Essay on Hearts of Darkness: Post Colonialism

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes place in a world built on imperialism. Written in 1899, Conrad is living in a world still very much involved in Africa. Infect this presence did not begin to end until the early 1960s. Heart of Darkness can be viewed as a very forward thinking book. Joseph Conrad utilizes his book as a mean to send a message. He utilizes his rhetorical devices and moves in order to help him get this message across. One way Conrad portrays his message is by establishing the connection between light and dark. Additionally Conrad uses vivid description to depict the savage behavior of the natives. He makes meaning by later creating a parallel with the behaviors of the white imperialists. Conrad also utilizes imagery to describe the perceived outcome of the voyage in the eyes of the imperialists. He makes meaning by doing this as he later contrasts this showing how things are oven not as they seem. Continuing the idea that things are often not as they seem is Conrad’s diction

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.

He is telling his story of his adventure to his job on the Congo, presenting the story inside of a story notion. In the reminiscent story he is telling, he talks about a man named Kurtz, the ivory manager at the company is going to work for in the Congo. He learned about the characteristics of Kurtz, which happened to be the opposite of his. At first, he is slight displeased and shows disgust towards the actions of the other workers’ at the company and Marlow; stopping in plot ever so often to regain his thoughts because it made him upset. However, as he continued deeper in the Congo, he starts to change into Kurtz making Kurtz and Marlow complex. The reader can not tell if they are different people or perhaps the same. Before this transformation, Marlow and Kurtz was already similar in a few ways. For example, Marlow and Kurtz both shared a certain amount of respect for the natives, Kurtz even had a mistress that was native. However, they may have a certain level of respect for them they both feel that they are savage like and they are not equal to the white men. This shows the white man’s burden, of the white man that feels the need to educate the natives. Marlow even ends up agreeing later on in the book that they should be

Midway through the book, Marlow finally meets Kurtz when they arrive at his station in the Congo. Marlow anticipates meeting Kurtz to understand his philosophy and how he became so successful. When Marlow and the crew on the steamboat reach the station, Marlow sees heads on spikes making something like a fence around the hut. Marlow does not seem to question whether Kurtz was a good man, but merely states that putting the heads on the sticks did not help them increase their profit: “I have no opinion on that point,

     Each character has a special role in the novel; Kurtz and Marlow are the most important, through these two characters we are able to see how good and evil balance each other out. Marlow?s journey into the heart of darkness can also be seen as a journey into his own soul. He was in search of the darkest of objects, the ivory. Unlike Kurtz, Marlow was able to withstand the darkness from controlling him. Kurtz soul became the darkness and caused him to forget everything else there was to life. His last words were not that of love but rather of hate, ?The horrors the horrors.?

In the 20th century, European countries rapidly advanced due to constant development of technology, and through access to higher education and resources, they successfully gained colonies and recognition all over the world. The era flourished with riches and glory across Europe. However, from these blessings rose side effects within the society, such as inhumanity, greed, and corruption. Karl Marx perceived that this represents the true human nature and that literacy is an “ideological function” that reflects class structure and materialism (public.wsu.edu). Similarly, the Heart of Darkness is about a man who ends up at a Ivory Company in Congo, where he witnesses clear inputs and outputs of social oppression. Because it heavily deals with class structure as well as people’s immorality, The

The turn of the twentieth century lead to a new era of literature and society. During this time, people saw a new way of literature and opened their eyes to an advanced world with the beginning and ending of both world wars. The Modern period showed many authors attacking values and reflecting a greater degree of doubt throughout their work. Authors especially criticized the belief of national exceptionalism. One author who argued against a central problem or defining feature of this period was Joseph Conrad in his writing A Heart of Darkness. This story tells the journey of an Englishman in the Congo, trying to save one of his fellow workers from the savage jungle. Throughout this novel, readers can see Conrad denounce the action and purpose

      The Congo in Africa is home to dark native peoples that are portrayed with a natural, primal quality, a stark contrast to the civilizations in Europe. This is the setting for British imperialism at work. It is therefore the setting where the supposed sophistication of civilized men is deconstructed, and all men are revealed to share a common darkness. Africa and its inhabitants show an external darkness, while it is revealed that the colonizers contain darkness within. Heart of Darkness is a criticism of imperialism that uses the metaphor of darkness in the human heart to show the similarity between cultural groups perceived as different; elements of racism are used inside the darkness metaphor to emphasize anti-imperialism.

Kurtz. Throughout Marlow’s journey, he encounters different types of women. In his encounters with his Aunt, the African women, and Mr. Kurtz’s intended fiancee, Marlow shows his demeaning and sexist view of women. Marlow objectifies women depending on their race. The white European females are looked upon as domestic beings who should tend only to their home worlds, while the only African women is portrayed as a sexual object. It is this objectivity that causes Marlow to never reveal the truth about Mr. Kurtz’s life and death. The first woman that we meet is Marlow’s aunt. She is the one paying for his trip to the Congo, yet Marlow does not respect her views. Marlow says, "She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,’ till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable... It’s queer how out of touch with women are" (Conrad 11). In essence, Marlow is saying that women are out of touch with reality, even though it is clear that his Aunt’s views about Africans reflect the popular view of the time. That view being to Christianize Africa and get rid of their traditional culture. This view was held by the likes of Rudyard Kipling, Leoplod II and other prominent men of the time. Marlow does not recognizes his Aunt’s views simply because she is a women and he

Tovah Popilsky Ms. DeCaporale Modern World Literature 1 September 2015 Lit Log: Heart of Darkness Throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses the word “darkness” both as a symbol for the incivility and savageness of Africa and its natives, which provides a negative connotation towards the continent and heightens racial stereotypes, as well as to point out the negative situation caused by European colonization. Conrad continually equates “darkness” with the African peoples, which portrays the Africans as primitive and suggests that they need to be colonized by Europeans. Darkness is first introduced within the title of the novel, Heart of Darkness, which sets the theme of savagery, evil, and manipulation from the very beginning of the story.

By the time he exists leaves africa he himself has become a savage by allowing his primitive passions override the mission he gave himself. This book also suggests that your surroundings play a big part in your decision to choose your path when it comes to passion or responsibility. When Kurtz is in europe he chooses responsibility in that he is going to help the people of africa by helping them become civilized. Then when he gets to Africa he gives into his passions and does terrible things such as putting peoples heads on spikes. After that when he is on the boat to depart from africa with all mentally stable people, he looks back on the things that he did after he went crazy and realizes just how bad they were hence why his last words before he dies are,’”The horror! The horror!”’(page 73) the man who was with kurtz when he died was Marlow. Another example from Heart of Darkness on the struggel between passion and responsibility is that when Kurtz dies the responsible thing to do would be to bring him home and give him a proper funeral. Instead he is buried offshore in a muddy hole. When Marlow gets back to europe he goes to see Kurtz’s

It seems while on the river and in the Congo people begin to change. When Marlow first arrived, one of his first sights was the natives walking around chained together at the neck, that was his first indication that he is not where he thought he was going. (MLA CITE?). Later in the novel, Marlow starts to figure out that just because Kurtz bringing he most ivory does not mean that he is so great. Kurtz is fully corrupt, he has conformed to the society that surrounds him, he has lied and cheated his way into success and pulled many people into his mischievous plan. Marlow starts to discover Kurtz's true character once he is on the boat taking Kurtz back to Europe and he realizes that Kurtz is not the man he used to be. Kurtz had become so used to the society that he was in and the decisions that he was making

Since Kurtz mistress symbolizes the darkness of African, then it is assumed that Kurtz involvement with her defies Marlow’s expectations. Kayla Walker Edin deliberates in “It Is Impossible That All Should Be Lost”: Victorian Narrative in Joseph’s Conrad Heart of Darkness” about Victorian values in terms of discussion of both the Intended and the Mistress. Edin takes note that Marlow disappointedly insist that Kurt, himself, has gone native. Kurt has “apparently adopted customs that horrify Marlow (such as cannibalism, taking an African mistress and engaging in unnamed sexual and religious rites)” (Edin 42). Her blackness obstructs “every corner of the European home” unlike the Intended who is representative of the ideal Victorian woman. (Edin

   The novella Heart of Darkness has, since it's publication in 1899, caused much controversy and invited much criticism. While some have hailed it's author, Joseph Conrad as producing a work ahead of it's time in it's treatment and criticism of colonialist practices in the Congo, others, most notably Chinua Achebe, have criticized it for it's racist and sexist construction of cultural identity. Heart of Darkness can therefore be described as a text of it's time, as the cultural identity of the dominant society, that is, the European male is constructed in opposition to "the other", "the other" in Heart of Darkness being defined as black and/or female. Notions of cultural

 Marlow's journey leads him in an urgent search for Kurtz, the one man who can provide him with the truth about himself. Like Marlow, Kurtz came to the Congo in hopes to bring "light" and civilization to a backwards society. He is a highly-educated, refined gentlemen; yet, in the end, the brutal nature of the Congo forces him to resort to the life of a murderer and pilferer. The name Kurtz itself has symbolic meaning. "The physical shortness in Kurtz implies a shortness of character and spirit" (Heart of Darkness: A systematic evaluation). Marlow and Kurtz both symbolize the two conditions of human nature. "Kurtz represents what man could become if left to his own intrinsic devices outside protective society. Marlow represents a pure untainted civilized soul who has not been drawn to savagery by a dark, alienated jungle." (Heart of Darkness: A systematic evaluation). When the two come face to face, each man sees a reflection of what he might have become in the other. In Kurtz, Marlow sees the potential