Heart of Darkness by Joseph

¶ … Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Specifically, it will discuss the theme of the evils of European imperialism in the book. This theme is presented throughout the text in the treatment of the natives, and Kurtz' eventual fall into insanity. The imperialism Conrad presents is evil and Conrad uses many emotional techniques to illustrate this in his novel.

Conrad wrote this novel in 1899, when the Belgian government was taking over the Congo in Africa, creating the Belgian Congo. Their imperialist takeover of the country was based on money - the Congo had rubber and ivory, two luxuries that were extremely popular and useful in Europe, and the Belgians wanted them. Literary critic Harold Bloom writes, "Merely by occupying or controlling most of the globe, it was assumed, the European nations had demonstrated that they were the fittest to survive [...]" (Bloom 80). Imperialism (expansion of European nations on other continents) was a standard practice around the turn of the twentieth century, and Conrad uses this theme because is was so common and accepted in Europe. He wanted to show his readers the horrors of imperialism, and how it subjugated native peoples and destroyed their culture and lands. This novel does that graphically.

Throughout this novel, Conrad shows the greed of the Belgians who subjugate the natives and take away the only life they have ever known. Early in the book he makes this aim clear when one of the minor characters says, "They [the early Belgians who took over] were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising form the weakness of others" (Conrad 4). They were cruel and demanding, and the natives had no real way to fight back.

Conrad writes of their treatment of the natives, "They were dying slowly -- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" (Conrad 14). To the Belgians, the native are little more than animals, and they are doing them a "favor" by bringing "civilization" to their world. In reality, they destroy and culture, a way of life, and the very lives of the people they touch, and throughout the book, Conrad uses vivid images of Belgian cruelty to show the evils of imperialism.

Conrad also shows how life was before the Belgians came to the Congo, so the reader understands just what the natives are losing. He writes, "On some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast faint; a sound weird, appealing, suggestive, and wild -- and perhaps with as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country" (Conrad 17). Conrad is aware of what the natives have lost, and how they will continue to lose their culture as the Belgians take over more and more of their country. He makes the reader aware of these great changes by showing the wild backcountry, how the natives live, and how they are reacting to the Belgians in their midst. The backcountry Marlow travels through is sinister, and the natives become more sinister as well. These natives represent the evil they are fighting against and graphically illustrate what it has done to their culture. They have become violent and frightening because of the violence and fear tactics that have been used against them.

In addition, Kurtz goes mad at his outpost in the jungle, and his madness is a result of the imperialistic attitudes of the Europeans. A companion of Kurtz says of him, "You don't know how such a life tries a man like Kurtz'" (Conrad 54). He spends years wandering in the jungle, trading for ivory, and learning about the natives and their customs, and he comes to be worshipped by them, who seem to look at him like a white God. Marlow says of him, "But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad" (Conrad 61). Kurtz has fallen in love with the wilderness and the natives, but he cannot admit that. He continues to take advantage of them by taking their ivory, and he continues to bask in their worship, even while he pillages their villages for ivory and other treasures. He represents imperialism at its worst, and yet the natives defend him. They do not understand how he is harming them, and that is truly the "horror" of this novel. Kurtz knows the natives are innocent and will never survive, and that thought, along with the isolation of the jungle, drives him mad. He seems sympathetic to the natives, yet early in his stay in Belgium, he advocated "exterminating" them all. It is this twist of position that helps drive him mad, as well.