T.I.A.

Although hard to digest, Kurtz loses the battle between Africa and himself. The continent that made him untouchable also brought  his demise. With the fall of Kurtz, Conrad imposes the ultimate expression of irony, in which, humans participate their whole lives. A similar message is depicted by Ridley Scott´s Blood Diamond. 

Blood Diamond illustrates the turmoil that have been casued by the white man´s quest to satisfy himself, a goal that has proven impossible to accomplish. The movie takes place in the mining fields of Sierra Leone and the the story of a family,  nation, continent, ripped apart by the "White Man´s Burden." A whiteman who rose to power, wealth, and women by taking the most of Africa, the continent who gave it all to him. But as it was once said "what goes up must come down" the same story goes with the mercenary in Blood Diamond. The same goes with HOD, Kurtz became a "someday" thanks to Africa, and that "somebody" was extinguished "with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too. . . " The ironic circle of life that has been so highly critzced by the philopsohers of the 20th century is clearly present in Conrad´s ideology. A lifetime of sweat, cruelty, and sacrifice gives man the allusion of someday of becoming something, but when death calls,which is much swifter than the rising to power,  the man isn't ready because at no point in time did he ever realize what he became..."The horror! The Horror!"(130) As Marlow states "I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless peer, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair." Not even the best, most knowledgeable men die with the comfort of fulfilling their goal of dying with a clear conscience in leaving a successful legacy. So much work for no reward? Is that what; Ridley Scott and Joesph Conrad try to express?

Whether a battle of "principles" or the direct pursuit of wealth, there is no thesis on the "effective way" of how to leave a successful legacy. Many die in vain, discomfort, and others like the existentialists just "accept." Di Caprio just accepts and says: "T.I.A" "This is Africa."