Heart of Darkness Response

“In seasons of pestilence some of us will have a secret attraction to the disease--a terrible passing inclination to die of it.  And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them.”

I think that this quote is saying that we are all attracted to certain, and sometimes bad, things.  We have a desire to do what everyone else is doing, even if it is wrong; it's the disease.  If someone is talking back to someone, not following the rules, many people start to follow whatever they are doing.  Their actions are like the disease, and everyone else is attracted to it.  We may not, all the time, be attracted to the "disease" but sometimes something is triggered in us that makes it come out.  This quote applies to "Heart of Darkness" in a couple ways.  I think that this applies to how the people on the Expedition team.  They don't like Kurtz, so they want to do anything to get rid of him.  It's the disease.  Other members of the team see him as a threat, so they want to get rid of him.  The other people, who normally wouldn't do anything to harm someone else, jump in and decide to go with the others and agree that something needs to be done.  This is the disease in action.  This is the one case, in my mind, that sticks out of there being a sense of a disease.  

This quote does relate to another book that we read this year in class and actually, probably more than one book.  The one that sticks out most in my mind is "Lord of the Flies." The boys are stranded on the island and begin the story as a team, working together to be able to survive.  Eventually, as the story went on, the boys turned on each other, especially against Piggy.  The oldest boy, or biggest leader, Jack was the one who was constantly going against Piggy, trying to make the time on the island for him difficult.  It was the disease on the island.  Everyone else started to go against him too, until eventually, he was killed.  Normally the boys wouldn't do this type of thing, but in certain situations, this feeling is evoked and it comes out.