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Desensitiation In Heart Of Darkness

830 Words4 Pages

Justin Pascual
Mrs. Parmar
Oct. 28, 2015
Period A
Heart of Darkness Essay:
The Desensitization of Marlow

It is hard to imagine the harsh and horrible truths that many people face, and is even harder to imagine not being affected by these horrible truths. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, many vivid images of the horrors of the Congo are painted in the reader’s head as well as experienced by the protagonist Marlow. These images include the dense and desolate forests of the Congo, the treatment of the inhabitants of the Congo, and the overall savagery that Marlow’s mind and body experience while in this region. Marlow’s venture into the Congo to seek the elusive monopoliser Kurtz, leads him to adapt to the savagery and brutality …show more content…

This can be seen when Marlow sees the first natives that are chained together and the European following behind with a gun at Outer Station.
“Black rages were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib; the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck”…”these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men” (Conrad, 61).

It is firmly displayed when Marlow says this that he is surprised to see the natives due to their new skin tone, and also due to their enslavement. By Marlow saying this, it foreshadows that there will be more enslavement of the natives and also that the prejudices of the natives of Africa are wrong as they are not savages, but only enslaved workers. As Marlow progresses deeper into the Congo, he also progresses deeper into the Heart of Darkness and his qualities of civilization and sensitive nature dissipate with every instance of …show more content…

This can be seen during the sequence of events before the attack on the steamboat on his way to Inner Station. “’Will they attack?’, whispered an awed voice. ‘We will be butchered in this fog’, murmured another.” (Conrad, 59) The pilgrims that are aboard Marlow’s ship as well as Marlow himself fear an oncoming attack from the natives and it shows that they no longer think about the natives as peaceful and now think of them as savage and offensive as a whole. This may leave Marlow with a new sense of the fact that no civilization exists in the Congo because the natives display that they are not civilized by attacking the steamboat and killing a man. Marlow’s sensitivity to the lack of civilization starts to vanish after seeing the potential brutality of the natives, but Marlow will soon be fully immune to this due to his reaction to the sheer terrifying things he

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