Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel of the journey of the character Marlow through the continent of Africa. With his travels Marlow experiences the dark side of society. As Marlow's journey deepens the truth about man-made environments and what one may do for power is revealed.
It is clear that Marlow is disturbed by the norms of his surroundings, even in the beginning. One situation that particularly stands out is when Marlow spoke of when he traveled to the first station and was welcomed by the many African workers who were dying in trenches. Marlow describes the dying in a way proving that he found them to be as normal as any other human being: "They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now- nothing but black shadows lying in the greenish gloom." Marlow seemed to find after looking back that the treatment of those lower than himself in regards to the Company, the natives, was morally incorrect. He also questioned the values of society when reflecting on Kurtz. Kurtz mainly gained his power by his way of manipulating the natives. This seemed absurd because the most highly regarded employee of the Company is awful in the way that he treats the locals, even saying they should all just be killed. As Marlow went to see Kurtz's fiance sometime after his death, Marlow could not even talk of the truth of Kurtz to her for he found it too disturbing. After Marlow's journey it is clear his views of society and what he thinks in general, have changed. Looking back at his experience Marlow seemed to be confused and saddened.
1 comment:
Emily,
Your response shows some understanding of the text and you grapple with a couple key themes, but you give far too much credit to Marlow. Or, to put it another way, Marlow does not quite share your enlightened views about race.
It is precisely that Marlow cannot quite believe that the natives are human that makes him say "they were not enemies... not criminals ... nothing earthly ... nothing but black shadows."
In other words to call them enemies or criminals would be to say that they are "earthly" (or to put it another way, by saying they are not earthly, Marlow is saying they are not like him and the other whites), instead they are "shadows" or darkness personified.
And to say that they are shadows is not necessarily a judgment that they are evil. After all they are neither "enemies" nor "criminals." They are beyond that sort of morality because they are not earthly. And so to Marlow the words "darkness" and "shadows" do not mean the same thing as "evil," but instead these words seem to signify a lack: specifically, it seems, the lack of European morality, the lack of European culture. And this too is not a judgment but, for Marlow, is merely a fact.
In other words Marlow is not really seeing the natives at all, but in looking at the surface of the natives Marlow experiences anxiety about his own dark nature that has been covered over by and suppressed by cultural norms and practices.
Underneath the cultural norms he thinks or suspects or worries that he too is dark (a shadow). Notice that in all of this Marlow is utterly ignorant of the culture of the natives. He can't see how they are not unearthly shadows, how they are not symbols of darkness, but humans with their own cultural norms and practices. Chinua Achebe (who wrote _Things Fall Apart_ has pointed this out with ferocity.
Nevertheless, Marlow's reckoning with the darkness within might be more frightening than evil because evil can be combated, "enemies" can be defeated, "criminals" can be jailed, but the strangeness and darkness of our own natures, of existence itself cannot be altered (though it can be covered over by the externals of civilized routine and we can distract ourselves from it with the discipline of work, etc.)
***
More on Marlow's "ethnocentrism": At another point in the narrative he compares a native working on the boat to a dog dressed like a human. In other words the natives using European technology is as unnatural to Marlow as a dog standing on two legs wearing human clothing. This seems profoundly racist to me.
So, where as most of us in the northeast of the U.S. in the 21st century see ourselves as fundamentally the same as all other people regardless of race and culture, Marlow does not. Nor does Kurtz.
Score 5
I look forward to reading what you have to say about the poets!
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