Now I understand that these blogs are supposed to connect what we read in class to some other work (i.e.book, movie, painting) of man. I'm going to go out a little on a limb, because this is a religion.
<-- we know this as a bonfire, but its symbolic meaning goes far beyond throwing a bunch of wood together, making a huge fire and dancing around it frantically whether its a party or an attempt at rescue.
What's interesting is man's reverence for fire and its light. Especially in the Judea-Christian and Islamic Religions, we see a strong bond between fire and their respective Gods, with God appearing many times to his people in the form of some kind of fire, from burning bushes to pillars of fire. Then in Islam, if Mohammed is ever shown his face tends to be covered by flame. What is more relevant to us however is that all religions seem to have an aspect of spreading light in a dark world.
Anyway...this is intriguing as we have seen this contrast already at least twice. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust (which we'll touch upon later) but more importantly in Joesph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".
The theme of Light vs. Dark runs so deep in this novella that it just seems to pour out of the title. The first major instance see this 'coming to light' (<- bad joke, don't laugh) was when Marlow mutters on the boat that {England} was a place of darkness once. Later it becomes more cemented to the idea of spreading civilization and possibly Christianity. A great instance of this is when Marlow finally gets the job his aunt is mostly focused on how Marlow will be bringing the "light" of civilization to the savages of Africa. However, it almost seems to have a hidden connection to the unknown, and even to the false.From the beginning, the unknown parts of the world, in Marlow's view are darkness, the sort of kind that just hasn't been seen in the light of European eyes. But with instances like the feeling marlow gets of the two secretaries when he interviews for the job (two watchers guarding a black gate), and the strange doctor, things start feeling dark, not in the sense of knowing, but more of believing - where is the truth? It almost makes you think Kurtz is a monster since they describe him as a hero. Point is, darkness and light = truth and falsity?
This is where the religion comes in. Started by a man named Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) in what is now the Middle East, it probably comes in as the first structured religion of mankind. Zoroaster believed that there was a conflict going on in our world between the forces of light and darkness. Except he didn't equate light with good and dark with evil like we do, instead, for him, light was truth and darkness falsity and lies. So in short darkness is:
Zoroaster taught that light could be spread by "active participation in life and the exercise of constructive thoughts, words and deeds." (Wikipedia, Zoroaster)
Hmm. Sounds a little like the enlightenment doesn't it? Reason or Truth, was a light from heaven meant to be spread through the world by man through his constant striving, and by striving it could easily be inferred to mean constructive deeds and thoughts.
It also sounds very Judea-Christian.
So where does fire come in? The Persians, took the idea a little further and used fire-rituals to celebrate light and spread light by taking over other people.
Faust ended up stepping away from the light and going for the cake, and we may see that Kurtz isn't as such a bright light as we have been led to think.
Oh well, as GlaDOS says: "Its no use crying over every mistake/ just keep on trying till you run out of cake"
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