"Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision-- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath"



This quote reminds me of so many movies, when a character is just about to die and their "life flashes before them". His desire was power, temptation to the dark side, and then surrendering to it, it takes his final moments of life to have a moment of knowledge. In these movies, just as in the book, the viewer does not get the image of a character such as Kurtz looking back at his life and flying up to heaven. His last words, his last comment on his own existence after taking the time to look back upon his life are the words "the horror". The horror of his pathetic life, the horror of the decaying surroundings around him. Earlier before this quote the passage describes Kurtz's face as the color Ivory. The diction of using the word Ivory is perfect for this scene because his days in the dark side were all focused around Ivory and the money it made him, and now it is used to describe the color of his dieing face.