Heart of Darkness, a novella written by Joseph Conrad, explores the growth of colonialism in Africa, narrated by a man, named Marlow, telling his life experiences to his crewmates. Over the course of Heart of Darkness, certain aspects of colonialism and those involved are revealed in a darker form than usual. Conrad provides an anti-colonialism novel rich with hidden explanations as to why. Heart of Darkness is an anti-colonialism novel, because
To begin with, the Europeans saw the people they colonized as lower life forms. In Heart of Darkness specifically, when Marlow arrives at the first company station, he sees six Africans in chains being put to work. Marlow describes them “Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind wagged to and fro like tails…I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope” (Conrad 17) in a way comparing them to animals.
Rudyard Kipling’s White Man’s Burden also supports European views on those colonized. In the first stanza, Kipling writes “Take up the White Man’s Burden…new caught, sullen peoples half-d...
In King Leopold’s Ghost book, in the prologue it says that the image Europeans had of Africans was assure because when Europeans ar...
Throughout Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad points to the hypocrisy and horrors associated with colonialism. The half-English, half-French Kurtz is the main vehicle used to convey his theme of European colonialism, as “all [of] Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” (Conrad 164). It was Kurtz who goes to Africa for the "sake of loot, and thus becomes a great literary symbol for the decadence of colonialism" (Zins 63). With his help, Marlow dissects the reasoning behind colonialism, eventually seeing its evil nature.
Joseph Conrad uses his novella Heart of Darkness to critique the consequences of European imperialism in Africa. Conrad himself was a sailor for over twenty years and saw the sights of the Congo firsthand in his experiences. He observed the exploitation and mistreatment of the natives by the Europeans and was appalled. He uses his writings to criticize this practice and expose the harsh realities caused by European nations such as Belgium colonizing in Africa during the 19th century. Conrad also comments on race and gender in his writing. With the words and phrases that he uses, the reader begins to understand the European countries and the African countries as two separate worlds. Africa becomes synonymous as a place of bestiality and savagery
When the colonizers are criticized it somehow gives the feeling that their deeds are wrong but at a point it also shows the colonizers as an object of pity. The incidence which criticizes the natives shows them to be inferior. The Europeans feel that they are superior but the actions that are given show them being inferior. When Marlow reached the station he sees few bricks scattered and a rail way being rusted. Europeans came to Congo in the name of civilization however their deeds never contributed to the civilization of Congo. The Europeans made the natives to dig holes for no purpose. These incidence and many more from the text shows the actual darkness in Europeans. But Marlow also mentions how the Europeans suffer mentally after going back because of the Natives. The Europeans threatens the natives by whistling and making that strange sound. In real life such a practice is only done towards animals. For example people blow honks and make strange sounds to chase away elephants. This shows the opinion of the Europeans on the natives and how they look down on
Heart of Darkness is a novel based on European imperialism in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. During the turn of the century in 1900, the more significant countries in Europe (i.e. England, France, Germany, et al.) had gotten to a point where expansion within Europe was no longer foreseeable, so for financial, political, and egotistical reasons, these countries looked south to their neighbor Africa, the "black continent." "God-forsaken wilderness." Marlow says of Africa. (Page 73) Trade routes were established and the home countries found reliable executive willing to travel and develop relations in the country. In Conrad's novel, Kurtz was this man. He started out with a noble goal, i.e. to modernize Africa, but suffered the effects of a deadly disease, greed. "It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage." Said Marlow (of what Kurtz and the ivory company had done to Africa.) (Page 102.)
The notion blank space suggests that Africa is uninhabited and, therefore, any country can assert power over it. Again, Conrad eliminates Africa from the rest of the world by calling it a blank space and denying the fact that it is a country with its rules and people. The Heart of Darkness talks about the exploitation of Africa by the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, it is a group of five white men and their purpose is to exploit Africa out of its resources, mostly ivory. In doing so, they also spread their culture, religion and laws onto the natives. The first law that the Europeans imposed was taxation since the natives didn’t have money they sold their bodies to work, and eventually the Europeans became slaveholders. They treated the native’s body as an object and inflicted several atrocities on them, including cutting off hands and feet. They justified their actions by stating that they are civilising the savage natives, but as we read the text we begin to question who are the real animals; the primitive natives or the educated Europeans who instigate nefarious activities on those
He first gets his job and we see how excited he is just to begin to explore the seas. However, this begins to change when starts to explore the Congo. When he begins to arrive to the stations and such, we see how he does not appreciate what he is seeing. Conrad uses very descriptive diction at this point to emphasize what kind of point of view we receive from Marlow. When speaking about the slaves chained up together, Marlow says he “could see every rib, the joints...like knots in a rope”(18). Conrad uses this descriptive language to not only show how terrible the conditions were of the natives but also to show how Marlow also can see how terribly they have been treated. This also shows a comparison between what Marlow sees and what the Europeans view. Conrad does not blatantly say what the other Europeans view but as a reader we can assume that they basically feel nothing towards the natives because they are the ones creating the problems and troubles for the natives. Conrad also shows that the Europeans feel like they are helping the “savages” by civilizing them with their own culture and traditions. The motives of these two also contrast greatly and that affects their view
Conrad’s evocation of the African environment and population preaches racial intolerance and creates a stark contrast between the life of Europeans and Africans. The constant slandering of the African population as “niggers” and “cannibals” and “savages” and the referral to the continent as an immense “Heart of Darkness” are the base examples of this racial intolerance. But despite this racist viewpoint, Conrad is merely conveying the language and prevailing attitude of the day; that Africa is considered as subordinate to Western civilization. However, Marlow’s observation of the Indigenous population of Africa develops on the idea of racial intolerance. The dancing Africans on the riverbank yield the first example of t...
At the turn of the 20th century, African states had been colonized and were being used by the European nations with imperialistic ideals. With imperialism came the praise and promotion of the imperialistic ideas. However, unlike other times in history where a nation had taken over another, there was criticism written by some of the writers living in the imperialistic countries. Two of these writers were Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, and George Orwell, who wrote “Shooting an Elephant”. Both of their pieces comments on the dark side of imperialism and the effects it has on the colonized states and the people of the states.
When writers write, it is often to convey a deeper meaning or truth to it readers. With this in mind, we should first take the book at face value then analysis the story to see the point that the writer revels. In The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad does this very well. The story goes from what we originally thought as just a story of a journey into Africa to a story of indeed a journey to the hearts of men. Conrad’s truth in The Heart of Darkness is multi-layered in dealing with imperialism and colonialism, but leads us to a critique of humanity as a whole. The biggest issue that Conrad shows in this book, is his philosophy of the dark nature of man. This paper will explore the evidence for the nature of man theory and then look at the proposed solution subtlety given by Conrad.
In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, Chinua Achebe says that “it is the desire¬—one might indeed say the need—in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe” (337). Indeed it is wise for Achebe to make this claim while discussing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a short novel that presents the relationship between Europe and Africa as an entirely one-sided narrative which denies the African people their right to personage. For a majority of the novel, Marlow’s narration of a story goes so above and beyond telling one narrative, that it works toward preventing the African people from developing a voice of their own. Edward Said, in Culture and Imperialism, provides perhaps the most efficient explanation as to how the narrative that Marlow tells in the novel works against the African people:
“ The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” (Conrad 65) So stated Marlow as though this was his justification for ravaging the Congo in his search for ivory. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness shows the disparity between the European ideal of civilization and the reality of it as is evidenced by the domination, torture, exploitation and dehumanization of the African population. Heart of Darkness is indicative of the evil and greed in humanity as personified by Kurtz and Marlow.
In the opening of his novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad, through Marlow, establishes his thoughts on colonialism. He says that conquerors only use brute force, "nothing to boast of" because it arises, by accident, from another's weakness. Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such an endeavor. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by painting a heinous picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the recesses of the novel. Here 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." Further, he sees such conquests as taking land and materials away from those people who "have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses." As he understands it, colonization is only successful if there lays within it a "devotion to efficiency" and a creation of civilization, not exploitation (Conrad, 4). In the novel, as seen through the eyes of his narrator Marlow, Conrad offers a frank critique of European imperial colonialism be alluding to the poignant differences between black and white and dark and light.
In literature, contrasting places are used by certain authors as a way of representing opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. We see this used in the novella “Heart Of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad as he applies the jungles of Africa and Europe to develop the concept of civilization and the heart of darkness respectively. However many critics such as Chinua Achebe and Karin Hannson believe that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a racist work displaying the mistreatment of African natives being below Marlow and Kurtz.In "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad 's Heart of Darkness," Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the continent and people of Africa. Despite this, Conrad
I have to agree with the statement that ‘the novel Heart of Darkness has two contradictory sides in its treatment of the African characters and land’. I can see the reasons why it is said that while Joseph Conrad writes about the feeling of sympathy he felt for the native Africans in the novel, at the same time he actually writes the novel from a Eurocentric point of view. I cannot deny it that there are positive things that show some of the Europeans are not too good that were being portrayed in the novel, but for me it was just so that the readers would not realize the fact that it was written from a Eurocentric point of view. In this essay, I will provide some details and quotations from the novella and also from other sources in order to make my opinion concrete on why I agree with the statement. From what I have read, Joseph Conrad wrote the novel using his own experiences from his early life in Congo. In addition, in the novel, Marlow is the main character so I assume that Marlow is actually the representation of Joseph Conrad himself.