In the heart of the jungle, the heart of man finds no boundaries.
Conrad and Francis Ford Coppola follow this idea to unimaginable places in their respective works of art, Heart of Darkness, and Apocalypse Now. Both stories apply the same concept to their different time periods, allowing Coppola's latter work to comment indirectly on the society of his time. Where Conrad delves into the humanity within the British Empire's hunt for ivory in Africa, Coppola delves into the humanity within the American "Empire's" blind hunt for communism in the Vietnam War. Keeping in mind Conrad's groundwork regarding the savagery of man, Coppola utilizes the essential nature of Conrad's composition to form his own derogatory statement about the war in Vietnam. Bringing this to the surface in the strategic organization of Coppola's story, he draws parallels most particularly between key characters in Heart of Darkness and his own story, who guide both protagonists" mental pilgrimage into themselves. By equating these major elements in his story, Coppola provides striking commentary upon the most controversial issue of his time. .
The first distinguishable sign of a relationship between novella and movie can be found with the introduction of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore into the movie. Kilgore, a surfing soldier, is symmetric to Conrad's Chief Accountant, an oddly out-of-place Englishman dressed all in white amidst the dirty grunt-workers of the English ivory trade. The man plays a cold role in the story, embodying the English Empire's attitude to the natives of Africa. His savageness is found in the impersonal, calculative way about him, which ignores any depth in humanity. He demonstrates mild irritation when a sick man is brought into his quarters for hospitalization, responding with "the groans of this sick person distract my attention. And without that it is extremely difficult to guard against clerical errors in this climate" (Conrad, 85).
