Connection: Heart of Darkness and The Office

The ending of Heart of Darkness really reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows, The Office. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow lies to Kurtz's Intended to protect her feelings. Instead of telling her the truth about his death, which is that his final words were "The horror! The horror!", Marlow makes her believe that Kurtz said her name just before he died. 

I think it's a part of human nature to want to avoid hurting others' feelings, or to allow people to go on believing the best about a situation. In The Office, two characters, Andy and Angela, are engaged. Andy clearly has strong feelings for Angela, so when the rest of The Office cast find out that Angela hooked up with her co-worker, Dwight, nobody wants to tell Andy. They know that it would devastate him, so everybody just decides to hide the truth. 

Making this connection helped me better understand Marlow's motivation to cover up the truth. Before, I couldn't fully grasp the reason behind Marlow's choice, but, by thinking about a more modern, relatable example of a similar situation, I can now comprehend the idea. Sometimes, in the long run, the truth will hurt much more than a lie. So it all comes down to the question of what's more important: being honest or making someone feel better.