The Imperial Catastrophe

    Joseph Conrad shows how Imperialism destroyed the African continent during the 1890’s. His famous novel The Heart of Darkness clearly reveals Conrad’s criticism towards this massive colonization that happened during the last half of the century.  The biggest colonies where owned by the reign of queen Victoria of England. To illustrate the reader, the author gave two main facts that will help the reader to understand his point of view. The first one, how England made the colonists look like heroes and missionaries and secondly, how they use this excuse to destroy the African people.

      As an illustration, the reader may take into consideration the Victorian age, in which England recovered from a horrible crisis that had left it in a horrible state. With the money taken out of the colonies, the country quickly recovered and Queen Victoria and the explorers, where recognized as heroes. To explain, the author clearly shows how this honor was inside the mind of our main character Marlow states that  “And indeed nothing is easier for a man who has, as the phrase goes, ‘followed the sea’ with reverence and affection, than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames.” (Conrad, 6) In other words, the reader can see how Marlow was trapped inside this illusion of being a savior to the people of the Black Continent.

      Afterward, Marlow discovers the truth about this “explorers”. After the colonization, all the resources that the African people had became part of the wealth of the European empires. It is here when Conrad shows the reader how Marlow, after seeing what’s really happening inside the continent, thinks about this colonizers and the job he is doing. He clearly shows how conquers “want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.” (Conrad, 13) For this purpose, the reader quickly understands that Conrad wants to clearly differentiate a Colonist with a Conquers.

      The Heart of Darkness is a book that shows hoe imperialism may look like something good for both countries involved, but it is really a bloody and cruel Conquer for power and strength, that is why Conrad shows the reader the importance of the liberation of these colonies for the well being of the entire world.

The Black and White Oxymoron

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad uses an Oxymoron between White and Black to demonstrate Conrad’s critics towards these two denominations. The author pairs up these two colors to make the differentiation that worldwide society gives to Africa and the rest of the world. To develop this thesis, it is important that the reader takes into consideration two important factors. The first one, the “why” people relates Africa to this dark color and the second one, related to Europe’s presence in Africa.

Although racism may be part of this mistake, the metonym between black and Africa has nothing to do with the fact that this continent is mainly composed of dark-colored people. This denomination has to do with the security, health and social issues this continent had. To illustrate, the reader can take into consideration events such as the Rwanda genocide or the Blood Diamonds. Specifically, the reader can take Congo’s problems such as the vast number of refugees in this area, the unimaginable health problem and the obvious poverty issue. These are the main reasons why Congo is denominated inside the book as the “Heart of Darkness” which really signifies the center of the black continent.

Congo’s government and people are not the only ones to be blamed because of its economical, political and social problems. Conrad takes the reader to the context in which this book was written. During the last decade of the 1800s, Europe had conquered many countries around the world. This new empire caused many problems inside continents such as Africa. Certainly, the reader can see some of the problems caused by imperialism inside the book; for instance, when Marlow starts mocking the way he was “hindering you fellows in your work and invading your homes, just as though I had got a heavenly mission to civilize you.” (Conrad, 16) It is here where Conrad makes his criticism about how Europe’s presence in Africa was not a mission to help Africa but on the contrary, a nightmare for the people in this country.

It is with this analysis that the reader can understand Conrad’s criticism inside this wonderful novel. It is important to recognize that dividing the world into the dark and the bright is just making our world a worst place to live and a horrible place to see.

Gabriela