Novel: Heart of Darkness
Author: Conrad
By: P.Yoon
Imperialism
As a captain of a steamboat in the Congo, Joseph Conrad was exposed to the many atrocities and crimes committed in the land. Through his disgust and moral outrage toward imperialism, Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness. Using the protagonist, Marlow, Conrad depicts and expose the truths of imperialism. Marlow and the West both declare that “niggers,” “savages,” and “prehistoric men” inhabit the Congo. In the eyes of imperialists, the natives are nothing but animals with “black limbs” that live in “a madhouse.” Primitive, they just stamp their feet, clap their hands, and sway their bodies like dogs. These “savages” have no culture as those living in Europe. They don’t have a purpose in life as they do not record history. Heart of Darkness was written to attack the dishonesty and savagery of imperialism in the Congo.
Conrad states that “civilized” men and women in Europe believe that Africans are “savages” and animals. Conrad supports this claim when Marlow says that his crew is moving “again into the silence.” In the minds of Europeans, “the silence” represents the Congo because Africans do not have a voice. In comparison with Kurtz, true power lies within a man’s voice. As the natives lack a voice, imperialists degrades Africans into animal status. They believe the natives can only communicate through “clapping,” “stamping,” and “swaying” their “black limbs” or through a “burst of yells.” In addition, Marlow states that the Congolese are like a “prehistoric man” inhabiting a “prehistoric earth.” In prehistoric times, governments, restraints, religions, morals, ethics, and agriculture were nonexistent. Instead it was plagued with lawlessness. Prehistoric men lived to only eat and reproduce. Thus, the natives are incapable of constructing a true civilization by themselves.
Throughout the passage, Conrad denounces the Western attitude towards the Congolese. He states that the natives are not savages as they have their own customs and cultures. As Marlow travels down the river he says, “the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air over our heads.” The natives are capable of creating a sound that could be heard by anyone. Conrad informs his readers that the natives use these drums to indicate “war, peace, or prayer.” Using this imagery, Conrad debunks the West’s claims that the “savages” are unable to communicate with each other. Additionally, Marlow says, “The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us.” The natives are capable of showing human emotions. They are able to show anger, spirituality, and hospitality. The natives are as human as Europeans.
The West are unable to see these human traits in the natives because they just “glided past” the natives “like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse” for hundreds of years. Because imperialists degrade the natives so much, they are unable to understand the Congolese. They ignore them as they believe civilization can only be found in cities such as London. Marlow says his crew have “penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.” He identifies the Congo as the heart of darkness because it is unconquered territory “of millions of trees.” The jungle is not a home for people, but for animals. Therefore, the West believes the Congolese are uncivilized because they sleep and eat with monkeys. The West is unable to admit and acknowledge that the natives have conquered the heart of darkness and peacefully coexists with the trees.
As Marlow penetrates “deeper into the heart of darkness,” Conrad wants his readers to know that the West is incapable of helping the Congolese. Primarily, the West is unfamiliar with the land and people of the Congo. Marlow said, “We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on a earth that wore aspect of an unknown planet.” Due to their ignorance, the West does not know the true hardships of the natives. Imperialists do not know how to help the natives because they are just “wanderers,” men without direction or a true purpose. Furthermore, the West has no intentions to help the Congolese. The West is raping the land for “something” they expect “to get.” According to Marlow, the West only hears the “word ivory” which “would rise in the air for a while.” Imperialists can hear the word ivory in the air, but they are unable to hear the cries of the natives.
The West, in its conquest for ivory, enters the Congo using false appearances and promises. Day by day, they are just “traveling in the night of first ages,” “leaving hardly a sign - and no memories.” The West deceives the people at home by hiding the realities of imperialism. Imperialists do not record nor remember the atrocities they commit in the Congo. Thus, Conrad wants Europeans to open their eyes and see the situation in Africa: imperialism is not helping the natives find light, but it just leaves the natives to live in darkness. Conrad asks his readers to open their eyes by accepting the realities happening in the Congo
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