This is described by Conrad (1904, pg. 23) when his protagonist, Marlow, says upon arriving to the Congo: “I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.” Marlow describes the natives as malnourished, enslaved people who were held as captives in chains under the lead of a white man. Outside of Heart of Darkness, African Americans have
machinery lies decaying, natives walk in chains, and in a grove of trees, other native labourers are slowly dying. This leads Marlow to remark that he was acquainted with a “flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly” (Conrad 13). Describing the colonials’ behaviour as such reveals that Marlow is critical of imperialism. Different from the other devils of greed, violence and desire, the devil of imperialism is foolish and futile in its actions, absent-mindedly bombing
The Landscape: In this section, I seek to investigate how the nature of the African landscape has been depicted in Heart of Darkness. Questions such as 1.) How the Orientalist others the foreign landscape 2.) What is the psychological influence of the African landscape on the European colonisers? 3.) Does the psychological influenceon the Whites similar to that of the Blacks? 4.) And, what are the consequences of that psychological influence on the White invaders and the natives? These arguments
My research paper is entitled, Analyzing Heart of Darkness through a Feminist Lens. Through this paper, I will investigate and examine Heart of Darkness by means of Feminist Criticism and literary theory. I aspire to thoroughly analyze the entire narrative, in order to pull out and pinpoint various aspects and examples linked to feminist theory. I want to investigate and spotlight specific occurrences, in the novel, where characteristics of Feminist Criticism can be found or applied. I specifically
E SSAYS ON TWENTIETH-C ENTURY H ISTORY In the series Critical Perspectives on the Past, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in