The novella Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, ultimately refers not to the impenetrable wilderness of the African Congo with which the European colonists are confronted, but rather to the primal and insurmountable darkness of the human heart. In the “civilized” world of the Europeans, man has driven this darkness back into his subconscious, and instead presents a façade of virtue and good intentions. Africa, on the other hand, which is seen as a “primeval” environment, its people a less evolved version of their white counterparts, is fully in touch with this darker, more elementary dimension of human nature. In many ways, since the African natives are often portrayed as a living extension of the wilderness itself, it symbolically is the …show more content…
Understanding the statement presented about the true nature of man hinges on acknowledging the nature of the portrayal of the African natives in the novella. Conrad uses them largely as a device, in many ways an extension of the wilderness of the Congo, which itself is a representation of the inner wilderness of the human heart. When Marlow notes, “The utter savagery, had closed round him, -all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.” (7), he introduces this parallel, and indicates its importance in the events that transpire. Additionally, the beliefs of the time, which Marlow shares, include the perspective of blacks as an earlier “version” of the white European, and therefore more primitive, and less civilized or evolved, as Marlow suggests when he refers to them as “prehistoric man” or “raw matter”. This is a crucial element in the understanding of their purpose in the story. They, with their physically “dark” appearance, which connects them to the “darkness” of their surroundings, are made a literal depiction of the shadow living in the heart of the European- he too is truly a “savage” on the inside, but has suppressed or cloaked it in some way.
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Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as “so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness” (Conrad 94), as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life, but he also manages to depict Africans as though they are not worthy of the respect commonly due to the white man. At one point the main character, Marlow, describes one of the paths he follows: “Can’t say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness portrays an inappropriate image of Africa that is dark, mysterious, and barbaric. Marlow thinks of Africa as a mystery, in fact on his journey towards Africa, he described it as the darkest places on earth. Marlow often uses the phrase, “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” (40), to depict his progress on the Congo with a feeling of unknown coming towards him. The anonymous continent of Africa, a land where history was preserved. Marlow describes his journey similar to traveling in a time machine; “Going up the river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world when vegetation rioted on the earth and the trees were kings”(42). Marlow describes the river while leaving Congo; “The brown
Individuals are constantly saying that the human condition is the pursuit of happiness. The true human condition is continual fear, and yet most people will choose not to believe this truth. In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, the narrator listens as Marlow describes an experience he had while traveling through Africa and how it changed his perception of life's meaning. The efforts to colonize and capitalize Africa and exploit its resources had a lasting impact on Marlow. His contact with African natives, his inspirational hero Kurtz, and his return to a ‘civilized’ environment all wrought great change in Marlow’s perceptions of reality.
Heart of Darkness creates a prejudice way of presenting Africa, Joseph Conrad shows the African Congo through the perspective of the colonising Europeans, who describe all the natives as savages, which perpetuates the stereotype of the uncivilised African in the eyes of the European readers.
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has allowed me to view the world through a multitude of new lenses. In seeing Kurtz and Marlow’s disintegration when removed from society’s watchful eye, I began to understand that all people have a streak of darkness in them under the right circumstances. While the narrator, and many readers at the time of this novella’s publication, believed that the African natives being colonized were “savages”, this book sheds light on the true brutes in this scenario: the thoughtless Europeans. The other complexity that I never truly understood until reading this book, is the idea that there is a single story told about Africans in Western literature. Africa is portrayed as weak, primitive, and impoverished in most books
The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is one of the most critically debated novellas of its time. It is about a man, named Marlow, who joins the Trading Company, specifically having to do with the ivory trade, so that he can adventure into the African Congo. The setting of this story is around the time of the colonization of Africa. Due to the time period and the sensitive things that are addressed in the story, there are many ethical decisions and dilemmas found in the Heart of Darkness. This is discovered in the time period itself, in Kurtz’s decisions, and in Marlow’s loyalty.
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.
Conrad revealed his ideas through his character, Marlow, when we read his experiences traveling down the Congo when he sees the natives and their land that has been untouched by colonialism. Conrad’s lack of concern for the natives may have been a result of his experiences with them during his journey in Africa. Assuming Heart of Darkness’ character Marlow is a representation of Conrad himself, he did saw the native people in both conditions. He experienced them in the Belgium Congo, beaten and broken from the harshness of the colonists and he saw them in their natural state before the effects of colonialism had reached them. One may argue that his lack of concern for the natives was because he had seen them in their homeland and before their home had been changed, and maybe he chose to believe that there was hope left in Africa for its tribal tradition. This statement is simply not true; Marlow fully experienced the devastation left by colonialism in Africa, yet his animosity towards colonialism was still due to the concern for his own people, the white colonists.
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as "so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness" (Conrad 94), as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life, but he also manages to depict Africans as though they are not worthy of the respect commonly due to the white man. At one point the main character, Marlow, describes one of the paths he follows: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I
Conrad’s depictions of the African natives and the operations being carried out in the stations of the Congo seem to vary throughout the entirety of The Heart of Darkness. At times there are condemnatory statements made about the so called savages, while at other times, Marlow develops a friendship of sorts with his African helmsman. Ultimately though, Conrad’s portrayal of the ivory trade and overall imperialistic policies employed by European countries upon Africa is one of denouncement. This novella is written with an unmistakable denigration for the so called civilization mission and for the ill treatment of the natives. Far more superior technology paired with the sense of duty to spread civilization resulted in the abuse of the people
In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the imperialism of Africa is described. Conrad tells the story of the cruel treatment of the natives and of the imperialism of the Congo region through the perspective of the main character, Marlow. Throughout the novel, Marlow describes how the Europeans continuously bestow poor treatment to the native people by enslaving them in their own territory. Analyzing the story with the New Criticism lens, it is evident that Conrad incorporates numerous literary devices in Heart of Darkness, including similes, imagery, personification, and antitheses to describe and exemplify the main idea of cruel imperialism in Africa discussed throughout the novella.
“Black figures strolled about listlessly,pouring water on the glow.” (p.30)” Marlow describes the Black men as objects rather than men or what he would classify white people (men,woman,boy and girl). This shows Conrad’s perspective on the Europeans to be ignorant and racist against the Africans because they judged them based on what they looked like but on who they
In the novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad illustrates the issue of racial dilemma through the novel's protagonist Marlow. Heart of Darkness tells the story of a young seaman named Marlow and his journey up the Congo river to meet the mysterious Kurtz who has fallen into the evil of imperialism. In the novel Conard’s excessive use of defamatory language and the comparison of the African population with nature depersonalizes the race. Heart of Darkness displays the theme of evil when imperialism is placed upon an European individual and in the process neglects and glorifies this idea that the nature of Africa is apart of this evil. The natives are displayed as being animalistic with the use of grunts and short phrases in the novel.
Joseph Conrad often mocked the African peoples. In his novel, Heart of Darkness, he referred to the African people as “savages” and used strong language that looked down upon them. Conrad describes a passing native, “They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages.” Conrad depicts the Africans in very vivid descriptions and uses negative language with an almost disgusted tone. He sees the Africans as inhuman, feels they are not civilized, and believes himself to be far more superior than them. Conrad does not bother to try and understand their culture or language. He insults their language and believes it is merely just incomprehensible grunts. Conrad remarks that looking at an African “was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind legs.” The comparison he uses is very insulting to the African people and so degrading that Conrad found an African working as so surprising. He was taken away that an African could be civilized and Conrad was just mocking the natives. By using such cynical language, Conrad changes what the readers think of Africans to become negative. This view of African peoples from Conrad contrasts Achebe’s perspective of African peoples and their lives which was more influenced by his own race, culture, and beliefs just as Conrad’s novel was.
In “An Image of Africa”, Chinua Achebe comes to the bold conclusion that Joseph Conrad “was a bloody racist” (788), with his discussion centering primarily on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as a racist text. Achebe’s reasoning for this branding rests on the claims that Conrad depicts Africa as “a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar in comparison with which Europe 's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest” (783), that Africans in Heart of Darkness are dehumanized through both the characterization of individual Africans and the Congo as a setting, and finally that Marlow is no more than a mouthpiece for Conrad’s personal views on race and imperialism. However, Achebe makes critical oversights and contradictions in the development of each of these argumentative pillars, which prove fatal to the validity of his overarching contention. This should not be construed, though, as a yes-or-no assessment of whether Conrad was a racist outside of what his written work suggests—Achebe himself has “neither the desire nor, indeed, the competence to do so with the tools of the social and biological sciences” (783)—but as an assessment of claims specific to Heart of Darkness and their implications for Conrad’s views and attitudes.