It is a book that MUST be saved because it tells us what we may become if there is nobody to stop us, if we have absolute power over other human beings. Kurtz, a white colonial ruler among blacks, has such absolute authority, and with no one to question his actions, one small step at a time he commits ever greater brutalities, until there is no sin, no crime, no ugliness he will refrain from. The only possible check is his conscience. And he has none. We need this book to remind us that if we stand on the sidelines and say nothing to stop them, bullies can become rapists, torturers, soulless killers, and we will be complicit in their crimes.
Conscience is a feeble, fragile thing.
It needs all the reinforcement we can give it. So, before I make a more personal choice, I would need to make sure that this book is saved by somebody. This is a book I would save for myself, because it helped me through my difficult teenage years. From the first moment we meet ten year old Jane, hiding in a window seat from the disgusting little bully who wants to beat her up, we are in her skin. When she grows up and becomes governess in the house of Mr. Rochester, we share their conversations, so full of ideas and wit, and marvel at a relationship founded on his respect for her mind and spirit.