Comparison and Contrast: Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad’s diction and choice of detail work to create an image of the Russian as absurd and surreal, showing the reader one possible effect (other than the creation of a Kurtz) of the combination of the power of darkness and Western culture. Francis Ford Coppola, through his scripting and costuming for the American photojournalist in Apocalypse Now, makes a similar …showed first 75 words of 699 total…

…showed last 75 words of 699 total…are subject to the fundamental darkness of the wilderness in the same way. As Conrad uses diction and choice of detail to characterize the Russian, so does Coppola use the dialogue and costuming to similarly characterize the American. Both, in the end, create an absurd, out-of-place character who been conquered by Kurtz. In effect, they show that not every Western man becomes a great devil when exposed to the darkness; some only become little imps.