Term Paper on "Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness"

Term Paper 3 pages (1003 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Specifically, it will discuss the theme of the evils of European imperialism in the book. This theme is presented throughout the text in the treatment of the natives, and Kurtz' eventual fall into insanity. The imperialism Conrad presents is evil and Conrad uses many emotional techniques to illustrate this in his novel.

Conrad wrote this novel in 1899, when the Belgian government was taking over the Congo in Africa, creating the Belgian Congo. Their imperialist takeover of the country was based on money - the Congo had rubber and ivory, two luxuries that were extremely popular and useful in Europe, and the Belgians wanted them. Literary critic Harold Bloom writes, "Merely by occupying or controlling most of the globe, it was assumed, the European nations had demonstrated that they were the fittest to survive [...]" (Bloom 80). Imperialism (expansion of European nations on other continents) was a standard practice around the turn of the twentieth century, and Conrad uses this theme because is was so common and accepted in Europe. He wanted to show his readers the horrors of imperialism, and how it subjugated native peoples and destroyed their culture and lands. This novel does that graphically.

Throughout this novel, Conrad shows the greed of the Belgians who subjugate the natives and take away the only life they have ever known. Early in the book he makes this aim clear when one of the minor characters says, "They [the early Belgians who took over] were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising form the weakness of others" (Conrad 4). They were cruel and demanding, and the natives had no real way to fight back.

Conrad writes of their treatment of the natives, "They were dying slowly -- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" (Conrad 14). To the Belgians, the native are little more than animals, and they are doing them a "favor" by bringing "civilization" to their world. In reality, they destroy and culture, a way of life, and the very lives of the people they touch, and throughout the book, Conrad uses vivid images of Belgian cruelty to show the evils of imperialism.

Conrad also shows how life was before the Belgians came to the Congo, so the reader understands just what the natives are losing. He writes, "On some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast faint; a sound weird, appealing, suggestive, and wild -- and perhaps with as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country" (Conrad 17). Conrad is aware of what the natives have lost, and how they will continue to lose their culture as the Belgians take over more and more of their… READ MORE

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