Annotated Bibliography: Heart of Darkness & Apocalypse Now Bodek, Richard. "Conrad's Heart of Darkness" The Explicator 59 (2000): 25. In this article Richard Bodek discusses the implications of Kurtz's famous final words to Marlow, "The horror! The Horror!". Of great importance to the novel's meaning is not only why Kurtz said this, but why Marlow decided to lie about it. Bodek poses the idea that in telling Kurtz's fiancée that "the last word he pronounced" was her …showed first 75 words of 857 total…

…showed last 75 words of 857 total…the novel when Marlow takes Kurtz on a river boat to a European settlement. Marlow then, at least for this instance in the novella is representative of Saint Christopher. Accordingly, Thompson suggests that Kurtz serves a Christ figure in that he offers up his own life for the sins of his European peers. In the same way that Christ became Christopher's master and teacher, Kurtz becomes the object of which Marlow's very existence is centered.