ipl-logo

Blindness And Lack Of Morality In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

1392 Words6 Pages

Kareem Mansour
IB1 HL English
Mr. Key
Blindness and Lack of Morality
Joseph Conrad’s s novel “Heart of Darkness” portrays an abominable image of Africa that is outlined with darkness, gloominess and inhumanity. At Conrad’s time, the idea of exploration and colonization was flourishing. The phenomenon of exploration and expedition of the unknown has influenced Joseph Conrad’s views as he wrote the “Heart of Darkness”. Colonialism was known to be the norm, and not many people saw anything amiss. From a European point of view, the natural next step of any powerful European nation’s political agenda is embarking on voyages of exploration and colonialism. The European Colonizers were pitiless towards the neglected natives as they were nothing but …show more content…

As Marlow goes deeper into the heart of the continent, Conrad’s depiction of Africa is infused with a sense of fear loathing and abomination coupled with a sense that there is some dire evil at work; a malevolent force that carries out the acts of inhumanity. Illustrations of Joseph Conrad’s don’t only focus on Africa as a continent but also carries on the physical and mental characterization of the natives. The author describes Marlow’s first encounter with an African ceremony as, “a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling” (Joseph 57). Joseph Conrad goes portrays Marlow’s reaction to this somewhat bewildering frenzy of the natives “as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse” (Joseph 58). Conrad’s description of these people shows them as deranged, frenzied, and intense feverish savages, not an image any modern day western writer would dare to warm up to. Nor could his English speaking readers understand the natives to be nothing but animate beasts and fascinating embodiments of sorrow. Joseph Conrad continues to reveal the ignorance of white men towards the African continent, as he depicts Africans as though they are “the other”, not to be considered as civilized human counterparts, but rather as brutes ready to be enslaved for a “better” cause. The impaired ideology of men and women alike agreed on this representation of the black race, yet they are heedless towards their certainly horrifying capacity to brutally yet ineffectively ameliorate an entire

Show More
Related

  • Heart Of Darkness Dialectical Journal

    1556 Words  | 7 Pages

    The book serves as a sharp contrast with the deception of Colonists as well as a symbol of solid realness within a fantastical dream where truth is impossible. When describing the book, Marlow’s diction are highly positive, using words like “honest”, “humble” and “simple”. The direct expression and singleness of intention serves as a contrast with the lies the Colonists tell to conceal the reality in Africa. Europeans justify their bloodthirsty conquest as something they did for a greater cause. In 1876, at the Geographical Conference on Central Africa, King Leopold justified “To open to civilization the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say, a crusade worthy of this century of progress” (Cleary).

    Read More

  • DBQ On Native Americans In The 15th Century

    618 Words  | 3 Pages

    A substantial quantity of Europeans adjudged the natives as vile beasts of profound savagery. They believed

    Read More

  • The Horrors Of Greed In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    970 Words  | 4 Pages

    As Marlow is meeting with other explores in the Thames River, Marlow begins to tell his story about the horrors that he encounters while in the peak of the ivory trade in the Congo. Marlow made his way down to the Congo because he was contracted by The Company by the booming business of Ivory down in the African Congo. The company was a group of men who would patiently wait for something to happen. Marlow gets the word about a guy named Kurtz who is living in the inner station and decides to meet up with him, but the only way to get to him is through an old steamboat. As Marlow begins his journey to meet up Kurtz he encounters a series of cruelty and darkness in the heart of Africa.

    Read More

  • Into The Darkness: How And Why Is A Social Group Presented In A Particular Way?

    1119 Words  | 5 Pages

    Into the Darkness: How and why is a social group presented in a particular way? Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes a multi-faceted approach to the issues that surrounded 19th century colonization and imperialism in Africa. Marlow’s journey into the heart of Africa serves to highlight the hypocrisy of this endeavor, and how this deceit followed the rhetoric utilized by the colonizers in order to justify their colonization of Africa and the treatment of the natives. As the novel progresses, Africa becomes more of a backdrop for Conrad to truly expose the depravity of European intervention in Africa. Through Marlow’s narrative, varying connotations of words and his own main character’s reactions,as well as copious amounts of descriptive imagery, Conrad casts Europeans in a negative light in order to criticize imperialism and colonists.

    Read More

  • Cruelty In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    224 Words  | 1 Pages

    Cruelty is commonly found in types of literary works functioning as a crucial motivation or factor. The Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad is no exception to the propounding amounts of cruelty and deception. Cruelty shapes not only the events taking place in the story, but it also portrays the cruelty and how it has shaped mankind. This story is introduced in the year 1899 the same time period when racism and bigotry were popular and commercialized. The atmosphere given was described by Conrad as a “foggy dark and heavy” scene, further playing into the theme of Hypocrisy and the darkness that surrounds it.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Ignorance In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1186 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ignorance of another's personal values or situation results in an impassable schism between the two parties. People fail to understand each other, and as such, they regard each other in lower lights. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad, through Marlow, writes his novella through a lense of ignorance and the perspective of the typical white person of the time in order to relate his story to the reader. Marlow and the accountant are contrasted with Kurtz to display the effects of evil on an individual.

    Read More

  • Heart Of Darkness Imperialism Research Paper

    745 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad reveals the ugly faces of imperialism of Europeans in nineteenth century and the darkness which is deeply rooted in humans’ hearts. This book narrates the story of a man who has travelled to Africa and experienced the cruel scenes. As Marlow became the captain of an ivory trade company by chance, he started his journey toward the center of Congo. While finding Kurtz, the top agent working in the central Africa who controlled the most number of ivory, Marlow started understanding the situation which was covered under severe darkness in Africa. This book is such a criticism of that bloody and evil era controlled by the dark European imperialism.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racism In Heart Of Darkness

    1066 Words  | 5 Pages

    Racism in Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Polish- British writer Joseph Conrad in 1899. Since it was written Heart of Darkness has been criticized as a colonial work. One of the critics who condemn Joseph Conrad and his work has been the Nigerian authors and critics Chinua Achebe in his work "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad 's 'Heart of Darkness". Achebe considers Conrad as “a thoroughgoing racist” (Achebe 5) for depicting Africa as "the other world" (Achebe 2). The aim of this study is to examine Heart of Darkness referring to the Achebe’s ideas in his 1977 essay.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Civilization In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    712 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone has their own opinions of which cultures are civilized and which are savage. A culture which is civilized is one where morals are set in place and and there is intellectual advancement. Civilized cultures follow a set a moral given to them usually by a government. A savage culture is where there are no morals in place. The people part of this culture do not follow any morals only hoping to survive, with no government intact.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Order And Chaos In The Heart Of Darkness

    1102 Words  | 5 Pages

    Conrad uses examples of order and chaos throughout his novel to aid in the delivery of the differentiation of the truth of human nature and the sham of civilization. In these examples, order represents civilization and chaos represents the wilderness of Africa. When Marlow finally left the central station to retrieve Mr. Kurtz, he and his crew stop at an abandoned cottage in the middle of the jungle where a European once lived and noticed an old book on the table. Marlow says, “Not a very enthralling book; but at the first glance you could see the singleness of intention, an honest concern for the right way of doing work, . . . The simple od sailor, with is talk of chains and purchases, made me forget about the jungle and the pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something unmistakably real” (78).

    Read More

  • Animal Representation In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1016 Words  | 5 Pages

    As such, it can be said that the novel seeks to represent the Blacks of Africa as lowlife beings, prehistoric barbarians and savage creatures that have no rights to say anything for themselves. However, Conrad also shows a flipside to the typical ideology of Whites being superior to Blacks by representing the Blacks as a strong and restrained group of people, confined only due to helplessness. In the novel, the natives of Africa are first introduced with the use of animal imagery. The sentence “A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants,” describes the Africans that were building the railroad.

    Read More

  • The Symbolism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1041 Words  | 5 Pages

    Africa in this novella is portrayed as “the Heart of Darkness” the place where the men’s inner evil is exposed, this is done through their thoughts and actions. The contrast between the Thames River and the Congo River is also made evident in the novella. The Thames River is described as calm and peaceful. It is viewed as a city of light that is not mysterious.

    Read More

  • Greed In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1366 Words  | 6 Pages

    This greed grew strong and grew into the establishment of imperialism through the use of slavery. While the greed is still growing the English have know lost all of their moral value and have cast aside the meaning of life for the Natives of the Congo. This hunger of greed allowed the civilized to become the uncivilized “savages” they paint the Natives to be. Mr. Kurtz is the man that the english view as the idol in a way but dies seeing “The Horror”(154) of all the darkness the “light”(68) has made. Works Cited Qu, Caie.

    Read More

  • Good Vs. Evil In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    807 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the novel, we see Conrad gives us idea about how deceiving one could be. For example when Marlow talks about the map unfamiliar Africa and where unknown part are drawn which turns out white on the map of Africa. Africa appears to be dark through exploitation, colonization and exploration of the rest of the continents. Conrad even uses the idea of light and dark to gives us more idea of the inner status of some of the specific character. In the novel ‘Heart of Darkness’ Mr. Kurtz who is an Caucasian man, who has white skin, but who has the darkest and most corrupt soul in the novel.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Racism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1807 Words  | 8 Pages

    Achebe’s article professes that almost everything within Conrad’s novel is an act of pure racism. This, however, is not the case, as Conrad was just telling the truth of what occurred within Africa during the time of European colonization. Hugh Curtler refutes Achebe’s statements in his literary criticism “Political Correctness and the Attack on Great Literature”. This article takes a practical viewpoint about the book and stresses the point that Conrad was trying to explain the events that occurred during his time in Africa in a style of writing for the people at the time. Literary critics like Achebe label Conrad as complete racist, however, he is, in fact, the complete opposite as he utilizes this story as a way to paint a picture of the cruel actions that occurred at the time.

    Read More

More about Blindness And Lack Of Morality In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

Open Document