Heart Of Darkness :: essays research papers

Heart of Darkness ?gHeart of Darkness?h, pen by Joseph Conrad, holds thematically a wide range of references to problems of politics, morality and friendly order. It was written in a period when European exploitation of Africa was at a gruesome height. Conrad uses double oblique narration. A flame cashier reports the story as told by Marlow, assigned to the command of a river steamboat plan to transport an exploring expedition. Kurtz is a first-agent at an important trading post of ivory, fit(p) in the interior of the Congo. Both Marlow and Kertz found the in truthity through their throw in Africa. Marlow felt great indignation with people in the grim city after his journey to the Congo region because he discovered, through his work, the reality of the universe, such as the great virtue of efficiency, the darkness in society and individuals and the surface reality. When Kurtz found himself on his deathbed and he said ?gThe repugnance, The horror referring to his life in in ner Africa, which caused him disintegration. Marlow emphasized the virtue of ?gefficiency?h throughout the story because he thought of it as the only way to outlive in the wilderness. After seeing the dying natives in the forest of the out station, Marlow described them as ?gin high-octane.?h Under ?gthe devotion to efficiency,?h awkward people were excluded from society. Only efficient people can survive. For utilization, since Kurtz was the most efficient agent, with regards to producing ivory, his employers respected his achievement and regarded him as an essential person. However, once he ferine into disintegration, he was considered no more the than dying natives and thus was treated as if he were dead. He was then buried in the darkness. The symbol of inefficiency was the saturation green. Marlow illustrated a picture of dying natives, when he said, ?gThey were black shadows of disease and starvation lying confusedly in the greenish gloom?h(20). An otherwise example of i nefficiency is shown in the description of the body of Marlow?fs predecessor as ?gThe grass festering through his ribs was tall enough to hide his bones?h(13). Marlow realized the real darkness did not existed in Africa but in Europe, and not in Africans but in Europeans who engaged in colonial exploitation, including Kurtz. Due to the natives?f physical features and customs like cannibalism, Marlow defined Africans as the darkness. On the other hand, he considered Europeans as the light because of his illusions of civilization.