Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is an exploration of self-worth, identity and reflection wrapped up in an eye-widening novella. It reflects on imperialistic England’s lust for their colonization to spread across the globe. Stories like these always shine a painful spotlight onto the extreme emotional disconnect between cultures, as the whites of imperialistic England believed that those that they colonized were just savages that needed to be “tamed,” which was basically Kurtz’s mission in Africa, even though his high on power and survival in a strange land had driven him to madness. Although they are almost a century apart, Heart of Darkness reminded me a lot of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, which is a story about a family of Christians journeying to Africa to convert the natives to their religion. The connection between these two stories show that the idea of “converting,” “taming,” or even “conquering” the African cultures has been centralized in Western culture for a very long time, which is somewhat frightening, and even somewhat parallels with today’s events. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, African colonialization seemed to be a heated race between the English and the French for Africa’s rich resources of ivory and precious metals. I also found it interesting that the main character of Heart of Darkness commonly referred to the African natives as “shapes” when he saw them, which showed me that he likely didn’t even consider the natives people, or as an equal to himself, which further reflects on the imperialistic mindset. Kurtz’s demise in the novella speaks volumes to me about metaphors, and that the “conquering” of Africa is a fruitless, futile action that will never truly succeed, since the Westerners that attempt this seem to lose their minds or be consumed by the jungle. This idea shows the superiority complex that the imperialists went through, believing the action of “taming” some natives to be an easy feat, and were proven to be exceptionally wrong.
The Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/place/western-Africa/Colonization#ref54861 If you enjoyed Heart of Darkness, check out Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible: http://www.kingsolver.com/books/the-poisonwood-bible.html
3 Comments
Katie P
6/7/2020 10:28:54 am
I think you did an excellent job analyzing this text. You hit on a lot of major themes. I also like that you compared Heart of Darkness with The Poisonwood Bible.
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Yasel Rosado
6/7/2020 11:39:30 am
I find it really powerful when you mention the detail of Marlow viewing the natives as "shapes". I think Marlow's character shows how complex one can view oppression, he thought how they were being treated was shocking, but he didn't really correct his own thinking regarding them and continued to see them as beasts and creatures. Thank you for your thoughts, great post!
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Kelly
6/7/2020 08:15:48 pm
I agree that Heart of Darkness shines a "painful spotlight" in regards to white supremacy. I also discussed this in my post and reflected on the power struggle. While I feel as though Marlow expressed an illness similar to PTSD, I don't feel he descended entirely into madness. I do, however, believe that the weight of the Congo impacted Marlow enough to cause significant trauma and guilt.
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