Detachment in the Heart of Darkness In the book Heart of Darkness, Marlowe only allows himself to form one bond. Marlowe allows himself to form a small “secure” attachment with Kurtz because Kurtz is already very attached. It does not form any other link. In fact, he uses his racism to eliminate the possibility of feelings for approximately ninety-nine percent of the African population. Marlowe not only considers the African people to be too different from him to be normal, but he goes so far as to describe Africa as another world, a world containing savages. He would not allow himself to be attached to this land, nor to its inhabitants. Whenever he feels like he has a relationship with someone, he intentionally stops feeling, fearing that opening up could lead to rejection and/or heartbreak. He claimed that he felt a connection to Kurtz, I believe, because he knew it was "safe." It was "safe" because he knew Kurtz would die before a true attachment could be established. He also knew that Kurtz would not have the same feelings for him as for Kurtz. This is because Kurtz already had two girlfriends and a best friend (the Russian one). This was something Marlowe could handle because Kurtz was already deeply involved and therefore carried little risk of intense attachment. This is also seen when the helmsman, the man who steers the ship, is killed. Marlowe says he loved this man because he was reliable, and nothing else. He didn't even shed a tear for a man he worked with every day for six months. He simply threw it overboard, thinking about it for only a few minutes, and then walked away. The cannibals on the ship were starving. They had almost no food with them and were unable to buy any. The helmsman's body could have been enough to feed each of them for a while. Marlowe, acting in character, didn't care. He said it could set off a bad chain of events. Because of this, all the cannibals were hungry for the rest of the journey. His inability to have healthy relationships with people and his inability to care is accompanied by his racism. This racism acts as a good buffer against attachment.