Maslow’s obsession was travelling to Congo and getting ivory which would make a lot of profit for the Europeans. Conrad explains that he saw a lot of blacks naked and chained to one another. It was explained to him by the rulers that they were the blacks that had violated the laws and were being punished the blacks also suffered from starvation, disease and confusion. “They were all dying slowly, it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, and they were nothing earthly now-nothing but black shadows of diseases and starvation lying confusedly in greenish gloom...” (Heart of Darkness.p.25) Power in the novel was represented by the white skin colour belonging to the Europeans.
Kurtz was called back to his Inner Station by the “many powers of darkness [that] claimed him” which was not only his greed and thirst for power but also the darkness within humanity. Kurtz originally traveled to the Congo in hopes to enlighten and humanize the native African. However, once he was able to relish the power that belonged to him in the jungle, Kurtz could not resist the call of his own primitive greed. Within the jungles of the Congo, Kurtz experienced a power over the African men that he cannot receive in the civilized nature of Europe. The native offered “unspeakable rites” and sacrifices for Kurtz and worshipped him.
Joseph Conrad’s towering work was Heart of Darkness. It has both the literal meaning as well as symbolic connotation. On the literal plane, the title of the novel points out to the dark continent of Africa, particularly darkness will talk about the Congo valley. Initially, the phrase The Dark Continent was used by the famous explorer and writer Henry Morton Stanley for Africa. He explored Africa and found it full of darkness and backwardness.
As well he reflects the role of the imperialism of the colonials in the exploitation of Africans for their own interests rather than to enlighten the natives ' that they claimed for. It is worth noting to reveal the story of Heart of Darkness before proceeding to the responses of the critics of the novella. Heart of Darkness is a story of a white man travelled to Africa depth of Congo. He narrates what he has seen throughout his journey to the company station where Kurtz is working. Marlow accidently with the help of his aunt finds an opportunity to replace a captain killed as a result of fighting with the local tribes in Congo.
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 through the main character, Marlow. Through the lens of New Criticism, 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. Throughout Heart of Darkness, Kurtz and other men that are known as strong, greedy, European leaders of the movement to imperialize Africa, are mentioned multiple times. To describe these men, Conrad utilizes the literary
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. By describing the men as “ants”, their insignificance in Marlow’s life is highlighted.
The scholars continue saying that Africa was labelled “as a contagious continent incubating pestilences of all sorts in hot muggy jungles”. Once again, Durrell’s discourse matches perfectly the discourse of the stereotypical racist white man. He uses the exact word used in the essay, “pestilences”, to describe Justine’s room in the Arab quarter: “Our room bulging with darkness and pestilence” (56). Moreover, the muggy jungles are something very close to the image the readers get of the Arab quarter with its streets full of mud, soil, rats, and swarms of flies (Durrell
Damasio, commonly known as, “El Tilcuate” was another one of Pedro’s many workers, and alike the others, he has been corrupted by greed. Both of his names hint to his corrupt character: “El Tilcuate” refers to a type of black viper which attacks humans, fights with other snakes and devours them, while Damasio means “domador” or tamer. Pedro Páramo offered this greedy man a small property in order for him to pretend to be a revolutionary to keep off the real revolutionaries off his land. Damasio acquired the land he desired, but lost his morality along the way: he became corrupt.
The novel Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad exemplifies the darkness that each and every individual possesses in their hearts and minds. In Conrad’s novel, he exhibits the tale of two mens’ realization of the dark and evil inside of them. The character of Marlow, or one of the narrators, embarks on an adventure to the Congo on which he witnesses the dark potential of everybody in society. On this adventure through the Congo, Marlow encounters Kurtz, whom is described as a remarkable man and universal genius by almost everybody. In fact, Kurtz, has created himself to be a god in the eyes of the natives giving him unprecedented power.
The Evil of Greed in Inferno and Heart of Darkness Though Conrad and Dante wrote their pieces centuries apart, Heart of Darkness and Inferno have striking similarities that readers cannot ignore. Both writers have rather bleak and downcast portrayals of humans and their propensity towards evil. In particular, both texts specifically examine the characteristic of greed in human behavior. Conrad and Dante are both quick to highlight the dangers of greed and the impact it has on the individual’s soul. Conrad goes further to describe the damage that is wrought on others when someone is greedy, while Dante depicts in graphic clarity the punishment that the greedy have to endure in the afterlife.