preview

Analysis Of Kurtz 's ' Heart Of Darkness '

Better Essays

Kurtz Embodies European powers Postcolonialism is a theory that is similar to cultural studies, but assumes a unique perspective on literature and politics that needs to be discussed and analyzed separately. Postcolonialism criticisms look at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and culture, and how these elements relate to the colonial hegemony in a text. This form of criticism can be applied to many works of literature; specifically those whose settings are in Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent. In these literary works there are characters who struggle with their identities and their roles in the colonization of the country or territory. Many European countries that have colonized other countries claiming that it was to educate and civilize the “savage” natives do so in unimaginable ways. In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph conrad, Kurtz’s insatiable hunger for ivory represents the European Colonization as being brutal and inhumane. Everyone who knew Kurtz, even his fiancee that didn’t even know him at all, knew him as a man who was bound for success. He had the ambition, charisma, courage, and eloquence to claim anything in this world as his. Kurtz went to Africa to spread European culture and civilization and had the intentions to bring proverbial light to the dark savage new world. Kurtz realized that to do this he had to be the one that should act as their god and bring them the enlightenment that he thought they needed. This really

Get Access