avatarKeith Dias

Summary

A student recounts a humorous misunderstanding where he mistakenly believed Kurtz's famous last words from "Heart of Darkness" were "The Whore, The Whore" instead of "The Horror, The Horror," and how his English teacher marked the incorrect answer as correct, possibly out of pity.

Abstract

In a personal essay, the author reflects on an incident from Grade 10 where he managed to pass an English test without having read the assigned novel, "Heart of Darkness," by relying on friends' insights and Google searches. Despite mishearing Kurtz's last words as "The Whore, The Whore" instead of "The Horror, The Horror," the student's answer was marked correct by a teacher who may have underestimated his ability to spell or comprehend the text. This experience leads the author to ponder the absurdity of testing literary understanding and the assumptions teachers might make about their students' intelligence.

Opinions

  • The author views the concept of testing on a novel's content as nonsensical, especially in retrospect.
  • There is a hint of satire in the author's tone regarding the educational system's approach to evaluating literary comprehension.
  • The author seems to believe that the teacher's decision to mark the incorrect answer as correct was based on a low opinion of the student's intellectual capabilities.
  • The essay suggests that last-minute cramming and memorization can sometimes lead to unexpected outcomes in academic settings.
  • The author possibly feels a mix of amusement and embarrassment about the incident, using it to highlight the flaws in educational assessment methods.

HUMOR

How I Found Out My Teacher Thought I Was An Idiot

And Other Lessons From Apocalypse Now

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Heart of Darkness is a Great Work of Art, Probably

The novel “Heart of Darkness”, by Joseph Conrad, is so good that legendary Director Francis Ford Coppola adapted it into an Academy Award winning movie called ‘Apocalypse Now”, in 1979.

But I’ve never read it. And I haven’t seen the movie either.

In Grade 10, my English teacher told us we had to read this book, with the explicit warning that ‘there will be a test’. The idea that there should be a test on the contents of a novel makes even less sense to me today.

Google Search It For Yourself

A simple Google search will tell you that “Heart of Darkness” is about a gentleman named Charles Marlow, who takes a journey up the Congo River with an ivory trader named Kurtz. At the end of the novel, there is a scene that involves Kurtz weakly whispering the words “The Horror, The Horror” to Marlow shortly before he dies. It is an absolutely critical exchange.

Or so I’m told. I haven’t read the book.

Test Day Prep Work

When the day of my grade 10 test came, I was more than a little concerned that I was going to get a zero.

Any great procrastinator gets into action in the final minutes before a crisis, and I was no different. At lunchtime I discussed possible test questions with my friends in the class. We came up with several options, and I memorized the answers quickly.

The Whore, The Whore

Kurtz’s final words will definitely be on the test, I was told. Fantastic.

“What were they?”, I asked.

“The Horror, The Horror”, I was told.

OK. That’s easy.

Only, what I heard was “The Whore, The Whore”.

Big difference.

We wrote the test in the afternoon, and some of the questions we planned were on it. In particular, the question about Kurtz’s final words was there. I confidently wrote down “The Whore, The Whore”.

The Results, and What They Mean

The next week, our teacher handed us back our test results. He put a check-mark beside my answer for Kurtz’s final words. I was ecstatic.

I later found out that the actual right answer was “The Horror, The Horror”. I got it completely wrong. But he marked it as correct. Horror and Whore have two completely different meanings. But he marked my answer as correct.

Why?

And then I realized it.

He thought I couldn’t spell ‘Horror’. He thought I was an idiot.

The Horror, The Horror.

Read More From This Author:

Humor
Highschool
Teachers
Movies
This Happened To Me
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