After reading the first part of the novel i was struck by the fact that it seemed everyone with Marlow was motivated by money while he seemed to be motivated by a sense of adventure. It seems to me that this key difference will be the factor that allows Marlow to change later on in the novel while his peers do not. Everyone else is concerned with obtaining wealth and thus will not see that natives as people and will not care what happens to them.
This obsession with getting wealth, especially getting the ivory from the Congo, also shows how the Europeans only care about money and seem to feel superior to the Africans. A good example of this is the accountant who is with Marlow. He has a sense that he is better than the Africans who is sees as savages. He keeps his nice clothes on to try and keep himself separated from the savages whom he comes to hate. I enjoyed how Marlow started off by comparing the hate the Romans had for the English when they first arrived to the hate the English now had for the Africans, as seen with the accountant.
The description the author gives of the grove of death is very detailed. It allows the reader to visualize this dark place. It also serves to set the tone for what Marlow might expect in his further travels through the Congo. The fact that this is one of the first places Marlow comes across implies to the reader that the further that Marlow goes into the Congo the worse things will get. The description given all through the book also sets a good tone for the novel. The way the Africans are described and treated is very dehumanizing and makes the reader feel for their struggle.
