The Role Of Imperialism In Heart Of Darkness

Role Played By Racial Bodies

The novel ‘Heart of Darkness’ is a novel that has been famous in the United Kingdom. It is written by Joseph Conrad who was a polish-British novel writer. The book is especially concerned with what he witnesses in the African continent as he travelled along River Congo. Marlow the main character is narrating his story to his friends whom they are sailing together. According to Joseph Conrad, there is no significant difference between the so-called civilized and the illiterate persons. From his work one can indeed testify that central question that is being dealt with is that of racism and imperialism. The image of the black man is portrayed in a very negative manner to the outside world; the African continent is

While Marlow was traveling from to the Central station from the Outer Station and later to the inner station. He observes acts of cruelty, torture and near-slavery. The force behind the narrator’s adventures to has something to do with the inherent hypocrisy in the art of justifying imperialism. The company’s workers assert that their brutal treatment of Africans is the European benevolent project of civilizing the black people. Kurtz, on the other hand, is open enough to accept that does not engage in fair trade since he takes ivory by force. Kurtz describes the way he treats the black people in just two words; suppression and extermination. He is not hesitant to say that he reigns by using violence and intimidation. However, his brutal honesty leads him to his downfall since his triumph threatens to bring to light the evil nature of the Europeans in Africa at that particular

The novel candidly explores the notion of the proverbial alternative of the lesser of two evils. Marlow is ideally forced to concur with either the openly malevolent and unruly Kurtz or the malicious and hypocritical colonial bureaucracy. It, however, becomes candid that any effort to judge any individual alternative is folly. Moral standards and social values cannot be used to judge evil. There is nothing like insanity in the novel whereby the said sane were more insane than. For instance, Marlow observes a man who was trying to carry water in a bucket that was evident with a hole. Also, at the outer station, Marlow observes native African laborers blasting away at a hillside with no specific goal. The absurdity here emanates from both stupid and life determining situations. The fact that the mundane and the serious are seen to be similar implies a profound moral confusion and a deep sense of hypocrisy. It is daunting that Kurtz homicidal tendency and the leaky bucket conundrum trigger the same reaction by