Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrads

Marlow finds his steamer at the bottom of the river and a manager who seems to take it for granted that nothing will be done efficiently. How does Marlow react? How does he adjust? What does he mean when he says there are no "external checks'?

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.

Light and darkness has many different symbolic features and gives off many perspectives such as good and evil or love and hate. Having many meanings but each one giving an opposite view. Despite the fact that in this story, light does not signify the greatness of Marlow or anything in that fact. Light and dark both have a different look. The outlook of the story is that light's supposed to be a positive thing where in reality it has its failings, light may not always be a good thing, and that's where this story brings in misconceptions. The people in this story might say at times that London is the light and Africa is the dark, but this is the real idea is that London is civilized and was classified as colored with a hint of ominous. Throughout the whole story, this author is trying to convey the readers that not all lovely things in this world are light.

In outer station, Marlow meets the chief accountant, whom Marlow though as a “hair-dresser’s dummy.” This character is wearing perfect attire and maintaining book keeping in the middle of surrounding chaos. He does not sympathize with the dying agent, but he rather gets irritated by him. He is an automaton rather than a real man, and his inhumane identity not only shows that he is one of “hollow men” but also

Human is a term associated with many connotations. Humans encase the ability to stick to their morals in a time when most would differ on the easier path. When humans chose to keep their own morals it demonstrates flexibility as well as willingness to take risks. These ideas web together because people take a risk keeping to their own morals and therefore exhibit the ability to adapt to any situation. Flexibility is a characteristic that most people default to in order to seek a sense of comfort. Humans try their best to be comfortable in a situation because comfort and success are believed to be proportional. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, could imply that being human means to display morality, flexibility towards all situations, and willingness to take risks.

Long ago, a battle raged. In the great prairies of Greater __________, knights shed their blood in a bloody, gruesome battle against an undefeatable army of tens of thousands of creatures who yearned for the blood of their enemies. The creatures couldn’t stop; wouldn’t stop until they could lay their hands on the greatest treasure of all. A treasure greater than any mortal man could fathom. A treasure so great that it could absorb men into itself where they would stay until summoned by the owner of the treasure. The treasure even had the ability to grant immortality to the most pure of heart. If destroyed, this treasure could enable the destroyer to render dark magic more dangerous and evil than what was known the people of ______________.

Heart of Darkness allows the reader to gain a sense of everything that is wrong with imperialism and why it should be ended. The narrator is part of the imperialist group that he condemns, which makes his views seem more authentic and balanced. Clearly, there is something wrong with the goals of imperialism if the imperials themselves are against it. Conrad also uses extremely dehumanizing descriptions of the native Africans and the women in the novella to make a point. To the reader this exposes the cruelty and unjustness of such portrayals and makes the point that this treatment of other groups is not acceptable. The novella can be seen as promoting change by showing the immorality of the problems it describes, which were commonplace at the time of its writing. A modern work that uses dehumanization to show the need for change is the collection of short stories, The Woman Warrior.

Dark, suspenseful, and altogether brutal is what describes “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad and the film adaption Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola. A short novella published in 1899, “Heart of Darkness” centers on the journey taken by the narrator Marlow up the Congo River with a Belgian trading company. Upriver he encounters the mysterious ivory trader, Kurtz and is brought face to face with corruption and despair. Set in the Vietnam War, the film Apocalypse Now follows the central character, U.S. Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard, of MACV-SOG, on a mission to kill the radical and seemingly psychotic U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. Coppola draws on Conrad’s characters in order to create Captain Willard and Colonel Kurtz, but in adapting these dynamic characters he changes the internal and external forces both main characters endure.

The novella Heart of Darkness gives a diverse view of life in Africa during the time of colonization. The main character Marlow, a somewhat naïve man, enters Africa to fulfill his dream of meeting Mr. Kurtz, a prominent man who is said to have a vehement way of speaking. Throughout Marlow’s journey to meet Kurtz, Marlow is required to travel along with other pilgrims, or other white men traveling into the Congo, or as Marlow would like to call it, the heart of darkness. Along the way Marlow is tested and must endure the wilderness that surrounds him, and the natives, who wish to hinder the rescue Kurtz from his own madness, but in the process of saving Kurtz, Marlow is losses his self in his own perdition.

Heart of Darkness is an exploration of Marlow’s reactions to a world of hypocrisy, ambiguity, and moral confusion. As an idealistic Marlow is forced into either allying with the rule-defying, malevolent Kurtz or the malicious colonial business, it becomes increasingly clear that there is no correct choice. Rather, the world is filled with undeniably ambiguous situations. In this way, the novel examines Marlow’s choice between the lesser of two evils: Kurtz or the bureaucracy. Marlow condemns the Company because of its hypocritical and dishonest behavior while siding with Kurtz because his upfront nature.

Heart of Darkness begins on the Thames river where an unknown narrator describes a night spent on a ship. He and several other men are on the deck of a ship when Marlow, a captain, begins to tell the story of an adventure he had on the Belgian Congo. Marlow had always wanted to travel to Africa and up the snakelike Congo River. With the help of his aunt in Brussels, Marlow gets a job as a boat captain on the Congo River with a company that deals in ivory. After getting his assignment at the office in Brussels, he travels to the mouth of the Congo River in a French steamer. When Marlow arrives at the mouth of the Congo, a Swedish captain takes him to the Company’s Inner Station on a smaller boat. Outside of the station he sees Africans

Joseph Conrad’s treatment of race in “Heart of Darkness” differs significantly from Neil Bissoondath’s “I’m Not Racist But…” From Neil Bissoondath’s perspective, racial discrimination occurs everywhere and is conducted by everyone, either willfully or ignorantly. Bissoondath’s attempt is to inform the reader of the connection between stereotyping and racism and in turn condemns such acts. Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” however, exposes the brutality of the Europeans on Africans. While Bissoondath’s work addresses the sensitivity of racial judgement and racial superiority intended to bring hatred or abuse used against any given group of individuals, Conrad’s work describes how the Africans are racially judged and brutally treated by the European settlers. According to Conrad, the European settlers suppressed Africans from their freedom and supplied no medical care nor food. By dominating over the Africans, the European settlers in Africa are not only able to use the Africans as cheap labours but are also able to exploit the African’s raw materials with less restriction. Nevertheless, both Bissoondath and Conrad condemn the community on their approach to racial treatment.

Beyond the shield of civilization and into the depths of a primitive, untamed frontier lies the true face of the human soul. It is in the midst of this savagery and unrelenting danger that mankind confronts the brooding nature of his inner self.  Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, is the story of one man's insight into life as he embarks on a voyage to the edges of the world. Here, he meets the bitter, yet enlightening forces that eventually shape his outlook on life and his own individuality. Conrad’s portrayal of the characters, setting, and symbols, allow the reader to reflect on the true nature of man.

The scene disturbs Marlow a great deal and he hastens to reach the camp, where he is removed from this reality he finds unpleasant when he comes upon another man like himself, dressed in pure white, such that Marlow "took him for a sort of vision", and is temporarily rescued from the setting Conrad has created. Conrad continues to create a setting that is described as

As an outsider to the jungle and to the Congo, Marlow is having a difficult time staying on the right path. Through the character of Marlow, Conrad voices, “I kept my head pretty well; but when I had him at last stretched on the couch, I wiped my forehead” (Conrad 315). Although Conrad does not clearly state this, one can infer that Marlow is sweating because he sees a man who has lost himself and begins to realize that he is starting to stray from the right path, just like Kurtz already has. As time goes on, one is noticing that there is something ominous about Marlow; his actions and reactions are changing to this new environment. Through the use of Marlow’s actions, Conrad promulgates, “I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. ‘He is dead,’ murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. ‘No doubt about it,’ said I tugging like mad at the shoe-laces” (Conrad 299). Murder no longer phases Marlow, he cares more about his shoes than the people being killed right in front of him and his morals. As part of the physical aspect of the environment, Conrad draws attention to, “These round knob were not ornamental but for thought… They would have been more impressive, those heads on the stakes, if their faces had not been turned to the house. Only one, the first I had made out, was facing my way. I was not so shocked as you may think” (Conrad 308). Conrad’s implementation of having a head on a stake be