Prejudice in Heart of Darkness
Slavery has been with us since the Egyptian times and with it prejudice
towards certain humans have also come about. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness
these prejudice feelings are reflected throughout the story by the characters
and their descriptions. The main character, Marlow shows much prejudice
feelings towards the native black slaves by much of his descriptions and
actions towards them.
One of the most noticeable prejudice descriptions that Marlow gives to us
is in the way in which Marlow describes the Themes River in two different
positions. He first describes the river as being a place where many people
seek to follow their dreams. In a way, his descriptions are like a great
fantasy with great feelings of serenity and full of liveliness. This
description of the river also contained many words of color; this Marlow
rarely uses to describe events. The description of the river going upstream
was extremely different from the former description. Marlow described it as
this "The air was warm, thick, heavy, and sluggish. There was no joy and
brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted,
into the gloom of overshadowed distances" (Conrad 2:16). Upriver was where
all the natives lived and this is how it is described, quite the opposite of
what he had thought before. Marlow feels extremely uncomfortable going to
this area, he even says that it seems as if the large trees hanging over the
river swallow the boat up as they move up. These words give the impression
that this area is very uncivilized and even animal like. Marlow constantly
feels that something is watching him and he called this watching monkey
tricks (Conrad 2:2). Obviously referring to the natives watching him.
Yet another description that Marlow gives to us that is somewhat
different is in the reactions of Kurtz's girlfriends to his departure and
death. We first meet Kurtz's native girlfriend. Her descriptions were much
of her savage appearances. Marlow refers too much of her jewelry as
barbarous ornaments and gifts of witch-men. This he does not know but only
assumes so. When he describes her facial expressions, they aren't very human
like but more like an animal.
When Columbus and Hariot first came into contact with these natives, they seemed different (even strange) at times because they lived almost completely naked. For a long period of time, the Native Americans lives had to change as they adapted too many different environments. As a matter of fact, the American Indians were very creative. They were able to found ways on to how to live in deserts, forests, along the oceans, and on grassy prairies. The Natives people were great hunters and productive farmers, for they built towns and traded over large distances with other tribes.
Colonists believed in “private property” (Cronon page 1179) and individual ownership of possessions. On the other hand, the Indians had a nomadic lifestyle that included “move[ing] from habitat to habitat” (Cronon page 911), and not taking ownership of the land they resided in, and instead living as guests of the area they happened to habituate at the time. On the contrary, after European settlement, according to Cronon: “Indians were living in fixed locations on a more permanent basis. Earlier subsistence practices which had depended on seasonal dispersal were gradually being abandoned, with important social and ecological effects” (Cronon pages 1739-1740). Cronon states that the Indians adapted to the changes brought upon by the colonists and adopted the lifestyle of owning and settling in a specific portion of land. This major change in the Indians’ lifestyle also had consequences with the environment. Permanently settling into the densely populated forts aided the “spread of infectious diseases” (Cronon page 1740). Similarly the dense population also affected nearby “hunting and planting areas” (Cronon page 1741), which the Indians used as their source of food and resources once they were pushed into the heavily populated areas. The overpopulation of the Indians in specific areas also had a huge contribution to the depletion of that area 's resources. This was also a direct fault of the
Another misconception is how North American natives roamed the land in small groups to hunt, fish, and gather their food. They actually were much more settled and even had better
In conclusion Native Americans were lead close to extinction after the discovery of the New World. They suffered damages from diseases and injuries the europeans brought. They had to relocate their tribes only to fulfill european demands. As well as to change their belief for the ones the europeans brought with them in order to survive and avoid the risk of extinction.
Native Americans lived on the land that is now called America, but when white settlers started to take over the land, many lives of Native Americans were lost. Today, many people believe that the things that have been done and are being done right now, is an honor or an insult to the Natives. The choices that were made and being made were an insult to the Native Americans that live and used to live on this land, by being insulted by land policies, boardings schools and modern issues, all in which contain mistreatment of the Natives. The power that the settlers and the people who governed them had, overcame the power of the Natives so the settlers took advantage and changed the Natives way of life to the
In the book “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad wrote about the horrors that were committed by Leopold’s regime. As one of the first insider to witness these horrors, he wrote “Heart of Darkness”, with this book, he was able to spread the word about the atrocities he had seen in Leopold’s greedy pursuit of rubber and ivory in the congo. This book details closely how Leopold made his humongous profit. Leopold issued decrees on the Congo such as that the native people may only trade with his state agents or with his concessions. Leopold’s concessions were private companies that would sell the ivory and rubber, they would give Leopold 50% of their profits. The Abir Congo Company was one of these concessions that harvest the natural rubber of the Congo.They were granted a large portion of the land in the north and had the right to impose a rubber tax on its inhabitants. It was through concessions like these but also from his personal company (the Congo Free State) that Leopold created his personal wealth. This book brings us one step closer to answering our question since it tells us how Leopold got ahold of all of his profits. But this brings us to another question of, exactly how much money did the Congo bring to Leopold II?
The natives would give back to the world that gave unto them. With an unfortelling future the Native
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