Heart Of Darkness Dehumanization

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It is commonly argued that ‘Heart of Darkness’ is nothing more than a racial tirade from a misinformed Englishman. Although Conrad is not misinformed and has no intention of fronting a racist point of view, when the treatment of Africans in the text is closely examined, the theme of racism is presented so deliberately all other themes merely fade into the background. Conrad’s evocation of the African environment and population preaches racial intolerance and creates a stark contrast between the life of Europeans and Africans. The constant slandering of the African population as “niggers” and “cannibals” and “savages” and the referral to the continent as an immense “Heart of Darkness” are the base examples of this racial intolerance. But despite …show more content…

This projection ultimately dehumanizes the continent and population together. Conrad also protests against this dehumanization through his description of the paddlers, with “their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like masks…”, but then leads on to dehumanize them through his description of the population as a group of niggers and cannibals. The observation of the chain gang yields and example of this dehumanization; the Africans are no longer given a personality and seem almost inhumane as they pass by. An extended metaphor is used to stir up an inhumane image of the workers: “They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets of earth on their heads…I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs like knots in a rope, each had an iron collar…” The parody that Marlow makes of the fireman is a continuation of the dehumanization of the Africans. After his observation of the dancing Africans, Conrad zeroes in on a particular individual and through his description; he manages to dehumanize “the savage that is the fireman”. Derogatory language is employed to displace this fireman and make him become a parody within himself. “He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on its hind

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