Catholic and Christians Missionaries in Africa

609 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Marlow's role in Heart of Darkness

Marlow, the main character in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, is fascinated by unknown areas of the world and also enjoys the feeling of being afloat on water. To quench this curiosity of the mysterious, he ventures into the wilderness to face the adventures that lay inside the “heart of darkness”, Africa. Unbeknownst by him at first, Marlow is viewed as a missionary: the man that will bring light to the “dark” continent (Heart 3). In The Heart of Darkness, Marlow’s aunt refers to him as an “emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle”. It is obvious that Marlow is regarded as a missionary, although in his mind, he is simply going to Africa to complete a job.

However, there were 1.6 million Evangelical Christians (people committed to converting people to Christianity) in Africa at the time that Joseph Conrad was writing Heart of Darkness (Vermeulen 2). The first of these missionaries were Portuguese Catholics that were accompanying seafaring explorers. They first arrived in Sub-Sahara Africa in the 1400s and immediately saw their toil come to fruition when “Kingdo...

Show More
Related

  • Historical Account of African-Americans Seeking the American Dream

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.

    Read More

  • The Role Of European Imperialism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, he asserts man’s extensive capacity for evil. Through the method of European imperialism, Conrad contrasts the civilized outer European world to the dark uncharted African jungle. Charlie Marlow, the protagonist of the story, recounts his journey into the Congo to resupply the ivory stations and his quest for a man named Kurtz while explaining his adventures to four other men on ship called the Nellie, which happens to be heading towards London on a river called the Thames. Marlow decides to share his trek when he notices the London skyline and begins to think of “ ‘one of the dark places of the earth,’ ” thus referring to the African Congo (11). Mr. Kurtz serves as the mysterious character in the

    Read More

  • Heart of Darkness

    437 Words  | 1 Pages

    Conrad's racism is portrayed in the actions and perceptions of Marlow along his trip up the Congo. Marlow's views of the area during the beginning of the trip are given as inhumane, and uncivilized. The Heart of Darkness for Marlow is the ignorance and brutality that he witnesses from natives as well as Whites that are met upon his trip.

    Read More

  • Elizabethan Supernatural Essay

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    As in our times, the Elizabethan audience widely used the services of astrologers for the compilation of horoscopes and interpretation of the posi...

    Read More

  • Savagery in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marlow, the main character in Heart of Darkness, often recognizes the Europeans' dehumanization of the Africans.  As Marlow approaches the company offices at the Outer Station he sees "a scene of inhabited devastation" (Conrad 24).  He catches sight of a chain gang of half starved, animal-like Africans.  Trying to rationalize the situation, Marlow tells himself that these Africans are criminals, and somehow deserve their ...

    Read More

  • The Heart Of Darkness

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is literally about Marlow’s journey into the Belgian Congo, but symbolically about the discovery of his heart and soul during his journey, only to find that it is consumed by darkness. He realizes that the man he admired and respected most, is really demonic and that he may be just like him. He is able to come to this realization however, before it takes the best of him.

    Read More

  • A Freudian Perspective of Marlow in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    1969 Words  | 4 Pages

    McLynn, Frank. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carol & Gey, 1992.

    Read More

  • A Journey into Darkness in Heart of Darkness

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bradley, Candice. "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." (24 Jan. 1996). Online Internet. 3 October 1998. Available: http://www.lawrence.edu/~johnson/heart.

    Read More

  • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Carl Jung's Principle of Opposites

    2130 Words  | 5 Pages

    Marlow is the raconteur of Heart of Darkness, and therefore is one of the more crucial characters within the plot. He embodies the willingness to be valiant, resilient, and gallant, while similarly seeming to be cautiously revolutionary. He is, seemingly the epitome of bravery, going into the jungle. Marlow’s voyage is, in essence, a “night journey into the unconscious, the confrontation with an entity within the self” (Guerard 38). The ominous coast is an allegory for the idea of the unconscious mind. “Watching a coast as it slips by the ship […] there it is before you—smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering” (1...

    Read More

  • The Changing Personality of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Heart of Darkness is a novel based on European imperialism in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. During the turn of the century in 1900, the more significant countries in Europe (i.e. England, France, Germany, et al.) had gotten to a point where expansion within Europe was no longer foreseeable, so for financial, political, and egotistical reasons, these countries looked south to their neighbor Africa, the "black continent." "God-forsaken wilderness." Marlow says of Africa. (Page 73) Trade routes were established and the home countries found reliable executive willing to travel and develop relations in the country. In Conrad's novel, Kurtz was this man. He started out with a noble goal, i.e. to modernize Africa, but suffered the effects of a deadly disease, greed. "It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage." Said Marlow (of what Kurtz and the ivory company had done to Africa.) (Page 102.)

    Read More

  • Ambiguities Explored in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    McLynn, Frank. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carol & Gey, 1992.

    Read More

  • The Imposition of Colonialism on Africa

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, it is clear that the coming of Christianity to Africa was not greeted with open arms. While it granted Africans the chance to acquire new teachings, it also insinuated itself within politics, family, and traditions, utterly destroying them from the inside out. Having been detailed within novels by Achebe, Oyono, and Thiong’o, it is easy to see how these “pacifying” roles eventually led to a total conquest for all of Africa.

    Read More

  • Essay On Nostradamus

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Nostradamus lost his wife and both children by 1534. Although we do not know the causes, we can surmise that they died from the plague. This dealt Nostradamus a catastrophic blow in the loss not only of his wife and children but of his own prestige as a physician, since he proved unable...

    Read More

  • Christianity in Northern Africa

    1597 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gaiya Musa A.B. Christianity In Africa’s Study In The Christian Presence In Africa Up To 1900. Jos: Ade

    Read More

  • Colonialism, Imperialism, Symbolism, and Materialism in Heart of Darkness

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imperialism, Symbolism, and Materialism in Heart of Darkness. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness Marlow, the main character, symbolizes the positiveness of Imperialism. Marlow, as a character, realizes the evil that negative Imperialism has caused and decides it is truly unnecessary. When Marlow states, "I have got a heavenly mission to civilize you," he expresses his good intentions to help the Africans progress and advance.

    Read More

More about Catholic and Christians Missionaries in Africa

Open Document