Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. This piece of literature covers themes such as imperialism, savagery vs civilization, and racism. It is a story of one man’s journey into the African interior, where he discovers that brutality and greed underlie the imperialist enterprise.
The text critiques the imperialist
enterprise by highlighting the horror and tragedy of colonial trade and exploration.
For example, “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away
from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than
ourselves, is not pretty thing when you
look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only” (1894).
In a section of the text, describing the Africans, the character, Marlow states: “It was unearthly, and the men were No, they were not inhuman…They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces, but what thrilled you was the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kindship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly.” This quote is clearly extremely racist in terms of society today. During its time, this novella still received much backlash.
Conrad was ridiculed by Chinua
Achebe, Africa’s most well-known novelist and founding father of African fiction,
for writing such awful comments and accused Conrad of racism. On top of the blatant
racism that was reflected in the novella, the concept of “savagery” as applied
only to people of color was also brought up.
This novella highlights many issues
that are still considered modern-day issues. Racism is a very big issue in our
country and is continuously exposed by human rights movements like
Black Lives Matter. “Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global
organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white
supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities
by the state and vigilantes” (Black Lives Matter).
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is considered an essential text in twentieth century literature. Because of the various intense themes of Heart of Darkness, and its very conflicted treatment of imperialism, race, and the modern condition, it is important to explore some of the most important issues addressed by twentieth-century writers.
Black Lives Matter, 22 May 2020, blacklivesmatter.com/about/.
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