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