Europeans colonized Africa for the natural resources found there, cheap labor, and new markets to sell goods. When the Europeans colonized Africa,
During the 1900’s, Europeans traveled all throughout Africa to conquer lands for themselves. The Europeans knew Africa contained lots of raw materials and sought out to claim it as their own territory. They also proceeded to impose Christianity among many native Africans. This outraged many Africans, but as they tried to fight for their rights, they were slaughtered by the overpowering European weapons. However, the Europeans did help the Africans in some ways.
In the late 19th century, European tribes began to colonize Africa. They took advantage of the large amount of land and natural resources that Africa had. While they took a lot from this continent, they also attempted to bring things to it. They brought religion and attempted to convert Africans and change their core beliefs. The Europeans believed that they could change this new land to be more like Europe, because they believed Europe was the superior country.
According to Wikipedia, imperialism represents the tendency of a state to extent and conquer other wicker lands. In my opinion, one of the most interesting themes in Joseph Conrad`s Heart of Darkness is imperialism. The novel is about a trading European Company which exported ivory from Africa. The main character and the narrator of the story is Marlow, a seaman who obtained a job on a steamboat for that Company. In the novel the river, the location and the name of the Company are never specified, and also not important for the interpretation of the novel, as Marlow said „It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience” (Conrad, 5).
In the book Heart of Darkness, the author Joseph Conrad explores the age of imperialism through his own mentality and personal experiences. through the use of the literary analysis technique New Historicism readers can analyze Conrad’s story by looking into the author himself, the time period the book was written in, and social movements during the time. Because of this, readers can draw conclusions to the meaning of this novella in an elaborate and enriching manner. Heart of Darkness dives into a deeper meaning than what a typical European story of Imperialism would, giving readers a sense of Conrad 's own dark heart: the same dark heart and mind that aids in his portrayal of his characters, the storyline and the tone the book gives off.
Published in the year 1902, Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is a story told in the frame narrative voice. The story talks about a voyage the main character, Marlow, embarks on. Throughout Conrad’s novella, Marlow journeys up the Congo River which is assumed to be in Africa. “Heart of Darkness” can be observed and viewed as a mythical journey in search of oneself as well as the search for what we believe is the truth. Marlow also travels up the Congo River in pursuit of a white man, Kurtz, who is an ivory trader.
The main character, Marlow, in Joseph Conrad’s 1910 novel The Heart of Darkness begins his journey into Africa skeptical of what might occur, but naive to the true horrors that were in stake for the young man. Marlow’s detailed descriptions of the sights and torturous actions towards the natives he witnesses along his journey lead to many literary critics to deem Conrad a racist. One author notorious for calling Joseph Conrad out on his racist remarks is Chinua Achebe who gained fame from his article “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. 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.
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.
In 1884 Berlin Conference was held to decide the future of Africa. They finalized to create free trade in the Congo region, free navigation and created rules to divide Africa among themselves. Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness during this period so, those historical backgrounds on colonization help to portray the theme of imperialism in this novel. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad portrays themes of imperialism in three different views through his main character Marlow. Therefore, this essay argues on how Heart of Darkness comment on Imperialism based on the power of the colonizers, the power of Mr. Kurtz and imperialistic view of Conrad over women.
The ideology of imperialism revolves around the need for economic gain through any means necessary. However, Conrad tries to show that the very ideology itself is detrimental to a person’s mental health throughout the first chapter of Heart of Darkness. A key example of this is the scene with the doctor at the beginning of the chapter, the doctor who is examining Marlow states that “changes take place inside” people that go to places like Africa. The doctor could be implying that individual change when they go places like Africa because of the influence of imperialism. In places like Africa an individual must adapt to the imperialistic ideology, which revolves primarily around the gain of profit.