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Colonization in Heart of Darkness
by Dan Rustine
One of the more apparent themes of the Heart of Darkness is the colonization of Africa; its effects, value, and whether it is morally right or not. Though is not the main theme of the book, the statement the book makes on colonization is quite important, and interesting.
The plot centers around narrator and main character, Marlow, and his travels in Darkest Africa, the Belgian Congo. Belgian Congo was a very wild, consisting of simply of tribes of blacks, many cannibals. These blacks were taken as slaves when desired by their European overlords, and when Marlow first arrives at the first station of the company with which he is to work, the thing that left the deepest impression on him was the horrible, inhumane way the natives were treated.
All through the Heart of darkness, emphasis on the colors black and white reoccur. The general implication drawn from this is that the whites� hearts are black, the universal symbol for evil, and that the blacks are more white. This symbolism gives a declaration of the evils of the colonization of the Africans, and furthermore, implies that the blacks are white inside, not nearly so soiled with evil because of their naturalness.
Marlow himself became a victim of the viciousness of colonization, and the force behind it; the desire for wealth at any cost. His wish to see Mr. Kurtz, and receive some guidance, some conversation on the natives� situation was foiled by the change that came over Kurtz, and then his Kurtz�s untimely death.
Kurtz�s change it yet another effect of colonization. For some reason or other, he went from a man who looked to change things, and help his fellow man, to a man who looked only for wealth, and to extend his own personal power and influence. This may have come about because of the pressure of all the corrupt men of the company, that were the only �civilized� men he had contact with, or because he went insane, or for any number of other reasons. But the fact of the matter is that Kurtz�s ideals were changed, and changed for the worse, because of his role in the colonization of the Congo.
The largest effect of the colonization of Africa, however, was most definitely upon on the natives, the blacks. They were enslaved, and made to work insane amounts, and then often left from lack of food. The blacks had no rights in the slightest, and this entirely broke their spirit as a people. Their eyes had no light in them, as Marlow observed in his first encounter with a group of slaves. The natives were easily taken into Kurtz�s claims to godhood, and did his bidding in fear, and began to attack, taking on some of the white men's blackness in their murderous acts, though they were under Marlow�s orders.
As taken as a whole, I believe that one can make the assumption that the narrator, and the author, looked down on the colonization of Africa, or, at the very least, the manner in which it was done, and that the colonization was very much a determining factor in the lives of many Europeans, as well as the natives.
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