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Identity Crisis and Trauma as depicted by Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now and Tayeb Salih

Updated: Nov 19

This piece discusses the various physical and mental journeys of characters from Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", the film "Apocalypse Now" and Tayeb Salih's "Season of Migration to the North". It is said that Apocalypse Now is based on Conrad's novel.


The experience of traumatic events can affect one’s perception of identity. Identity can often affect one’s perception and understanding in traumatic events, in extreme situations the loss of self can be attributed to the range emotional damage experienced by victims. The elaborate interconnectedness of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now and Season of Migration to the North stems from the concept of inner identity and discovery of self in the face of trauma.



While each story differs in literal meaning each story contains a semblance of how personal identity either intensifies or hinders the effect of trauma and reaction to death. The literal journey of each protagonist is exposed to the underlying idea of the impact of death and the various forms that emotional strain that occur. Many of the central protagonists to each story are tested on in their own sense of identity. Many characters experience deep psychological conflict.



The historical context is what differs greatly while also sharing the main themes of integrity and personality. How we view ourselves as individuals and how others view us are directly correlated to our identities. They can often be misleading and easily warped to fit a person’s best interests. The crisis of identity arises when there is a conflict where an individual is placed into a unfamiliar setting or circumstance that causes them to wrap their own personality. Heart of Darkness, delves deep into the madness of recognizing that there is a potential to be evil in each man when faced with violet horror. The novella unlike Apocalypse Now and Season of Migration to the North characters die very early of in the story as to set the course of action into motion. Kurtz’s falling ill can be seen as the main cause of Marlow’s own descent into psychological torture. Essentially Heart of Darkness succeeds in showing two characters and their various reactions to the unfortunate circumstances around them. Joseph Conrad uses consistent imagery to further this idea by comparing the journey of life to that of a flowing river rough, violent, unpredictable and always moving just as Conrad describes

“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz life was running swiftly too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart and into the sea of inexorable time ... I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method’” (Conrad)

The initial interpretation of Kurtz “darkness” is death and its connection to Marlow. Marlow's internalized dilemmas begin fear and fascination of death, which leads to an obsession of death, all driven by his struggle with self discovery. Kurtz is haunted by the traumatic experiences he has endured and feels inseparable from his past whereas Marlow tried to convince himself otherwise and detach himself from each crisis. The river symbolizes the disconnect of Marlow and Kurtz while also alluding to that of the morality of humanity. As the initially cause of Heart of Darkness was the exploitation of native Africans. As Conrad describes “Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence, but more generally takes the form of apathy” in this sense the Heart of Darkness is the journey of self discovery in relation to the experience and understanding of death (Conrad).

In both Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness many elements of darkness work to debate how far one must look into themselves and past circumstance to discover the truth. While Joseph Conrad portrays the idea of the darkness of death and humanity through the rugged setting of the African jungle, Coppola's rendition of said darkness is represented in the terrors of the Vietnam. The settings of the film and the novella while being physically similar hold different meaning. One must take into consideration the historical context of each piece; Joseph Conrad’s story takes place in early colonial years. This idea of colonialism is reflected in the film Apocalypse Now in the form of the treatment of the Vietnamese citizens during the Vietnam War. Just as Marlow is a witnesse to the dying slaves at the trade posts, Willard is met with the same horrors of war in the Vietnamese villages.

Vietnam is also used as the setting of the film to further illustrate the theme of corrupted mindsets at the hands of unformulated and horrific circumstances. This idea is explored very early on in the film as Willard has an unhealthy desire to go back to the war to find purpose within himself and his life. The idea of human darkness in both the film and the book is revealed through the horrors that many of the characters involve themselves with. This concept of darkness and identity can be seen in terms of man’s capacity for evil and sin when lost in the lack of identity and morality. The film Apocalypse Now can be seen as a metaphor for this journey into the self and shows how identity, in the turmoil of war becomes twisted beyond recognition. Many characters such as Willard have become dependent on the Vietnam war as a way of finding purpose and meaning in his life. As the movie carries on and he moves upriver, Willard and his new crew become more distraught and detached from true reality.

Each character throughout Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness experiences their own form of mental breakdown. Even members of Willard’s crew such as Lance turn to drugs as he begins to cover his face this could be seen as a changing of one’s sense of identity as his reaction to the reality around him becomes entangled with his perception of his own self. Willard already traumatized by his previous history in war becomes obsessed with Kurtz and completing his mission to find justification within himself and his purpose. This is also quite similar as to what happens to Marlow in a Heart of Darkness, Marlow unlike Kurtz and Lance tries to separate his emotions from the events that occur around him it is not that Marlow is an unfeeling character but the fact that he already knows himself to such an extent that he works to remain unaffected by trauma by trying to retain a level of his authentic self and sanity.

In both stories what originally is seen as a mysterious adventure into unknown territory morphs into a descent into insanity both literally and metaphorically. The characters that are affected the most are those that ended up establishing a new persona. Many of the characters in both works react by hardening themselves, receding within themselves, and changing. The film especially reflects their impending madness by shrouding the initially heroic conquest in darkness, gloom and death, this creates and intense ghostly setting that can also be compared to the loss of identity.

The real differences between Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness is probably the character of Kurtz, and how Marlow and Willard react to his presence or his perception and that shows us who Marlow and Willard really are. Marlow's initial image of Kurtz is based solely upon his preconceived idea based on what he has heard from those around him, the same can be said for Willard who sees him as almost too perfect. The character of Kurtz in both stories is a seemingly extraordinary. Once the protagonists are introduced to the initially outstanding Kurtz, they are both shocked to find an insane and lost man in his place. This begins to beg the question as to what is the actual identity of Kurtz.

In heart of darkness Marlow is more curious about understanding and comprehending the mindset of Kurtz instead of blatantly ignoring it as Willard does. Conrad compares Marlow’s mental deviation with Kurtz’s violent decay as a way to show how in the absence of true understanding of morality and self dark corruption can spread. In both cases however, Willard/Marlow is left with a damaged psyche.

The initial conclusion of both stories also varies as well, In Heart of Darkness, Marlow retrieves Kurtz but he is virtually insane, but in Apocalypse Now, Willard finishes his mission by killing Kurtz himself. Willard’s sanity is also tested more while under the control of Kurtz. Colonel Kurtz had accepted war and death as his own reality unable to separate self from environment. When separated, a corrupt identity slips away, as seen in Heart of Darkness, but when confronted head on it will never truly comprehend the meaning of itself as in Apocalypse Now.

At many times in both works the consistent use of masks and setting are used to symbolize the new emerging identities of each character. Many come to the conclusion that in order to have the mental capacity to endure the journey up the river requires a metaphorical erasure of one’s old self. Willard’s punching and shattering of the mirror in the first scene of Apocalypse Now suggests this act of self-destruction as he has already been affected by war and is now permanently scarred. By the conclusion many characters have painted their faces as they are no longer their original selves that first entered the jungle. Kurtz face is often hidden or covered, and even Willard covers his own face in mud during the final scenes. These masks illustrate the harsh transformations endured by those in war or as seen in the heart of darkness the colonization of unknown land. The characters own consciousness of these changes is often overlooked. Kurtz's identity is important in both, while the film took much more straightforward viewpoint the book spoke to the more philosophical ideals surrounding the concept of anti-self.

In the pursuit of these similar ideals many characters become something other than themselves as they manipulate their own identities as seen in Season of Migration to the North Mustafa Sa’eed parallels much of Joseph Conrad‘s heart of darkness. Mustafa Sa’eed rather than acting as his authentic self around those he encounters in England he invents a persona in which he uses to appeal to the western desire for exotic and foreign people. Mustafa Sa’eed’s constructed self is shattered by the senseless violence he begins to encounter as he realizes that he has become entrenched in darkness thick deep and basic and struggles to escape the constructed identity that he once openly embraced.

Season of Migration to the North suggests all the ways in which migration can lead to a sense of cultural confusion, loss of identity, and disconnection. This was also very apparent in Heart of Darkness when characters were removed from an environment that they were familiar with and placed into where that they must adapt to. However, the narrator of Seasons of Migration to the North and Marlow from the Heart of Darkness, unlike Sa’eed and Kurtz, both choose to confront and deconstruct his loss of identity in such a way so that it does not destroy him or cause him to turn into someone other than himself. Through the contrasting of their stories, both work in suggesting that only by actively confronting this one’s identity crisis can prevent it from becoming destructive. This can also be seen in Apocalypse Now Willard’s entire crew becomes trust into an unfamiliar environment where each member learns to adapt in their own way both good and bad forms.

Identity can also form from one’s sense of family, racial, economic, religious, social and historical identity. In Season of Migration to the North the narrator of the novel in contrast to Sa’eed appears to be much more connected his hometown in Sudan, but he also begins to experience an intense loss of identity and a strong sense of displacement after his return from England much similar to Sa’eed. Additionally, the narrator begins to discover that his inner values are no longer the same as those from his hometown. Over time, the narrator realizes that Sa’eed’s cultural alienation and detachment actually reflect his own internal dilemmas. This is where the story of a Heart of Darkness and Seasons of Migration to the North begin to diverge as the unnamed narrator beings to feel more and more estranged from his native country.

The initial dilemmas of each stories journey can be attributed to the loss of self which in turn can result in senseless violence and death. Tayib Salih’s location of Season of Migration to the North is set in Sudanese village near a river, this river represents many things in the novel the Nile flows north, birds migrate north and Mustafa travels in the same direction to further his education and experience a virtually new world in London. This reoccurring image of the river can also be seen as a representation of the river in Conrad′s Heart of Darkness. It is also a symbol of change and movement which occurs in all central characters, the experience of humiliation, trauma and death that pushes them forward and into new circumstance. The river is where another final change happens the narrator, on the verge of madness, walks into the river with the intention of drowning himself, but stops himself when he has the desire to ″move forward” this could be seen as another connection to Heart of Darkness as Marlow and his crew also experience an intense loss of identity as the travel up river. The reaction of the narrator and Marlow could be seen as a rejection of that chaos.

As the narrator begins to feel estranged from the villagers, he connects with Sa’eed and their shared experience of living abroad. This is can be reflected in the scene in which the narrator enters Sa’eed’s secret room. In this scene, he is unable to even recognize his own face, which suggests a radical loss of identity. Nonetheless, unlike Sa’eed, the narrator survives his identity crisis. Whereas Sa’eed drowns over come by the river much like Kurtz, the narrator exhibits a will to live like Marlow, as reflected when he escapes drowning at the end of the novel. Ultimately, Sa’eed is destroyed by his loss of identity, whereas the narrator survives literally and metaphorically his loss of identity.

Identity often refers to the search in both a mental and moral experience in order to establish personal meaning. However, in many cases identity itself can be trust upon an individual in moments of extreme trauma and confusion. The formation of identity itself is the innermost center of an individual. When the narrator and Mustafa discover that they can find no peace in either England or Sudan Salih words in the form of a question “There is no room for me here. Why don't I pack up and go? Nothing astonishes these people. They take everything in their stride…And I, what have I learnt?” this process of searching constantly changes for Mustafa and the narrator but reaches a crisis during moments of intense challenge (Salih). This reoccurring question of why varies among each piece but connects each character to their loss of self. Once a person begins to physically recognize that they no longer understand their purpose or inner most self is when each character reaches their breaking point. The connection between each of these stories is critical as each is not only seen as an expedition into foreign land but an expedition into the meaning and purpose of human morality and mortality.

This increasingly complex path of self discovery can be altered by many factors. Some of the character choose to identify by their outer qualities, while others may identify by their inner qualities. One may identify by their beliefs, gender or cultural integration such as Mustafa and Kurtz. Whereas others may have an identity that is dynamic and ever changing based on the events they encounter such as Marlow, Willard and the narrator. Some may even struggle finding an identity due to the countless influence both conscious and unconscious turmoil that scars one’s ability to comprehend their own morality.


Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Penguin Classics, 2007.


Coppola, Francis, director. Apocalypse Now. Universal Pictures, 1979.


Salih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. Translated by Johnson-Davies, Heinemann Educational Books, 1991.

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