Joseph Conrad utilizes several important literary techniques throughout his story Heart of Darkness. One predominant method of his storytelling is the use of contrasting sensory imagery between black and white and altering the symbolism the colors entail. This theme is clearly prevalent when we read of Marlow's childhood dreams and when comparing and contrasting the Africans, the Europeans, and the corruption of the ivory trade. Generally, Africa and Africans are described in terms of blackness, symbolic of darkness, evil, and corruption. On the other hand, Europe and Europeans are defined in terms of white, representative of innocence and purity. These images are essential in proving the dominant theme of good versus evil and in Conrad's unconventional reversal of the true colors of blacks and whites.
Subsequent to the introduction of his journey, Marlow explains the significance of his map. "It ceased to be...a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness" (71). This map upholds a meaningful representation of Conrad's ongoing theme. Marlow's innocent childhood dreams of exploring the white spaces of the map were ultimately destroyed as the maps became darker colors. On Marlow's map, Africa is represented as blankness, the white eventually destined to be "filled in" by cartographers or mapmakers as it was further explored. In this sense, Africa was "white" (innocent and pure) until colonialism progressively brought darkness; not only by removing the map's white space but also by implementing the corruption of the ivory trade.
Marlow's first sight of the "darkness" is when he sees a boat "paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eye...
... middle of paper ...
...e men, whose skin color represented righteousness and purity, were guilty of "black" actions while the black men, whose shade of skin embodied sin and immorality, encompassed "white" souls. These images prove Conrad's existing theme of good versus evil and how, although the color white customarily represents purity, it does not always bring goodness.
Works Cited
Bodek, Richard. "Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Diss. 2000. The Explicator 59 (2000):25.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer. New York: New American Library, 1997. 65-164.
Conrad, Joseph. The Story and Its Writer. Comp. Ann Charters. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins, 2003. 162-224.
Kaplan, Carola M. "Colonizers, Cannibals, and the Horror of Good Intentions in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Diss. Newberry College, 1997. Studies in Short Fiction 34 (1997):323.
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness uses character development and character analysis to really tell the story of European colonization. Within Conrad's characters one can find both racist and colonialist views, and it is the opinion, and the interpretation of the reader which decides what Conrad is really trying to say in his work.
Watts, Cedric. 'Heart of Darkness.' The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad. Ed. J.H. Stape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 45-62.
Cox, C. B. Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Under Western Eyes. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1987.
In the present era of decolonization, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents one of fictions strongest accounts of British imperialism. Conrad’s attitude towards imperialism and race has been the subject of much literary and historical debate. Many literary critics view Conrad as accepting blindly the arrogant attitude of the white male European and condemn Conrad to be a racist and imperialists. The other side vehemently defends Conrad, perceiving the novel to be an attack on imperialism and the colonial experience. Understanding the two viewpoints side by side provides a unique understanding that leads to a commonality that both share; the novel simply presents a criticism of colonialists in Africa. The novel merely portrays a fictional account of British imperialism in the African jungle, where fiction offers maximum entertainment it lacks in focus. The novel is not a critique of European colonialism and imperialism, but rather a presentation of colonialism and the theme of darkness throughout the novel sheds a negative light on the selfishness of humanity and the system that was taking advantage of the native peoples. In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad presents a criticism of British imperial colonization not for the purpose of taking sides, but with aims of bettering the system that was in place during Conrad’s experience in the African Congo. Conrad uses the character of Marlow and his original justification of imperialism so long as it was efficient and unselfish that was later transformed when the reality of colonialism displayed the selfishness of man, to show that colonialism throughout history displaces the needs of the mother country over the colonized peoples and is thus always selfish.
Marlow, the main character in Heart of Darkness, often recognizes the Europeans' dehumanization of the Africans. As Marlow approaches the company offices at the Outer Station he sees "a scene of inhabited devastation" (Conrad 24). He catches sight of a chain gang of half starved, animal-like Africans. Trying to rationalize the situation, Marlow tells himself that these Africans are criminals, and somehow deserve their ...
In book one of Heart of Darkness, Conrad describes a mass of black bodies clinging to life in order to show the “horror” of colonialism in Africa. Conrad describes a scene of “black shapes crouched . . clinging to the earth . . . in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” Conrad uses the language of “pain, abandonment, and despair” to show the unjustifiable acts committed by the Europeans against the native Africans. The bodies “cling” to life because of the lack of empathy exhibited by the colonists. In addition, Conrad describes a man with a thread around his neck: “it looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas.” The white thread symbolizes the act of white colonialism strangling the resources and life out of Africa. Furthermore, Conrad depicts the body’s “black neck” to emphasize the injustice the natives receive from the Europeans. Additionally, Conrad uses the mass of abandoned bodies to argue against any sympathy for colonialism. Moreover, Conrad uses the criticism of colonialism to explain the European attitude towards native Africans. Conrad uses imagery to describe the natives as animals in order to demonstrate the European perception of Africa. Conrad compares Marlow’s companions as a “hyena.” The animal imagery is used to compare the physical and mental bodies of the native Africans as less than “white people.”
"I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,' [Conrad] began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would most like to hear" (Conrad, 9). Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's best-known work, has been examined on many bases more than I can possibly list here, but including imperialism, colonialism, and racism. I would reason that all bases of analysis are perfectly acceptable through which to critique Conrad's novella, or any piece of writing. I would reason this, were some of these bases mainly, racism not taken to an extreme level. In arguing racism, many critics seem to take Heart of Darkness as Conrad's unwavering view on Africa, Africans, life, or whatever else one may please to take it as. I, therefore, propose that Heart of Darkness be taken for what it truly is: a work of fiction set in late 19th century Europe and Africa.
As Marlow assists the reader in understanding the story he tells, many inversions and contrasts are utilized in order to increase apperception of the true meaning it holds. One of the most commonly occurring divergences is the un orthodox implications that light and dark embody. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness brims with paradoxes and symbolism throughout its entirety, with the intent of assisting the reader in comprehending the truth of not only human nature, but of the world.
Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 6th ed. vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993. 1759-1817.
Wright, Walter F. "Ingress to The Heart of Darkness ." Romance and Tragedy in Joseph Conrad . New York: Russell and Russell, 1966. Pp. 143-160.
Setting is relevant to the overall theme of the novel. As the plot opens up, Marlow begins to compare and contrast the Thames River to the Congo. He describes both rivers to be connected like "an interminable waterway" (Conrad 65). Marlow means to say that the two are connected symbolically. Both represent the continual passage for the ivory trade. The ivory is carried out of Africa through the Congo and into Europe through the Thames. The Thames is depicted as being peaceful and tranquil while the Congo is it's antithesis. Both are associated with darkness, however, the Thames has "conquered" it's darkness and now is peaceful. Conrad portrays London to be the "light" of the world and Africa to be "one of the darkest places on the earth" (pg. 67). Europe is highly civilized and refined while Africa is considered to ...
It is evident that Marlow is one of the few white men on the journey that questions the belief at the time that the natives of Africa are "inhu...
Conrad also employs the literary device of symbolism to further display the theme, the duality of human nature in his novella Heart of Darkness. Three major examples of symbolism are evident in this novella. These examples include, light and dark, the Congo River, and ivory. Similar to Stevenson, Conrad uses light and dark symbolism throughout his novella. Yet curiously in Heart of Darkness, light does not symbolize genuine goodness nor does dark symbolize pure calamity. Marlow proves this when he says as a comment to the Nellie’s sailors that, “I know that the sunlight can be made to lie, too” (Conrad 1944). The true essence of the light and dark symbolism is portrayed when Marlow compares the white men to the black men, concluding that these men are all the same. In Heart of Darkness, the symbolizing of light and dark actually represents the duality of human nature, a universal condition, which affects all men despite their skin color. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow’s voyage up the Congo River represents Marlow’s own inward journey. As Marlow advances up the river in search for Kurtz, he begins to learn more and more about himself. Nearing the end of his voyage up the Congo River, Marlow realizes he has more in common with the natives than with the European imperialists. At the end of his journey, when Marlow finally reaches Kurtz, he has learned that everybody has a dark side, but some people learned how to conceal it better than others. The third example of symbolism is ivory. In Heart of Darkness, ivory symbolizes greed and the calamitous nature of man, or the evil side. All throughout the novella the agents and managers of the Company are consumed by obtaining ivory. So much so, that they abandon all their moral principles and...
* Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness” in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, M.H. Abrams, general editor. (London: W.W. Norton, 1962, 2000)
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.