Heart Of Darkness Hypocrisy

The world is not a concrete place. The world is almost like a yellowing onion. To uncover what is truly behind its glissing, gleaming peels one must slowly peel each layer away. The task of peeling the layers away is an arduous one. One that causes a person to expunge tears because the onion expels a defense mechanism to protect what is inside its core. When the process of peeling the layers of the onion is done, one can find that there is nothing, but a greenish yellow core. The core of humanity. A core that is nothing, but a hollow mesh of lies, corruption, evil, and deceit. Joseph Conrad through the Heart of Darkness exposed that within the core of humanity is nothing, but inherent hypocrisy evil, and irrationality. (In his criticial analysis

Marlow came to the Congo with an unassailable “spirit of adventure” (Conrad 30). Upon arrival in Africa, Marlow was shocked and disheartened by the actions of his fellow Europeans. He sees his European brethren forcing natives who Marlow says, “they were not enemies,not criminals, they were nothing early now”, but subhuman beings forced into a life of brutal servitude (Conrad 82). Contemptuous of his comrades beliefs and brutal behavior, Marlow becomes so sick of all this and decides to go and find solace in the revered Kurtz. Kurtz has the same mysterious atmosphere that F.Scott Fitzgerald in his story The Great Gatsby portrayed in his eerie character known as Gatsby. Kurtz is adored by most, hated by few, and a wild mystery to most. He is seen as an emissary of production, morality, and his abillity to be so profitable makes him the awe of all Europe. Marlow says in regards to Mr. Kurtz “All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz” that he was such a prized gem of Europe (Conrad 25). Marlow believed that Kurtz was the only man who wasn’t hollow and wanted Kurtz to give him a sense of purpose in life. Marlow found himself “crawling like a sluggish beetle on the floor of a lofty portico toward Kurtz” (Conrad 11) and embarks on a perilous journey through the African wilderness to hear Kurtz, the voice of reason. The deeper Marlow penetrated into the somber stillness of the wilderness, the heart of darkness (Conrad 42), the more Marlow became surrounded by the “maddening effects” of the African Congo that his doctor had warned him about (Conrad 76). Upon arrival of the great Kurtz station Marlow finds that the eloquent Kurtz, Marlow’s beacon of light and mentor in the dark of African, is nothing more than a hypocrite. Kurtz was nothing more“he was an animated image of death carved out of old ivory” (Conrad 34). Kurtz has been driven mad