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Dehumanization Of Imperialism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is one of the most known novels in English literature. The story begins when Marlow, who works for a Belgian company, went on a journey to the heart of Africa as a steamship captain. Through his journey, he heard the name of Kurtz for the first time. Then the name repeated many times, which made Marlow, who is our narrator in addition to another unknown narrator, interested to know about Kurtz. Kurtz works for the company as an ivory trader in the Congo which was at that time one of Belgium 's colonies. According to Marlow Kurtz was the ideal English man, or as what he called him a "remarkable man", who holds the banner of civilization. Marlow 's dream of meeting Kurtz forced him to look for Kurtz, and when Marlow met Kurtz, he was very sick and soon Kurtz died whispering his last words "the horror! The horror!" (HoD 86).
Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is full of imperialism and racism against Africans. His racism is very clear and is shown in many places in the novel. The dehumanization of Africans reveals his celebration of imperialism " but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity— like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly" (44).
Conrad has ignored women in the novel by not giving them names, stereotyping them and representing them using Marlow 's point of view. Commenting on Spivak 's argument in her essay Three Women 's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism, Kathryn Mary Smith

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