred to these authors as “Materialists” and said that they weremore interested in describing the outer aspect of the “building” rather than describing what was inside. These authors actually continued the Victorian tradition. The beginning of the 2Oth century was marked by one of the most productive, yet shocking literary and artistic revolutions of all time. All the aspects that were traditionally associated with Victorian literature, such as: ✧ the importance of the third-person omniscient narrator, ✧ a well-structured and eventful plot, ✧ the presence of many characters, ✧ the interest in realism, ✧ a general optimism ✧ and a strong faith in human progress were swept away by the spread of new theories and ideas that revolutionized the very concept of life and of the world. The image of both the outer and the inner world was radically changed by: ✧ the spread of Einstein's theory of relativity, which destroyed the faith in objective reality; ✧ the influence of Freud's psychoanalysis, which unveiled the world of the unconscious and of the inner self. The First World War changed man’s attitude towards the world. Even though the official pretext was the murder of the archiduke Franz Ferdinand, the real cause was imperialism and power fights. Since Britain felt threatened by Germany’s increasing military power, the English allied with Russia and France. Moreover, Britain felt they had to take part in the war after Germany’s invasion ofBelgium. In fact, Belgium and England alway had a strict relationship, as Belgium was the most affluent market for the UK. The king, George V, needed to form an army and to convince the British to join the army. To do so, posterswere used along with the biblical metaphor of the Giant and Golia: there was the idea of the need of defending Belgium (small and defenseless) against Germany (the gigantic country). Soldiers had to fight in trenches so they could not move. Soldiers used airplanes, machine guns, bombs and gas. The experience of the FirstWorldWar (1914-18) was the final blow to Victorian optimism and inaugurated an era of anxiety and uncertainty. These trends were reflected in the literary and artistic production of the period, which was characterized by: strong technical and stylistic experimentalism and by the attempt to use literature to explore the hidden recesses of the 'modern' human. the Suffragettes The general elections held in 19O6, which brought victory to the Liberal Party, had a very high turnout: 83.2% of the electors (people with the right to vote) actually voted. However, wemust remember that out of a population of over 3O million people, only 7.25million were electors. Only 6O% of adult men (over the age of 21) had the right to vote and nowomen, nor poor, criminals and crazy people could vote. 1 At the beginning of the 2Oth century a woman's destiny was still to marry young, stay at home and have children. Peaceful campaigning for rights and freedom was now replaced by a more aggressive approach. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed in Manchester in 19O3 by a small group of women, known as suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, whowanted to obtainmass support in order to reach politicians. Women demanded vote and to take full part in the democratic process. They were prepared to use anymilitant means. The suffragettes movement was the only protest movement to succeed by violence. Women started by gathering at Hyde Park, in London, on Sundays, although refined women were not supposed to demonstrate in public spaces. On top of that, there was the idea that asking the right to vote wasn’t feminine andwhen they turned to violence they were seen as criminals by the public opinion. They wrote and published weekly newspapers and carried out marketing campaigns. Their aim was to transform the public opinion through deeds and their motto indeed was: “deeds, not words”. One of the actions they took to grab attention was to chain themselves to railings, so that police could not release them and make them go away. They used to also smash windows with toffee hammers: attacking private property was a way of getting attention. Their leader belonged to the upper classes but people belonging to every social class joined. They wore uniforms and sashes with symbolic colors: ➳ purple as dignity; ➳ white as purity; ➳ green as fertility and hope; Emily Wilding Davison was an extremist, invented a new type of protest: letter bombs, responsible for destroying hundreds of letters. During the 18th protest in parliament square, known as “black friday”, womenwere assaulted by policemen (in order to scare them andmake them not come back again) and over a thousand of themwere imprisoned and sent to Halloway prison. Women demanded the state of political imprisonment and began a hunger strike to obtain it. On the contrary, they were forced to eat because they didn’t want them to die, since having a martyr would have given credibility to themovement. The strategy of force feeding proved to be a catastrophe for the government and society was shocked. “The cat and mouse act” allowed the prison authorities to let women out rather than forcibly feed them and then react to them so they went on hunger strike and so on. As a sign of protest, they also refused to pay the fine when they got arrested, because it would havemeant recognizing that they had done something wrong. Army of women smashed windows of shops and firebombed politician houses and churches and as a result they were considered a threat for national security. First surveillance images commissioned by the government, when arrested, refused to give a mugshot. Their violence was both physical and intellectual. The most extreme protest took place in June 1913: Emily Davidson arrived at the EpsomDerby (probably to get public attention) Emily entered in the horse’s path and threw herself in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby. Pankhurst organized a funeral for the first suffragette martyr and 6.OOO women (not only suffragettes but also supporters) marched to the church (st. George in Bloomsbury). The violence of the movement was probably necessary because without the violence probably there would have been no attention towards the cause. The WSPU called off its militant action during the GreatWar whilst there was a common enemy, Germany. Women finally escaped from their domestic confines, and started to work in agriculture, transport and industry to support the war effort while somanymenwere fighting in Europe. As they proved to be reliable, they also demanded the right to vote. Immediately after the war The Representation of the People Act of 1918 finally granted voting rights to all women over 3O who were property owners. In 1928 the franchise was extended towomen over 21, on the same terms as those for men. 2 the British Empire The British Empire was widespread, England could count on a large empire that included Canada, the Carribeans, South Africa, Egypt, India, Australia, New Zealand and part of Guinea. The Victorians referred to the empire as the “empire in which the sun never sets”, since it covered somany time zones. The Victorians were convinced of their superiority and believed it was their moral duty to export their language, culture and traditions to the uncivilized lands of the empire. Kipling referred to it as the white man’s burden. Britain was trying to defy and limit the strength of other European powers, such as France in northern Africa, Germany in the south-west of Africa and Russia expanding to the north of the Afghanistan borders. British imperialists believed that they had to maintain their status as a leading world power. Moreover, the empire would providemilitary power and economic resources. Britain imported almost all the wheat it consumed and the Empire was themajor supplier providing nearly half the nation’s requirements. Other raw materials and resources for its industries came from countries outside Europe and America. Britain’s commodities were exported to their colonies. The empire offered an opportunity to escape poor living conditions in Britain and start a new life: millions of citizens emigrated to Canada and Australia. There is a slight difference between colonialism and imperialism: in both cases there is a situation of domination, but in colonialism there is a transfer of population to a new territory, while in imperialism it is just a way of commanding and exploiting the territory. A lot of British went to colonies to settle. The British fought the Crimean war in alliance with France and the Turks in order to halt the Russians advance towards Constantinople. The English had to cope with the Indian mutiny: the East India company was destroying the Indian cotton market in favor of the goods made in Britain, therefore there was social unrest and the revolt was suppressed. England took part in theOpiumwars in China. In Africa the British started exploring the territory, but they went from exploration to colonization. The most famous explorer was David Livingston, who discovered the source of the Nile, and H.M. Stanley. The English were present with the French in Egypt, because Egypt was the place where the goods stopped after sailing from India to Europe. Napoleon did not want to cross the channel, so he put the English economically under pressure and decided to conquer Egypt. 5 theWAR POETS The first half of the 2Oth century was dominated by the experience of two world wars, which inevitably stand at the core of most of the poetic production of the age The most prolific groups of poets during the war years were theWar Poets. The phrase 'War Poets' refers to a group ofmenwho fought in the trenches during the FirstWorldWar. These poets havemany aspects in common: ✧ they all took part in the war as soldiers; ✧ they all enrolled enthusiasticallywhenwar broke out; ✧ they were all in their late-2Oswhen they enrolled; ✧ they wrote poems in which the war is described as a terrible experience leading to death, suffering and alienation. Most of the War Poets died in the trenches: theirs is the voice of a generation of young people who welcomed thewar as a just cause but were then confrontedwith its inhumanity. RUPERT BROOKE (1887-1915) Rupert Brooke was born in Warwickshire in 1887. He studied in Cambridge, at King's College, where he started writing poems. His early poetic writings were characterized by the tendency to represent an idyllic view of the English countryside. After a serious nervous breakdown, he traveled to Italy, Germany, North America, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. He was commissioned into the Royal Naval Division shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. He was the prototype of the English youngman but he decided to go to the front. He was the example of the best life England could offer. He can be considered as a romantic hero, since as Shelley and Byron, he urged the others to take arms and fight. ✧ Brooke published his first collection of poems in 1912 with the title ofGeorgian Poetry, 1911-1912. This title suggests that he belonged to the group of writers and poets 'Georgian Poets', who rejected the didactic style of Victorian poetry and dealt with humble themes with amelancholic and elegiac tone. ✧ Brooke's most famous poetic work is the sonnet collection entitled “1914 &Other Poems”, published in 1915, the year of his death. This collection of poems, which express an idealistic and enthusiastic praise for war, made him immediately popular. Brooke died on a hospital ship in Greece in 1915 and was buried on the Greek island of Skyros. The obituary which appeared in The Times on the day of his death was written byWinston Churchill. One aspect of Brooke's biography needs to be taken into account to understandmuch of his war poetry: he did not have a long experience of war as he contracted blood poisoning andwas then sent to hospital. This fact prevented him from experiencing the most terrible aspects of war and explains much of Brooke's exaltation of and exultation over the experience of war, which he idealized as a purifying experience for people and nations. Brooke's war poetry lacks the elements of tragedy and loss, the soldier's experience was seen by Brooke as a sacrifice for the nation andwar is glorified as a triumph of patriotism and heroism. Critics have underlined the fact that Brooke's poetry is sometimes too sentimental and superficial; nevertheless, his works represent inestimable historical documents reflecting the exalted mood of Britain during the years immediately before the outbreak of the FirstWorldWar. 6 On the whole, his poems were published the same year of his death andmade him very popular. They show a sentimental attitude and turned him into a new symbol of the young romantic hero who inspired patriotism. In his poems, war is seen as clean and cleansing, while death is seen as a reward. He tried to testify the safety of war. The Soldier (1915) This poem was published in 1915 and is also known with the title of “1914”. It is a sonnet written in 1915 and contains the reflections of a young soldier at war. The poet is here speaking to future English generations and he’s not pointing out the atrocity of war, yet he feels proud of being there, because he is fighting for England. England is here described through a personification, since Brooke compares it to parent in lines 5 to 7. The general mood is of optimism and joy, England gets repeated many times and we find no pain but positive images and a sense of hope, which reflect the idea of a starch patriotism. The rhyme scheme isABAB in the first 8 lines andABCABC in the last six. WILFREDOWEN (1893-1918) He worked as a teacher in France where he visited a hospital for the wounded, but he then decided to go back to England to enlist. Eventually, he got killed in a German machine gun attack 7 days before the Armistice, on 4 nov 1918. He was inspired by Brooke’s ideal of the oppressed fighting against the oppressor, but then he turned to realism and describedwar as it was. After fighting for four years, his poems are accurate, painful and detailed accounts of war and gas casualties, of menwho have gonemad and of physically destroyedmen. He also wrote a collection of poems entitled “to disabled and other poems”. As it emerges in the preface of this collection: - He is not interested in themajesty and honor of war, but just in its pity. - He is not interested in poetry because pity itself is poetic. On top of that, he generally wrote in a lamented tone to remember dead beloved. He often used para - rhymes and assonances and alliterations. His lines have a haunting quality, gravity andmoral force. Dulce et decorumest In this poem Owen is describing soldiers' typical day and the speaking voice is inside the scene. The image we have of these soldiers is of despair, fatigue, disillusionment, they were physically exhausted and even their health was proving to beweak. As far as style is concerned, there are long sentences but sometimes cut and the hammering rhythm gives the idea of the soldiers moving with difficulty. Afterward, the poet turns to talk to the old generation, which through posters convinced young men to take arms, he thinks that this generation is responsible for this atrocity and states that if they had seen all of this, they wouldn't say that it is sweet to die for your country. 7 EdwardMorgan Forster He was born on 1 January 1879 in London. He attended Tonbridge School, where he was deeply unhappy, and then went to King's College, Cambridge, where he found intellectual freedom and friends. After university he traveled for a year in Italy and went on a cruise to Greece. These experiences and his observation of English tourists abroad provided material for some of his later works. Returning to England he devoted himself to writing contributing to the Independent Review, founded by friends fromCambridge. In 19O5 he published his first novelWhere Angels Fear to Tread. Forster wrote in a free, colloquial style, breaking with the traditions of 19th-century prose. His works contain social commentary based on his observations of middle class behavior. 19O8 saw the publication of A Room with a View, a witty critical observation of snobbish, cultured English tourists in Florence shaken by contact with the liberating vision of Mediterranean life. Forster's first real success came with Howards End (191O). He traveled in India in 1912-13 and in 1915 worked for the Red Cross in Alexandria, Egypt. He returned to India in 1921-22 and in 1922-24 completed A Passage to India, which was to be his last novel. In particular, he focused on the relationship between European and Indian culture, asking himself whether there is a breach that can reconcile and unite the two cultures.Hewas not a prolific writer, but all his novels were a tremendous success. Forster devoted the rest of his life to literary activities; he campaigned against censorship and was a witness for the defense in the famous trial of the publishers of Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover in 196O. He produced essays, short stories, biographies and travel books. Forster died on 7 June 197O. Forster was a writer who stood betweenModernism and tradition. LikeModernist intellectuals he rejected Victorian moralism and used his novels to tackle controversial issues such as imperialism, colonialism, homosexuality and discrimination. Modernist however he did not experiment with style: narrative technique was refined and based the central role played by the plot. But Forster's style is only apparently traditional; he was a master in usingmultiple-perspectives andmany of his novels are characterized by the presence of the third person narrator, but also by a constant focus on the single characters' viewpoint. His language is humorous and ironic. A Passage to India (1924) Forster doesn’t belong to imperialistic literature, because he pointed out the cultural diversity between India and Great Britain but he didn’t celebrate colonialism. Forster's great novel, A Passage to India, analyzes the conflict between the dominant British society in India and its prejudices and its failure to understand Indian society. Criticised at the time for being 'anti-British' the novel is acclaimed as a fascinating study of the people of one race by a writer of another ethnic group. The novel is in three parts and tells the story of a young Muslim doctor, Aziz, whose initial friendship and respect for the British will be transformed into bitterness. Aziz is wrongly accused of insulting a young English girl, Adela Quested, on a visit to the Marabar Caves. Aziz is sent to prison and faces trial but Adela withdraws her accusation. Aziz abandons the Maraba British community and moves to a job in a native state. In a meeting with his former friend,Mr Fielding, the former Principal of the Government school, Aziz reflects on the future of India and tells Fielding that they can only be friends when the British are driven out of India. 10 Set in colonial India during the time of British domination, A Passage to India explores the atrocities perpetrated by the British in India, the difficulties Indians had to face to let their own culture and language emerge and survive under the British domination, the British attempt to impose their own culture and power over a state which did not belong to them, and the cultural and social stigma that British colonisers imposed on the Indians simply because they were not British. If we consider the historical context it depicts and draws inspiration from, Forster's A Passage to India is an acute, eyewitness representation of the double process of colonization the novel analyses both how the British imposed their power on colonies and how the colonies were subjugated by an external authority which deprived them of their identity and dignity Forster's novel is centered around one overarching theme: the complexity of the encounter between cultures, especially in an environment dominated by colonialism. Forster is very critical towards the British and their belief in the idea that the British had the right and themoral duty to bring Europener civilization to non-European (and therefore perceived as primitive) cultures. The novel suggests a very pessimistic idea about intercultural encounters because it depicts the actual impossibility for different cultures of finding a real dialogue. The East and the West represent two incommensurably distant places and cultures, which in the novel fail to reconcile The theme of the incommunicability and of the clash between cultures is one of the great elements of modernity in Forster's novel, which thus anticipates some of the most urgent themes of the modern, and especially of the contemporary, world. As far as style is concerned, Forster explores the psychological aspects of his characters. For instance, the contact with naturemakesMrsMoore reflect on her existence, nature is nomore seen as a caringmother. →Movie Adela Quested is sailing from England to British Raj India with Mrs Moore, the latter the mother of her intended bridegroom, Ronny Heaslop, MrsMoore's son from her first marriage. He is the City magistrate in Chandrapore, the anglicized spelling of Chandrapur. Adela intends to see if she canmake a go of it. The ladies are disappointed to find that the British community is very much separated from the Indian population and culture with a growing Indian independencemovement in the 192Os. They are encouraged when the local school superintendentRichard Fielding, brings into their acquaintance the eccentric elderly Hindu Brahmin scholar Professor Narayan Godbole. Mrs Moore meets by chance another Indian local, Dr Aziz Ahmed, a widower who is surprised by her kindness and lack of prejudice. Aziz offers to host an excursion to the local Marabar Caves. The initial exploration of the caves shows that the size of the party should be limited when Mrs Moore suffers from claustrophobia and the noise from the large entourage echoes exponentially inside the caves. Mrs Moore encourages Adela and Aziz to continue their exploration of the caves alone with just one guide. They reach the caves at a higher elevation some distance from the group and, before entering, Aziz steps away to smoke a cigarette. He returns to find Adela has disappeared. Shortly afterwards, he sees her running headlong down the hill, disheveled. She is picked up by the doctor's wife, Mrs Callendar, and taken to the Callendars' home. Adela is bleeding and delirious. Dr Callendar medicates Adela with a hypodermic syringe. Upon his return to Chandrapore, Dr Aziz is accused of attempting to rape Adela inside the caves, is jailed awaiting trial, and the incident becomes a cause célèbre. MrsMoore firmly believes Aziz did not commit any offense and departs India for England. Seemingly enjoying her passage at sea, MrsMoore suddenly suffers an apparent heart attack and dies. In court, Adela is questioned by the prosecutor, who is stunned when Adela replies that Dr Aziz never entered the cave, where the supposed attempt took place. It becomes clear to Adela that her earlier signed 11 accusation of attempted rapewas false, so she recants. Aziz is freed and celebrated for his innocence. Adela is abandoned to her own devices by the British, except for Mr Fielding, who assists her to safety at the college. She plans to return to England at the earliest moment. Aziz rids himself of his western associations and vows to find a new job in another Indian state; he opens a clinic in the lake area near Srinagar, Kashmir. Meanwhile, through Adela, Fielding has married Stella Moore, Mrs Moore's daughter from her second marriage. Aziz eventually reconciles with Fielding, and Aziz writes to Adela asking her to forgive him for taking so long to come to appreciate the courage she exercised when shewithdrew her accusation in court. An intercultural encounter This passage describes the encounter between a group of English ladies and a group of Indian ladies: in spite of their efforts, the ladies fail to communicate with one another because of the huge cultural clash existing between them. The narrator of this passage is a third person intrusive narrator. 12 countries have to bring civilization to undeveloped countries, Conrad questions the very idea of colonization and its positive value. Heart of Darkness is based on the constant contrast between darkness and whiteness. In the novel 'darkness' can refer to Africa and to its unexplored regions, to the 'blackness' of its inhabitants, to the obscurity of the heart of Western colonizers and to the mystery of the human soul, which the modern writer can no longer describe in a detailed and definite way. "Whiteness, on the contrary, refers to Europe and to its apparent civility, but it can also refer to the color of ivory, which represents the main object of desire of white men in Africa. The dualism between 'darkness' and 'whiteness' sustains the whole novel and multiplies its level of interpretation according to the specific aspect of 'darkness' and 'whiteness that is being considered, Conrad's novel can be read as a moral story, as an anticolonial novel, as an allegory of colonization, and as a parable of theWestern history of dominion. The complexity and the ambiguity of the themes in Heart of Darkness is heightened by the narrative technique adopted by Conrad. The story has two narrators: - One is an anonymous passenger on the ship where Marlow starts telling his story: this narrator is called a 'frame narrator' because his narration includes the whole story. - The other one isMarlow himself, who tells the story from his own subjective and inevitably partial point of view. Through the use of a double subjective narrator Conrad creates a strong distance between the Truth and the reader, thus giving the idea that the Truth underpinning the whole story is itself surrounded with 'darkness' and ambivalence. To heighten this effect Conrad makes use of time shifts and breaks the chronological order of narration. Building a railway This excerpt is taken from the first part of Heart of Darkness. On his upriver journey towards Kurtzt, Marlow reaches a power station and describes what he finds there. The atmosphere he describes is compared to Dante’s Inferno. The author here describes two categories of blackmen: - six black men work in such terrible conditions, that they are connected together with a chain and they are so thin that the author can see his ribs. They are walking while carrying some baskets on their heads and they have iron collars around their necks. As they see the white man passing, they ignore him. - the guardian, on the other hand, is wearing a uniform jacket with one bottom off and he gives orders. As he sees the white man passing, he heists his weapon to his shoulder, as he is reassured. The narrator of the passage here is a first-person obtrusive narrator. Marlow states that he is also part of a great cause, meaning that as he is a white man he is as well involved and part of the problem of colonization and bringing civilization to africa. Therefore, he can not be considered as a one hundred percent objective narrator because he is inevitably influenced by the environment he comes from. However, as he realizes he himself is part of the problem, hemight make his best to leave his personal point of view. Apocalypse now Apocalypse Now opens in Saigon in 1968. Army captain and special intelligence agent BenjaminWillard is holed up in a hotel room, heavily intoxicated and desperate to get back into action. He has completed one tour of duty in Vietnam, only to go home a changed man, miserable amid the confines of civilization. After agreeing to a divorce, he has returned to Vietnam for a second tour and nowwaits restlessly for amission. 15 Two officers arrive to escort Willard to Nha Trang, where he meets with two military superiors and a CIA operative, who brief him on a rogue Green Beret colonel named Walter E. Kurtz.Willard is ordered to find and “terminate” Kurtz, who has become unhinged and committed murder with the help of a native Montagnard army. Kurtz currently is stationed at an outpost in Cambodia with theMontagnards, who treat him as a god. Kurtz is insane, the officers say, and his methods are “unsound.” To reach Kurtz, Willard joins the crew of a Navy river patrol boat (abbreviated PBR, as in Patrol Boat River), who are to ferry him up the (fictional) Nung River to Cambodia. The boat’s crew consists of four men: Chief, Chef, Lance, and Clean. With Willard on board, the crew makes its rendezvous with the Ninth Air Cavalry, who are to escort the PBR to the mouth of the river. The crew members find themselves in themiddle of a B–52 bomber strike. Willard encounters the cavalry’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who assuresWillard his cavalry will set the PBR safely at themouth of the river. At dawn, Kilgore orders an air attack on a Vietcong-controlled village, and one of the film’s most memorable sequences begins. The helicopters approach, blasting Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” through loudspeakers as the villagers scatter. During the intense air strike, a chopper plunks the PBR down in the river successfully. From this point on, Willard and the crew embark on a journey consisting of a number of episodic encounters connected byWillard’s narration. The first episode takes place in the jungle. Chef’s craving for mangoes leads him and Willard to disembark and explore the jungle. Amid mammoth trees and dense vegetation, a tiger lunges out at them from the shadows. Chef and Willard run back to the boat. Chef has a nervous breakdown as the rest of the crew shoots blindly at the jungle, assuming the danger is Vietcong. Chef’s breakdown darkens the crew’s mood. Further up the river, the crew meets a U.S. base supply depot. They dock and collect fuel, cigarettes, and other supplies, then join the throng of men in an amphitheater that has been erected by the river. Soon, a helicopter arrives and drops three Playboy Playmates onto the stage to perform in a USO (United Service Organization) show. The Playmates perform to Flash Cadillac’s song “Suzie Q” and taunt the sex-starved troops with seductive shimmies and bump-and-grind moves. When some of the soldiers run onto stage in a frenzy, the show is cut short and the Playmates are quickly evacuated. The crew returns to the PBR, and the boat soonmeets other patrol boats coming in the opposite direction, with whom they engage in mock warfare. As the crew continues on and tempers flare upmore frequently, Willard obsessively reviews Kurtz’s dossier. Lance and Chef are continually under the influence of drugs, and Lance in particular becomes withdrawn, smearing his face with camouflage paint and saying little. One day, Chief insists on stopping a sampan (a small boat) carrying several Vietnamese peasants and supplies downriver. At Chief’s command, Chef boards the sampan and searches it. Chief orders Chef to look inside a rusty yellow can that a peasant woman on the sampanwas sitting on; when Chef does, the woman makes a sudden move toward the can. Clean starts shooting at random, killing all the civilians on board except the woman. Once the shooting subsides, Chef looks inside the can and finds only a small puppy. Noticing the woman is still alive, Chief orders Chef to bring her on board, saying the crewwill take her to a “friendly” hospital nearby. Willard steps forward, points his gun at the woman’s chest, and fires, killing her so that his mission can proceedwithout a detour. The rest of the crew begins to see him in a different light. Continuing upriver, the shaken crew reaches an army outpost under fire in a gunfight for an American-held bridge—the last military outpost before the Cambodian border. Willard is unable to find a commanding officer onshore but is given a packet of mail for the boat. One of the letters in the packet informs Willard that the U.S. military previously sent another man on the samemission to retrieve Kurtz but that theman is now operating with Kurtz. As Clean listens to an audiotape letter from his mother, the PBR comes under a surprise attack by Vietcong, and Clean is shot fatally. The boat continues upriver, only to meet another surprise attack. Primitive natives onshore shoot a storm of arrows at the PBR. Chief is impaled with a spear and dies.With twomen gone, the survivors at last reach 16 Kurtz’s camp, a macabre site in which countless dead bodies and severed heads are strewn about seemingly at random. A hyperactive American photojournalist, unabashed in his worship of Kurtz, greets the boat. Willard and Lance disembark to find Kurtz, leaving Chef with instructions to call in an air strike if they are not back at the boat by a specified time. The natives under Kurtz’s control drag Willard through the mud and grant him an audience with Kurtz, who imprisons Willard in a cramped tiger cage. During the night, Kurtz throws Chef’s severed head into Willard’s lap. Willard is freed the next day and given freedom to roamKurtz’s compound. He listens to Kurtz’s philosophizing for several days. In split scenes, Kurtz’s natives perform a ritual sacrifice of a caribou, while the film intercuts with images of Willard emerging from the river and approaching Kurtz’s quarters. As the caribou is ritualistically slaughtered, Willard slaughters Kurtz with amachete. Kurtz’s last words are “the horror, the horror.”When Willard emerges, the natives acknowledge him as their new leader and god. He throws down his machete, finds Lance amidst the Montagnard, and returns to the boat. Willard shuts off the radio, and he and Lance pull away from shore as rain begins to fall. Kurtz’s last words are echoed again as the film fades to black. 17