Rich TranMr. RodriguezAP Lit 5 January 10, 2014 Compare/Contrast “The Heart of Darkness” and “The Hollow Men”The novel “The Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad and the poem “The Hollow Men” by TS Eliot personify the idea of ​​indifference. As TS Eliot describes his men as being "hollow", showing or lacking any form of interest, so does the manager in "The Heart of Darkness". However, they contrast with Kurtz, a man of ambition and dreams, who realizes that to survive inside Africa he must act like a god towards these primitive people. “He was ordinary in complexion, in features, in manners and in voice. », the manager is considered an ordinary man since he lives and works normally; however, through Marlow's description we see that the manager is "worried" about something. (Conrad 32-33) We later learn that his discomfort comes from his inability to pursue anything in life and that he is jealous of Kurtz because of his success. The manager has no redeemable qualities to admire; Marlow says he has no “genius for organization, or even for order.” (32) This makes us wonder how he even got the job as manager, but we soon learn that he has been a constant presence at his job for the past three years, and from there Marlow remarks, saying : "maybe there was nothing inside in", meaning there was no way he would get sick since he also has no aspirations to that. The beginning of TS Eliot's "The Hollow Men" relates to "Heart of Darkness" with the first line; “Mistah Kurtz – he is dead”, this first line could not only symbolize the death of Kurtz, but also the death of intellect, aspirations and thought. The part following this line represents the uncivilized or “hollow men”. Incivility...... middle of paper......decisive. Unlike the manager, hollow men do not have a clear vision, "there are no eyes here, and there are no eyes here", this quote is used to describe both pairs of eyes, one coming from hollow men and the other from the heavens. The hollow men are "blind, unless the eyes reappear like a perpetual star" to guide them and give them a meaning and purpose that neither the hollow men nor the station manager possess. The director is put in the novel to show how the adaptation to an uncivilized life can be very costly, while the poem illustrates this idea and shows that these "hollow men" are missing something vital for life . However, both characters express the same indifferent personality, despite the fact that they do not appreciate sense and initiative, they seem to accept the fact that everything happens for a reason and they accept it as it is..