There are a various ways to consider the meaning of the title (Heart of Darkness) on its own or as it relates to the story. The title implies that Africa is the Heart of Darkness, where white people (Marlow and Kurtz) go there to save Africans. Black natives are depicted living in darkness, needing to be brought into the light of civilization and white people seemingly have this enlightening knowledge. In the time of colonialism, Africa was frequently referred to as the "Dark Continent.” The darkness of the continent could refer to its unknown quality or the darkness of the people who resided there. The story takes place during a period of colonialism and great racism, and "darkness" in this context might very well have racist overtones. We
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‘Race’ is a social construction based on the common sense perceptions of superficial differences (mostly of skin colour), typically evident in a society shaped by stratification and inequality. “Race (or even racism) was treated as the common attitude of white people during the period of colonialism.” (Morgan, 2010: 8). Most Europeans at that time were largely ignorant of the lives of the natives they encounter traveling, that was because these natives look so very different, the general attitude is that they are sub-human, closer to animals than they are to humans (Guven, 2013: 83). This is evidenced by the repeated referrals of black people as "niggers," "cannibals," "criminals," and "savages” in the text. Marlow describes the natives as having “a wild vitality” and their “faces like grotesque masks.” The Europeans were racist toward black people. We can see how the European people seem to think the Africans are not equal to them because their black. For example, "the thought of their humanity-like yours…Ugly" (Conrad, 1902: 58). One reason or example that shows that Europeans were racist, was because they made the blacks be their slaves. Black people were doing work for the white people and that just goes to show that they were racist. That is where again we get to connect race with power. Another example is the first time he saw a black man he said, "A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards" (Conrad, 1902: 30). The white European colonizers invaded Africa with a belief in their superiority as a race over the rest of the continent and their right to rob and murder the natives without any consequence. Kurtz takes advantage of African inferiority by presenting himself as a deity and subjugating them into "crawling before him" and supplying his trade. Race
‘Race’ is a social construction based on the common sense perceptions of superficial differences (mostly of skin colour), typically evident in a society shaped by stratification and inequality. “Race (or even racism) was treated as the common attitude of white people during the period of colonialism.” (Morgan, 2010: 8). Most Europeans at that time were largely ignorant of the lives of the natives they encounter traveling, that was because these natives look so very different, the general attitude is that they are sub-human, closer to animals than they are to humans (Guven, 2013: 83). This is evidenced by the repeated referrals of black people as "niggers," "cannibals," "criminals," and "savages” in the text. Marlow describes the natives as having “a wild vitality” and their “faces like grotesque masks.” The Europeans were racist toward black people. We can see how the European people seem to think the Africans are not equal to them because their black. For example, "the thought of their humanity-like yours…Ugly" (Conrad, 1902: 58). One reason or example that shows that Europeans were racist, was because they made the blacks be their slaves. Black people were doing work for the white people and that just goes to show that they were racist. That is where again we get to connect race with power. Another example is the first time he saw a black man he said, "A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards" (Conrad, 1902: 30). The white European colonizers invaded Africa with a belief in their superiority as a race over the rest of the continent and their right to rob and murder the natives without any consequence. Kurtz takes advantage of African inferiority by presenting himself as a deity and subjugating them into "crawling before him" and supplying his trade. Race