Heart Of Darkness Imperialism Essay

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Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a novella based on true events from Conrad’s life about a young man’s journey into the Congo Free State as a part of the late 1800’s Belgian imperialist mission. Conrad’s real life experience in the Congo was not a good one, as he saw the horror that the colonists inflicted on the natives and realized the brutal nature that humans can have. Heart of Darkness was Conrad’s way of expressing his views on imperialism and the horror that it entailed when he returned home from his journey. Conrad’s experience in the Congo forced him to see the capacity of evil that is present deep within all humans. When reading Heart of Darkness, it is clear that Conrad intended for the reader to experience the lack of empathy …show more content…

When Marlow first arrives in Africa, he begins to search for a man named Mr. Kurtz; the leader of the ivory trade. Kurtz has been in the Congo for quite a while by the time Marlow meets him, and he has a complete lack of empathy, kindness, and humanity. He represents everything wrong about imperialism, and everything dark that lives inside Marlow. In the beginning of the story, Marlow seems to be a normal man, and the empathy he has for the natives is clear to the reader. However, as he travels deeper and deeper into the jungle, the novella delves deeper into his psyche and his inner evil starts to emerge. Eventually, Marlow doesn’t even acknowledge the Congolese as people. It is clear that Kurtz represents Marlow’s inner evil; as Marlow travels down the river and gets closer to Kurtz, he gets nearer to “heart of darkness” as well. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad contrasts the experience of travelling deep into the somewhat terrifying jungle with journeying into the depths of the human mind to show that the human personality is as incomprehensible and impenetrable as the jungle, and has an aspect of evil that can arise at any

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