Essay The Heart Of Darkness

Submitted By studnumber11
Words: 1211
Pages: 5
Open Document
Savannah Hurley
Mrs. Wright
World Literature
9 May 2014
Soul of Darkness
Some of the traits of well-adjusted humans are that they empathize and identify with people around them. At the point when people lose this ability, they start to lessen their relations to humanity and increase their degree of savagery. In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Conrad demonstrates that humans enclose some form of bitterness within his or her heart. This bitterness becomes evident when people strip themselves of a civilized setting. The novella reveals the corruption and true barbarousness of the Europeans as they leave their sophisticated country and attempt to develop Africa. Seeing the Africans as inferior people, the Europeans treat them as if they were animals. In the Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad depicts the Europeans as genuine savages in this novella.
In this story, the African locals have a superior quality of life compared to the Europeans. They have more restrictions that seem to humanize them more than Europeans. Limitation for human life is normality; the Europeans do not have this trait, which makes them more savage and cruel than the African locals. An illustration of this might be when Marlow was on his steamboat and was heading for Kurtz; he perceives that the man-eaters on his pontoon were starving and respects the fact that they have little opportunity to consume anything on their travels up the river. “Restraint! What possible restraint?... No fear can stand up to hunger” (Conrad 68). The cannibals on the boat esteemed life and treated them like people despite their basic desire for food. Conversely, the Europeans treated the locals like garbage not like human beings, slaughtering them and pushing them to work to death. This shows that the Europeans are more savage than the locals. Debra Baldwin illustrates, after Marlow witnesses the cannibals limitation and their capability to reason, Debra Baldwin portrays Marlow as being “torn, constantly revising his expectations. He expects the Africans to be “cannibals”- only to discover that they exhibit more restraint than the Europeans” (Baldwin 200). Restraint for human life is a characteristic of being human; the Europeans do not have it making them more savage and inhuman than the African natives.
Kurtz is likewise an illustration of how savage and pitiless the Europeans are and how being in the Congo progresses individuals. From the start, Kurtz came to Africa for the cash for his life partner, however that later changes as his new intentions are to get ivory and profit. Kurtz changes from having great plans to becoming gluttonous. As an example, Kurtz slaughters and puts the beheaded heads of locals on his wall encompassing how savage he is as he performed this horrific coldhearted act regardless of the fact that it was to show his dominance. An alternate way Kurtz shows his harshness was the point at which he said “Exterminate all the brutes” (Conrad 62), this shows how little he values the life of the natives as he wants to kill them all, which makes him inhumane and a savage. Samet Guyen’s Post-Colonial Analysis of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness states, “Kurtz uses these skulls to threaten the others and this shows his brutality against the natives” (Guven 84). Continuing from aforementioned before Kurtz becomes a hollow being from his actions and Marlow confirms that his cruel treatments appear in his physical appearance and his physical appearance is leading to death
An alternate case of how the Europeans are savages is the way the Europeans in the book characterize themselves as dolts making them show up as if they are less of a human. One illustration is the point at which Marlow's watercraft finds itself under attack, and Marlow advised everybody on his boat to stay silent however, “The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into a bush” (Conrad 45). In this quotation, the Europeans neglected to listen to reason and
Show More

Related Documents: Essay The Heart Of Darkness

Heart Of Darkness

Charlie Marlow’s adventure down the Congo River to Africa is essentially the entire plot of the Heart of Darkness. Marlow is telling this story on the boat to several other men of his adventure that took months. Charlie Marlow begins telling his story about traveling down the Congo to Africa as a sailor. After one of the company’s captains was killed by the natives, Marlow was hired onto a European trading company. Thus, Marlow began his trip to Africa. At Marlow’s first stop, he learns about the…

Words 491 - Pages 2

Essay on Heart of Darkness

107376 Mrs. Ingersoll English 12 AP 1 May 2013 Option Three The physical journey Joseph Conrad takes the reader in the Heart of Darkness contributes to the plot, but also parallels to a journey through Man’s inner self. The points in the physical journey in which Conrad uses to emphasize the plot are the small sailing craft, the steamboat, and the jungle. Conrad begins the journey with the narrator describing the setting of a small sailing craft. This point in the journey foreshadows…

Words 1410 - Pages 6

Heart of Darkness Essay

Guilt, disappointment and the fear behind Kurtz’s death Jordan Davis Mr. Allin ENG 4U March 3rd, 2012 Verbal statements may have multiple interpretations depending on one's perspective. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad makes the reader use his/her own knowledge to generate themes and emotions. Consistently, the theme of the horrific reality is mentioned throughout the novel. Joseph’s character, Kurtz, cries out, “The horror! The horror” (Conrad 86) during his last moments; however…

Words 1125 - Pages 5

Heart Of Darkness Quotes

Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Marlow comes to the Congo with great excitement to understand the great efforts done to civilize the Congo. Once he arrives, he is horrified by what he finds. He finds that darkness has taken over the colonists while in the Congo through their actions and in their minds. Their darkness and evil is a key theme in Heart of Darkness. Ultimately, Conrad parallels the theme of darkness with how it relates between civilization and the true savagery of the jungle. In Heart of Darkness…

Words 421 - Pages 2

Heart of Darkness Essay

The Visions of Light Vs Darkness When Joseph Conrad composed Heart of Darkness he created a literary masterpiece which embodied the essence of light contrasting with darkness. Throughout the novel Conrad constantly utilizes the images of light and dark and uses them to mold a vision, which the reader is then able to use to decipher the literal and metaphorical meanings of the novel. As Conrad said, " my task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to…

Words 4403 - Pages 18

Women In Heart Of Darkness

Women in The Heart of Darkness To write a book when one has only learned english at the age of twenty is difficult for many to do; however, author Joseph Conrad contradicted this idea by writing a timeless, thought provoking piece of literature. Using his experience as a sailor during the time of imperialism, Conrad wrote a novel that goes beyond a normal adventure story. It became a novel that countless critics debated over on subjects such as women and the misogynistic culture that Conrad portrayed…

Words 1205 - Pages 5

Essay on Heart of Darkness

Who Had the Heart of Darkness? Thousands of scholars all throughout the twentieth century have weighed in on Joseph Conrad's infamous 1902 publication, Heart of Darkness. Confronting the devastating effects of the colonization of Africa, Conrad's novel takes it's European narrator, Marlow, through unspeakable darkness as the African jungles come alive and the colonization of the Continent's states unfolds. It's needless to say that Conrad's work remains legendary, but a great deal of its legend…

Words 1438 - Pages 6

Essay on Heart of Darkness

1. Some critics believe that in Heart of Darkness Conrad illustrates how ‘’the darkness of the landscape can lead to the darkness of the social corruption.” This statement means that if the environment is dark, then the people in that environment will match the surrounding feeling, which is dark and depressing. For example, if it is a gloomy rainy day, most people feel tired and not as happy. If it is a bright sunny day, the most people feel motivated to get things done and joyful. Yes, this…

Words 1053 - Pages 5

Heart of Darkness Essay

Sir Parnell Stevenson HIST 344 Professor Curtis November 19, 2014 Heart of Darkness Paper The novel Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad has an overwhelming condemnation of imperialism. The beginning of the book describes the journey of Charles Marlow which takes him into the interior of the African continent and the fact that he was asked by the trading company to find Mr. Kurtz, who is the Inner Station Chief who is dominating the region as well as putting the natives of the Congo…

Words 1246 - Pages 5

The Heart of Darkness Essay

The Heart of Darkness In the Heart of Darkness I got lost, and no not in the reading. I got lost in general until I really started to read between the lines. The theme of this is story was one of the main things that didn’t make any sense to me until I got to the end and realized that it is a twisted mess of madness that comes from the imperialism in the story. This story is also made up of symbolism which is shown when the author writes about the rivers, frogs, and the woman. To me Joseph Conrad…

Words 1050 - Pages 5