Dr Conrad 's Heart Of Darkness And Salih 's Season Of Migration Essay

Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is both a dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century and a symbolic journey into the deepest recesses of human nature. On a literal level, through Marlow 's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. By employing several allegoric symbols this account depicts the futility of the European presence in Africa.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, closely examines the direct effects of British Imperialism on the natives of Africa. The novel sheds light onto what was common in exploration and colonization at the time. The civilizations that were directly affected were seen as inferior. Europeans and other powerful countries exploited the natives solely for their resources and to expand territory. They justified this by bringing “savage” people religion, culture, and new way of life.

This reveals the author’s intolerance towards the Africans, making it clear that he views the Africans from the perspective of an outsider who is unfamiliar with tribal customs. Along his journey, Conrad notices a “stillness of life” and acknowledges that in other circumstances this would have a peaceful effect (Conrad); however, due to his unfamiliar surroundings and fear of the unknown, he finds the stillness threatening and foreboding. Overall, Conrad conveys a message to the reader that Africa is uncivilized and inferior to other societies.

During the Scramble for Africa, European nations raced to claim Africa as their own, giving the rise to colonial literature. Traditional colonial literature focuses on global European expansion. Common characteristics of this genre include considering the colonizers as the center of the world, the separation of the colonized as something “other”, and establishing European as superior to all others. The latter of these encompasses European religion, more specifically, Christianity. This religion is used to justify colonization, as a way to civilize the savages. Here, it is the European’s Christian duty to guide the savages into sophistication. In the case of Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, the author deviates from the Eurocentric use of Christianity as a justification in order to emphasize the existence of the heart of darkness.

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is an intriguing and extremely disturbing portrayal of man"s surrender to his carnal nature when all external trappings of "civilization" are removed. This novel excellently portrays the shameful ways in which the Europeans exploited the Africans: physically, socially, economically, and spiritually.

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad exposes the evil of the imperialism and pays sympathy to the oppressed Africans. But affected by imperialist ideology, he serves as a racist and a defender of the imperialism when he attempts to condemn the colonizers. This paper will be analyzing the distorted images in Heart of darkness from the perspective of post-colonialism and Orientalism theory.

Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad is an interesting take on European imperialism in the 19th century. It tells a lot about Conrad’s views on the matter and being able to read it and look upon it with a retrospective view is very intriguing as we know of many brutalities but often just dismiss it. For many what Conrad’s views are is widely questioned. It can be seen as either a criticism on imperialism and European activities in Africa.

In the early 20th century all major world players, specifically european powers competed in what is known as the ‘Scramble for Africa’. This was a very important social and political issue, which became known as colonization. This takes place when a more developed country attempts to assimilate an impoverished country to a much more modern lifestyle. But with this comes neglect and oppression for those colonized greed began to take over their initial goals. The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is based off the horrific premise of colonization in Africa, specifically in the Congo. When describing these horrors, Conrad uses an immense amount of allusion to relate the plot to the devastating affects of colonization and to demonstrate why

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness illustrates how the power from the imperialism that the Europeans have causes them to treat the native people of Congo Africa as slaves and as bodies that are meant for work. Conrad expresses the horrors of the Europeans toward the natives of Congo through the state of the natives’ bodies. Conrad describes the Congo as though it is a graveyard for all of the natives that are being treated as slaves by the Europeans. The natives in the setting are characterized as living inferior to the Europeans that come to conquer the land. In “Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness,’” Peter Firchow examines Heart of Darkness and the allegations of racism against the novel. In response to Heart of Darkness, Firchow states how Conrad’s own experiences to Africa may play a role in his perception of the Congo and Africa in general. Firchow focuses on how Conrad draws racism into Heart of Darkness by exploring “misrepresentations of Africa and Africans”. The “misrepresentations” of Africans include how the natives are assumed to be weak and poor although their type of civilization is the opposite of the Europeans and of Conrad’s. The poor state the Africans are assumed by the Europeans to be a call for help. Misrepresentations of Africa are further described as being an opportunity to explore one’s hidden, dark inner self. The poor state that Africans live in can easily be overruled by stronger forces such as European countries. Imperialism places a strong suit in the overruling of the Africans as Europeans start to

Joseph Conrad’s progressive ideas about colonialism are instilled into his novella, Heart of Darkness, (1902) through which the philanthropic pretence of the European Colonisers towards African natives is unveiled. Whilst Conrad’s post colonial writings were ahead of his own time and context, they are accompanied and contrasted with views founded through a colonial mindset, where colonisation is seen to perhaps bear a burden upon the Europeans rather than the natives. As a result of this, Conrad creates a narrator; Marlow, who vacillates between opinion of his company’s motives – to colonise and to exploit for economic gain. Through this indecisiveness and in the style of a framed narrative, Conrad acts as a story teller to create a

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness stands as one of the best novellas of all time; hence, it continues to be included in the curriculum in various classes. However in 1975, Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author of Things Fall Apart, criticized the racist nature present in Conrad’s work as well as Conrad’s lack of accuracy describing the African culture in his essay “An Image of Africa.” While Achebe’s bias is present due to him defending his native country, he creates a strong, cohesive argument that unveils the true, underlying racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as well as the overwhelming ignorance it encourages amongst Western culture. Although, he oversimplifies the role of Mr. Kurtz in Conrad’s novella who is a defendable plot point that pushes a satirical tone throughout, therefore presenting the possibility of weakening some of Achebe’s points.

“An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton Print.

Nayak believes that “Conrad’s text exposes the violence and mercenary nature of imperialism” thus stating the obvious outcomes of imperialism. The Africans were subdued to heavy intensify labor forcefully and still were expected to follow through yet in past experience history has always shown that riots and revolutions soon to begin to follow such hardships. Nevertheless, Heart of Darkness points out the human perception of being obsessed with anything they seem to want or desire. The Europeans obsession over ivory drove them to imperialize and torture Africans solely to make money.

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.

The title Heart of Darkness is not just for show, but directly reflects multiple concepts within the book itself. There are many controversial arguments as to if Conrad’s portrayal of the slaves and natives made him “racist”, and the more central question being, were his arguments about imperialism and colonialism valid? Based upon evidence given in the book and the reference of other sources, his arguments are valid.