Friendship

Aristotle defines an imperfect friendship as a relationship based upon one person's good character; it is imperfect precisely because of inequality, such as the inequality between a parent and a child or any large gap in moral development. This perfectly describes the relationship shared between Kurtz and his followers in Conrad's The Heart of Darkness. It also describes the relationship between the boy from the boondocks and his girlfriend in "the house up on the hill" in Billy Joel Royal's Down In the Boondocks. Finally, this ties into Descartes theory of Cartesian Dualism as well.

"Ð''He is a prodigy' he said at last Ð''He is an emissary of pity, of science, and devil knows what else. Ð''We want,' he began to disclaim suddenly, Ð''for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.'" Proving that even the brick maker, the most petty and conniving of the characters in the book, praises Kurtz for who he is. Kurtz is in a way, what all the natives and his other followers have a lack of in their lives. They praise him and worship him because he essentially makes their existence complete by showing them things they could otherwise not experience. "They adore him" (p.56) we see this as a plain example of how much the natives really do praise his presence there when the Russian says this to Marlow. Each person in this imperfect relationship is gaining something. Kurtz is feeling superior without having to follow any commands, and the natives are learning and awed by this man from the outside world. They only have a relationship because they both are seeking an advantage in the situation.

In Royals, Down in the Boondocks, we experience the same imperfection of relationships through the difference in moral upbringing between the city girl and the boondocks boy. The girl