Heart Of Darkness Imperialism

In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the imperialism of Africa is described. Conrad tells the story of the cruel treatment of the natives and of the imperialism of the Congo region through the perspective of the main character, Marlow. Throughout the novel, Marlow describes how the Europeans continuously bestow poor treatment to the native people by enslaving them in their own territory. Analyzing the story with the New Criticism lens, it is evident that Conrad incorporates numerous literary devices in Heart of Darkness, including similes, imagery, personification, and antitheses to describe and exemplify the main idea of cruel imperialism in Africa discussed throughout the novella.

The novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is a piece that pushed the envelope of its time due to an oppositional stance on the forced imperialism of primitive and/or impoverished countries. The protagonist of this story is the self-proclaimed explorer, Marlow, who decides to leave the heart of light and purity (Europe) and take a job as a steamboat captain in the dark jungles of the Congo Free State in Africa. Upon his arrival, Marlow begins to see the impact of Belgium’s intrusion on the Congo by means of implementing slavery, commandeering ivory (a valuable resource), and presenting a negative attitude toward the primitive population. Marlow eventually becomes obsessed with an ivory

Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is both a dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century and a symbolic journey into the deepest recesses of human nature. On a literal level, through Marlow 's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. By employing several allegoric symbols this account depicts the futility of the European presence in Africa.

From 1884 to 1885, Europe scrambled to conquer land in Africa. The Europeans began to colonize parts of Africa and it would soon be called: The Civilizing Mission. The Civilizing Mission was meant to make the Europeans look good to others, bring the Africans up to their standards, and it was an act of profound generosity to the Africans. Or so they thought. As Europeans from different countries explored the harsh environments of Africa, they soon came across vines which would turn into rubber later on. This was progress for the Europeans but was it progress for Africa? In reality, the colonized Europeans who moved down to Africa were not very nice to the Africans and they became slave; especially when the railroad was being built in Africa. When Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness, he wanted to show Europeans what was actually going on down in Africa. The Civilizing Mission was not helping Africa or the Africans at all. Three of these contradictions from the book include:

Marlow says that, "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-- nothing to boast of."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) . Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such a voyage. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by illustrating a picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the novel. White Europeans are used as symbols of self-deception, and we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as it is very proper for those who tackle darkness."(p.58 Heart of Darkness) This shows how Conrad feels about colonialism through Marlow, because Marlow feels strongly adverse to the actions of the whites in the Congo.

Imperialism is the reason for the corruption and the want for power in the novel Heart of Darkness. Author Joseph Conrad criticizes imperialism and the effects on Africa. Conrad sarcastically describes imperialism as “ “something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle" (Conrad 14), which proves that Conrad disliked the justification of imperialism.

Imperialism and its oppressive processes have affected societies as well as individual lives for centuries. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, oppression through imperialism demonstrates how a certain civilization, the Congolese, is affected negatively by imperialism. By focusing on Africa, it allows for a graphic recount of the many years spent reigned by foreign oppressors and tyrannies. In Heart of Darkness, the Congo is oppressed by the imperialists economically and geographically. As well, the oppressed people are taken advantage of spiritually. Conrad describes how the ruling tyrant is affected by the process of conquering a local people and this draws a parallel to the ruling empire. Conrad, through his novel, attempts to

Heart of Darkness takes place in the height of the European imperialism and appears most frequently in the Belgian Congo, the heart of the Congo. Conrad used the ideas of imperialism and greed, which was extremely prominent in this era, as a platform for the ideas of the conscious and unconscious mind of an individual. In the novel the Europeans were perceived to be more valuable or important and put into a position of power not out of respect or earned amount but out of fear, fear because they had more advanced weapons and scared the native people of the land into obedience. They were cast into a land without guidelines or complete authority, this resulted in anarchy and the slow decay of sanity. The isolation from the social norms drove the

Joseph Conrad’s (Dec.3 1857-1924) novel Heart of Darkness, gives a perfect description of the subjugation, and terrors that local people can be subject to under the colonization by a different country, and the mental attitude that many citizens of the conquering country have towards the complete subjugation of other people, and how they easily convince themselves to have what they think to be good enough reasons to condone all of the terrible things that happen to the colonized people.

The title alone, Heart of Darkness, can be interpreted in a few ways and ties into a couple of themes throughout the book. The two most common themes are those of racism and that of good versus evil. This is not just a tale of the Congo and all it holds, but more-so of a quest of one’s personal ignorance regarding their view on a race different from their own.

Greed can push both ruthless and innocent people to hurt others. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans wanted to imperialize many countries in Africa for land and resources such as gold and cash crops. They also desired economic, social, and political control along with the success of converting Africans to European politics and religion. Europeans sought to have an economic and political dominance over African Americans. The cruelty that the Africans faced is displayed in Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness. Raising questions about both racism and imperialism, the novel includes Kurtz, a character with greed for the valuable resource, ivory. Conrad comments on the horrific corruptibility of humanity through the narrator, Charles

Heart of Darkness wildly reinforce imperialist and capitalist values through commodifying the Africans for their ivory , hence capitalists have the power to do so; to achieve the goals of the wealthy company. Capitalist culture exists in Heart of Darkness since sending Mr. Kurtz 'the bourgeoisie and the first class agent' of a trade company to the Congo ; to exploit its natural bounties and people to accumulate capital without regarding the proletariat who are forced to work restlessly and to subject themselves to the capitalist system without giving them their rights of payment or even enough food to eat. In its obvious practice , Kurtz's controlling value consists essentially of exploiting the natives until they die and then replacing them with other proletariats with low price to earn high profit by more working hands and hours. Marlow narrates " with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages." (Conrad 23). Also he narrates " they had given them every week three pieces of brass wire,….. unless they swallowed the wire itself, or made loops of it to snare the fishes with, I don't see what good their extravagant salary could be to them. I must say it was paid with a regularity worthy of a large and honourable trading company." (p. 67) Marlow also shows the exchange commodities in the market as every

  In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, challenges a dominant view by exposing the evil nature and the darkness associated with the colonialist ventures. It is expressed by Marlow as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as it is very proper for those who tackle a darkness." The European colonialists are portrayed as blind lightbearers, people having a façade of progress and culture, yet are blind of their actions. They think they are brining a light to a darkness, yet they are the real darkness or evil. Conrad's critique of European colonialism is most apparent through the oppositions of light and darkness, with the

    In the opening of his novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad, through Marlow, establishes his thoughts on colonialism. He says that conquerors only use brute force, "nothing to boast of" because it arises, by accident, from another's weakness. Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such an endeavor. However, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by painting a heinous picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures as we delve deeper into the recesses of the novel. Here we find that Marlow sees colonization as "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at

The theme of Heart of Darkness is imperialism, there are a many issues surrounding imperialism. Marlow travels from the Outer station to the Central station and eventually to inner station. He observed some cases of cruelty, torture and almost slavery. The Company’s workers describe what they do as ‘’trade’’ and their treatment of native Africans is just a part of a project called