The Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

Between America and other European nations, stereotypes and misrepresentations have ultimately plagued the continent of Africa. To every side there is often another story, yet unfortunately for the many countries of Africa, they are ultimately victimized and suffer through further oppression. According to Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, Keim suggests that Africa is essentially under the public microscope, it tends to be scrutinized, and compared to European nations and America. Keim elaborates on human natures need to group people, places, and things, which creates the theory of superiority or dominance over races, cultures, and even religions.

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 novella, Heart of Darkness, was written in 1899, near the end of the imperialism of Africa. Far from European civilization, the imperialists are without rules and ransacking Africa in search ivory and glory. One of the most significant themes in Heart of Darkness is the psychological issues catalyzed by the lawlessness of the jungle. Due to the breakdown of societal convention, the characters of Heart of Darkness are exposed to not only the corruption of imperialism, but the sickness of their minds.

When learning about the history of the world, we can not ignore the fact that Africa plays a significant role. Many believe that Africa is the birth place of all races, and although that is true, the history and cultures of Africa and its natives are misunderstood among Americans. People do not take the time to expand their knowledge about Africa, yet they create their own perceptions of the continent based upon the image that America created. America creates this stereotype that Africa is inferior to the other continents by picturing them as savage like individuals who live an insufficient life. To truly understand Africa, you must understand these two important elements: the demographics of Africa and the true history of Africa

There are many myths and stereotypes of how the media portrays Africa to be. The media has stereotyped Africa to be poor, hazardous, hot, underdeveloped nation, violent and spiritual country (p, 37). In the chapter “How We Learn”, Curtis Keim focuses on the specific sources that stereotypes Africa to be over populated country with exotic animals. Also stereotypes the people to be illiterate and not well educated people. People take negativity from different sources of media and base their opinion upon the information given and that is how people learn about Africa.

The myth and stereotypes about Africa are not anything new and they are very present in our daily lives and the way Africa is portrayed. For example the reason why many people today think that Africa is bleak land of poverty and diseases is because early writers, historians, and geographers talked about Africa in that way. Because these stereotypes are so readily available, they infiltrate people’s daily thinking. Furthermore this makes people less likely to actually seek to really learn about Africa because they feel that their [inaccurate] suffice for their worldview of Africa. This is in turn leads people completely ignoring anything that contract their already established ideas.

While watching the Ted Talk titled, Africa’s Next Boom by Charles Robertson, my perspective changed a lot. It changed because he talked about the percentage of people with HIV infection and malaria has decreased twenty seven percent. This goes against my original perspective about Africa being full of disease and having a crazy large amount of disease. I now know that Africa’s percentage of many diseases is decreasing and will continue to decrease as time goes on, which completely changes my initial thoughts. Also in the Ted Talk, Africa’s Next Boom, I learned that the education system is growing and will eventually be very powerful within the next years. I also learned that because the education system is growing, it is helping the growth of many more things, like government because more and more people will be educated. My original stereotypes also changed once I read the article from the Chicago Tribune titled, Opening Eyes to the True Africa by Thom Khanje, once again my perspective changed. It changed because I thought that Africa had lots of poverty and lots of war. While reading this I learned that the poverty figures are decreasing a large amount each year. I also learned that only five out of fifty two nations in Africa are at war. Both of these changed my initial idea of Africa. Between the Ted Talk and the article, the idea of a single story really came about. Both changed

     While sitting and talking to the man on the pier, Stevens questions his life, realizing that his entire method of thinking has been wrong. He realizes that he has not been living as a human being, but rather as simply a butler.

The political philosopher Benjamin Constant argued, “no one has a right to a truth which injures others.” The question of lying has been debated for centuries: where should one draw the line with lying? Should one try to never tell lies? Can the public handle the truth? In Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, Marlow, the protagonist, tried to answer this conundrum. He lied three times during the course of his story, each time becoming larger than the last. As the philosopher Kant argued, once a lie is told, the concept of truth itself is attacked, leading to increasingly great lies until they become too large for the liar himself. In this novella, Marlow began by lying to someone of no consequence; subsequently he lied to the

In Joseph Conrads’ work, Heart of Darkness, many characters fall victim to insanity caused by the wild environment. However, there are a select few who managed to leave the jungle unscathed after their encounter with the foreign landscape and people. Among these few include the chief accountant of the Outer Station, the foreman of mechanics, the manager of the Central Station, and Marlow. It was not by chance that these men are able to retain their sanity. Each one of these individuals had an occupation, background, lifestyle, or intellect that worked in their favor throughout their stay in the Congo.

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.

                Adolescence is a transitional phase of psychological development where one begins to become more aware of themselves and their position in society. This transition is a vital one that changes one’s feelings, decision making, and attitude towards things that they might’ve viewed differently as an adolescent. In the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad exposes the psychological change that Marlow goes through by coming to Congo for the development of his experience and self through his confrontation with Kurtz, encounter with European imperialism, as well as his newfound awareness of the unknown and unfamiliar.Marlow’s confrontation with Kurtz

Imperialism is when a country is extending it’s influence by acquiring other governments or territories through diplomacy or military force.There are many motives for imperialism attributed to the different characters in “The Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. For example the men who work for the Company describe what they do as trade, and their treatment of native Africans is part of a humane project of civilization. But what these men for the company really do is they extending their influence on the Africans by force. In “The Heart of Darkness” Marlow who also work for the company states “It was just robbery with violence, aging gravated murder on a great scale, and men

The first impression of the African people resulted in their image suffering. Africa has been given the stereotype that everyone is primitive and living in poverty. This is only a very small population but this idea of them being less fortunate has more traction to the human mind. People enjoy pitying the less fortunate and let's them feel like they are a good person. This seems childish and self-centered, but it is a major drive in the human psyche to be this way. The idea that Africa is full of mostly poverty is simply not true. That's only a very minute amount of the population. There is much more

Before any type of outside involvement, most Africans were educated and civilized.  While it is a widespread misconception that Africa is “the heart of darkness,” in reality, it is a place full of sophisticated people living just like the rest of the world.  It is true that during the late 1800’s many countries in Africa were not as developed as many places in Europe, however  as Chinua Achebe states, Africa is “...vaguely