Long time ago when the colonizers were still the force behind every move in the world, the native people had no say on how to carry on with their lives of property. Everything at that time belonged to the colonizers. Our ancestors lived a state of unrest and no one could even dare gossip about their presences since they had spies in almost every village and locality. If someone, dared to utter a word those whites will sprint from nowhere descending on an individual mercilessly. The ancestors described the situation at that time as being in hell. The colonizers were not only brutal to the Africans, but also the whites who were not for the idea of colonization.
This is a story written by Joseph Conrad, which narrates the lifestyle of Charles Marlow and Englishman who offered to undertake a foreign duty from a Belgian trading organization as a ferryboat captain. Heart of darkness illustrates the dark side of the European settlers while adventuring the three stages of darkness that the character, Marlow, faced: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the European’s cruel treatment of the indigenous people, and the immeasurable darkness within every individual for exercising dreadful acts of evil. In spite of the fact that Conrad did not give the name of the river during the period of initiating the Congo Free State, the position of the huge and vital Congo River, was considered a sacred place for the Belgian’s King Leopold II. In the narrative, Marlow is hired to move ivory downriver. Nevertheless, his key pushing task is to return Kurtz, another trader, to the empire, in a cover-up. Kurtz had a status in the entire region (Bloom & Hobby 84).
Conrad choose to use the passenger Marlow in is narrative which is a story within a story to illustrate the various acts of brutality the European had on their opponents. Before he was hired as the ferryboat captain, he explains how his aunt used several of his contacts to befriend the owner and secured him job. This illustrate that since the ancient times, getting a job was difficult especially if you are not known. Furthermore, that was not the end as there were other colleagues feeling jealous from the job and would struggle hard to see that remove from the post or demoted. This was also part of the dark side of human being, as no one would wish someone good luck. In case one is travelling along a river, there are several risks or heart of darkness that one will face and all this need the skills and determination of an individual to wade through all the challenges. The problems involved being captured and tortured by the bandits. When they arrived at the station, they found that the boat had broken down and in took several months to repair it. (Conrad 15).
All over the world in any community, there are intellectuals who wish to control all activities taking place and reduce unethical characteristics. For an ordinary individual he can only do that by art and literature: George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Washington Irvin, and Joseph Conrad are good examples of such ordinary men with a heart to help by making kind as well as political statements. Marlow was disgusted by the brutality, vainness, spitefulness, and lust of ivory by his fellow Europeans. With empathy and kindness in his heart, he became a revelation to his compatriots spreading a brave and honest message to them about how wrong they were to the African people. The prejudice of ruthless whites knew no boundaries in Africa during the 18th and 19th century. Thousands of people as well as elephants were killed heartlessly for slaves and ivory respectively (Bloom & Hobby 86).
In conclusion, according to the views of the whites, the true heart of darkness is the African continent since they are not civilized, and uses the traditional methods in almost everything. The cruelty goes beyond the Congo rainforest to include the melancholic depths of human attitudes and the tyrannical rule of oppressing the poor and the less privilege (Kabamba 267).
Annotated bibliography
Bloom, H. and Hobby, B. Death and Dying. USA: Infobase publishing. 2009 pp 84- 97
Bloom and Hobby in this book describes how Joseph Conrad experienced life as a captain and at the same time trying to help his fellow Europeans understand the need to take heart and mercy on the poor Africans. Bloom stated that Conrad was among the few colonizers who felt the pain that Africans were undergoing at their mercies and greed of fighting for power. They explain why Conrad had chosen on the passenger to represent his plea.
The authors jointly agreed that Marlow as used in the story represent Europeans groups who were also mistreated and forced to take dangerous tasks in the name of surviving the adverse effects of colonizers.
Conrad, J. Heart of Darkness. A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication.
Retrieved on March 25, 2011, from
Joseph Conrad in this articles discuss on the various types of darkness that be fold man during the ancient period. The colonizers were so brutal to their subjects yet they required them to work as slave. The Africans were the most affected of the group and they live to narrate the story to generation to come about their encounters and the fight for independence.
Conrad further stated in this article that the main motive behind all the encounters that the African went through was because of greed for money. However, he state that there was a bond of sea, that in spite of holding our hearts jointly through many years of isolation, it had the influence of making us tolerant to the each other’s yarns.
Kabamba, P. Heart of Darkness’ Current images of the DRC and their theoretical
underpinning. Anthropological theory. 10 (3) Sept. 2010, pp. 265-301.
Kabamba, in this article gives a critical analysis of dominant figures of Africa in general and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in particular, in western press and some scholarly books. He then proceeds to illustrate that these figures are products of the certain ideas of the state and sovereignty. He also puts clearly the state of the African postcolonial state terming it as failed or not. Furthermore, the author conflates the absence of governance as the main cause of early African torture. Of which he argues that many of the traditional values of governance such as provision of education, security, and infrastructure have been taken over by subordinate agents, mainly streamlined along ethnic lines.
Ramona, A. Animal Imagery, and Religious Symbolism in Joseph Conrad’s “HEART OF
DARKNESS.” 184 (2001) pp. 61-80
Ramona, in this article evaluates how Joseph Conrad used animal imagery and religious symbolism in Heart of Darkness, and established if these materials are in any way related to the theme of the narrative. He analyzed the story precisely to bring out all the details of the story and determine how well these tools were used. He first illustrated the theme in the story Heart of darkness followed by a precise suggestion on Conrad’s private life and observe on the application of symbolic tools in the literary works.
Ramona also in this article discussed the connections of his own personal life explanation of the Heart of Darkness and the discussion made by other scholars. He divided his thoughts into two sections, the animal imagery, and the religious symbolism. Of which the latter, entails two subdivisions.
Works cited:
Bloom, H. and Hobby, B. Death and Dying. USA: InfoBase Publishing. 2009 pp 84- 97.
Christensen, J., Levinson, W., and Dunn, P. The heart of darkness. The impact of perceived
mistakes on physicians. Journal of general internal medicine. 7 (4) 2007 424-431
Conrad, J. Heart of Darkness. A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication. Retrieved on
March 25, 2011, from <
http://www.totalgadha.com/file.php/1/moddata/forum/18/45358/heart_of_darkness--
joseph_conrad.pdf>
Kabamba, P. Heart of Darkness’ Current images of the DRC and their theoretical underpinning.
Anthropological theory. 10 (3) Sept. 2010, pp. 265-301.
Ramona, A. Animal Imagery, and Religious Symbolism in Joseph Conrad’s “HEART OF
DARKNESS.” 184 (2001) pp. 61-80
