Hypocrisy Of Imperialism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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Heart of Darkness is a tale of one man’s frightening journey to the Congo named Marlow. He recalls his time as an agent for the Belgian Company. He speaks about the brutality, hatred, and evil of those trying to colonize and the native Africans that are fighting for their territory. During this journey he saves a fellow agent that goes mad due to him succumbing to mental and environmental issues and unfortunately tragically dies. Through the Narrator who tells the story and Point of View from which the story is told, we get a better understanding of the overall theme, which is the hypocrisy of imperialism, the madness it causes, the absurdity of evilness, and how anyone is capable of evil. In Heart of Darkness we begin with an unnamed narrator who speaks in first person plural for 4 other men. Their purpose is to add some more commentary. Through this commentary we get some details that strengthen Marlow’s presence and get a feel that what Marlow is about to speak is important. The narrator speaks that, “He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and… resembled an idol.” (Conrad 1). Joseph Conrad is using this first narrator to gain the audiences respect …show more content…

It is very intriguing and for the audience this is very important because as we get farther in the story and see how truly mad Kurtz has become, one can see the theme of madness being displayed. On page 28 of Heart of darkness we discover that Kurtz came to the Congo to set up stations that would serve to improve the morals of the natives (Conrad). Unfortunately the natives began to treat Kurtz as god of some sorts and it got to his head and he was smart enough to use this to his advantage, leading him to going mad. Inching closer to Kurtz station and becoming intrigued with Kurtz as a person, Marlow begins to realize that Kurtz is not inherently bad. He admires him almost as much as he disagrees with his decisions he has

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