" When the sun rose there was a white fog more blinding than the night." In, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, many symbols suddenly creep their way into the pages, fog being one of them. The symbols make the story more mystical and meaningful. With every turn of a page another symbol jumps out and sends a shock of amusement and curiosity through your fingers, making you want to turn to the next page. A novel without stories is simply a picture book. It does not make you think and actually figure out what is happening in the story. Heart of Darkness contains many symbols throughout it that have much more meaning that they appear to have. Some of the symbols that make this story come alive are: the presence of fog, the painting that Kurtz painted of the blindfolded girl, the mysterious and evil jungle itself, the rushing waters of the Thames and Congo river, and most importantly the darkness. .
In most stories and novels black is the symbolic color of death or sadness, loneliness or greed, but the color that represents those words in Heart of Darkness is white. The fog in this novel is in a sense evil and indecipherable. Fog symbolizes not blindness, but blindness of what is in front of you. .
" When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all around you like something solid.".
You never know what lies after the fog, it could be the edge of a waterfall that would send you plummeting to your death, or it could just be more of the river, leading you to your destination. The fog is almost a monster. It is not going to attack or hurt something, but it is like a "mental monster." Marlow and his crew are afraid of the fog. They know it wont hurt them but it holds a sense of wonder and fear in it. The fog's presence and silence leaves it lingering in one's thoughts.
As Marlow enters the station he sees a painting that Kurtz himself had painted.