Social Justice In The Motorcycle Diaries By Che Guevara

“Oh, propriety...We’re always so concerned with propriety. Even in total madness, we will stick to our hierarchies and chains of command.” This concept--human concern with fitting societal standards and hierarchies--is a clear theme in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Even as ivory transporter Charles Marlow journeys into Central Africa, a land described as “mad” and “savage”, those around him remain primarily interested in maintaining a set image and social standards, a strange concept amidst such perceived “madness”. This obsession with propriety in Heart of Darkness is seen through the anomalous character development of both Kurtz and Marlow, and the Company’s response. Overall, this contributes to a larger meaning explored by the novel--the question of good and evil and whether or not the two are truly distinguishable.

Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, describes a life-altering journey that the protagonist, Marlow, experiences in the African Congo.  The story explores the historical period of colonialism in Africa to exemplify Marlow's struggles.  Marlow, like other Europeans of his time, is brought up to believe certain things about colonialism, but his views change as he experiences colonialism first hand. This essay will explore Marlow's view of colonialism, which is shaped through his experiences and also from his relation to Kurtz.  Marlow's understanding of Kurtz's experiences show him the effects colonialism can have on a man's soul.

This isolation lends Marlow a sort of objectivity, allowing him to keenly assess the true damage Europe has inflicted upon the Congo. Unbound by friendships or any close ties, Marlow is able to survey the Congo and its colonists from an outsider’s perspective. As previously noted, he refers to them as “pilgrims” as a means of detaching himself. He comments on how when attacked by natives, “The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush” (Conrad 41). By distancing himself from the others, Marlow is able to recognize the pointlessness of the chaotic violence the Europeans perpetuate. Though his distaste for European methods is not always well defined, it is definitely evident, seeming to escalate as he travels further along the Congo. Perhaps, then, the “heart of darkness” that Marlow so frequently says he is journeying into is not the jungle itself, but rather the truth about European brutality. At the core of this heart, both physically and symbolically, lies the Inner Station, where Marlow finds Kurtz. When Marlow first hears about Kurtz, he is fascinated. The colonists rave, “He is a prodigy…He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else” (Conrad 22). These colonists are naïve, uninformed, beholding Kurtz as

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.

After living in the Congo and witnessing what the demands and desires of the sophisticated world can do to a less educated people, Marlow can not stand the capitalistic entitlement that allows the citizens of Brussels egos to float like the gods of Olympus. Marlow’s description of Brussels as ‘sepulchral’ animates the turning of his back on the society that the River Thames once symbolised. Marlow becomes dramatically more understanding of the Congo as his disgust of his once perceived ‘orthodox’ society eats away at him. This altering of opinion highlights the stark change in the meanings of light and dark within Heart of Darkness.

In the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad suggests that when removed from civilization and unrestrained, people succumb to the evil in human nature and regress into savagery. Charlie Marlow, the protagonist of the story, ventures out into the depths of Africa, eager to explore its unknown territories. Despite hoping for success, Marlow learns of the horrors that lie behind the curtain of civilization. Throughout the novel, the author presents this main idea with certain elements of fiction. A key scene that portrays the theme of the story occurs when Marlow follows Kurtz’s path from his steamboat into the wilderness. Kurtz, who represents the result of unchecked ambitions, recalls his experience in the wilderness, and readers learn of his character prior to his downfall. This scene displays the main idea using the author’s style, the point of view, and the characterization of Kurtz.

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.

A famous criticism of Conrad’s novella is called An Image of Africa, which was written by an African native named Chinua Achebe. In Achebe’s criticisms of Heart of Darkness, he points out the difference between descriptions of the European woman and the African woman, who was Kurtz’s mistress. The narrator describes the European woman as being calm and mature, and the African woman as being “savage” (341 Norton). Even though many writers claim that Marlow is kind to the Africans by bringing light to their situation, the real problem does not lie in his description of their situations, but his descriptions of the people themselves (30 Heart of darkness Interpretations).

Marlow says that, "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-- nothing to boast of."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) . Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such a voyage. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by illustrating a picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the novel. White Europeans are used as symbols of self-deception, and we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as it is very proper for those who tackle darkness."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) This shows how Conrad feels about colonialism through Marlow, because Marlow feels strongly adverse to the actions of the whites in the Congo.

  Kurtz was a personal embodiment, a dramatization, of all that Conrad felt of futility, degradation, and horror in what the Europeans in the Congo called 'progress,' which meant the exploitation of the natives by every variety of cruelty and treachery known to greedy man. Kurtz was to Marlow, penetrating this country, a name, constantly recurring in people's talk, for cleverness and enterprise. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a portrait of the degeneration of the ideal of Kurtz symbolizing the degeneration of the ideal of colonialism as 'civilizing work'.

Marlow first crosses paths with Kurtz’s African mistress in the Congo. “And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman.” Marlow’s description of her mirrors his feelings about the Congo, her beauty is appealing to him because it is foreign and unlike the European women he is used to. He further describes her, “She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress.” Though Marlow appreciates her physically, he equates her to being ‘wild’ and ‘savage’ and sees her as backward and uncultured. The word ‘ominous’ gives the sense that Marlow envisions her with darkness. In comparison, when Marlow meets Kurtz’s ‘Intended’ he is affected by her beauty in a different way. “She struck me as beautiful—I mean she had a beautiful expression. I know that the sunlight can be made to lie, too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features. She seemed ready to listen without mental reservation, without suspicion, without a thought for herself.” Marlow describes Kurtz’s ‘Intended’ as innocent and pure. Though she lacks the excitement of Kurtz’s African mistress, she is the good homely wife a man would prefer. In comparison to the African mistress, Marlow envisions ‘The Intended’ with ‘sunlight’ and brightness. In this way, Conrad alludes that the only thing of importance to women is their physical beauty to please the eyes of

The conquering of a place and its people does not just affect the land and its resources; it also affects those inhabiting it. Marlow describes the Congolese’s spirituality being oppressed, “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking is away from those who have a different complexion of slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” (Conrad, 69). Marlow discusses his aunt’s thoughts on the process, “She talked about weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways.” He watches the Europeans using their own laws to control and oppress the people of the Congo, for example, he sees an ugly chain-gang at the first station, which does not seem as though they are criminals. Nevertheless, the European law had decided for the natives, Marlow describes, “like shells from the man-of-war, like an insoluble mystery from the sea. (Conrad, 12). The Congolese appointed to work on his ship, he describes as, still belonging, “to the beginnings of time,” but “as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river, it didn’t enter anybody’s head to trouble how they would live. (Conrad, 33-34). Skulls of then men judged by the European law were set on stakes around Kurtz’s

In The Motorcycle Diaries, Guevara’s discoveries of the devastating effects of US neo-colonialism in Latin America are only fully understood upon his rediscoveries of the equally harmful nature of not only tourism, but also his own vagabond traveling. Through their encounters with farm labourers, Guevara’s initial discovery of the Araucanian race’s “deep suspicion of the white man who… now continues to exploit them” is shown through the prominent motif of sharing mate, which highlights the early understanding between them. However, this understanding is expanded upon reaching Cuzco, where the symbolic juxtaposition of the three layers of the city emphasises his reassessment of how “a hesitant tourist [also] pass[es] over things superficially”. Even further, in Guevara’s encounter with the Chilean communist couple, graphic imagery accentuates his rediscovery of the “parasitic nature” of not

As Kurtz’s title grows, he is able to work his way into the natives’ minds. He becomes their leader, even though he is an outsider. Little does Marlow know, Kurtz’s corruptness and his imperialistic and colonialist efforts to rule the African land would become his demise. In the end, Marlow understands that Kurtz is not all he is made out to be, and finds that his practices are harsher than necessary as he reads in Kurtz’s book his plans to “Exterminate all the brutes!” (50). Kurtz is referring to the natives he befriends and uses to his advantage. While Marlow and Kurtz move throughout the Congo as foreigners of a “First World” country, the Natives of the Congo are forces reconcile with Kurtz’s colonization and rule of their land and over their people. What Conrad presents in Heart of Darkness are the dangers of naiveté regarding “First World” practices of imperialism and colonialism, and then becoming aware, as Marlow gradually does, of their implications.