In the “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, a man, Kurtz, has some confrontation with his dark self. This is both dangerous and enlightening. In the novel, the term "darkness" and “light” have a few different meanings. The difference between dark and light is uncivilized and civilized. Heart of Darkness is about a man 's journey into the darkness. The journey is both physically strenuous and descripted metaphorically: he travels to both the depths of the Belgian Congo and to the deepest regions of the human heart. In the novel, the shady world of Africa has been turned by the Company, which starts an organization concerned with exporting ivory and civilizing natives. Africa becomes a place where insanity thrives in the heart of the Congo.
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Through Marlow 's journey into the shadows or evil of the Congo, Conrad 's use of light and dark imagery tells us what kind of a man Marlow is. The African people, the natives are the ones whom live in the Congo where the darkness is waiting to trick its next victim. Marlow being the light never sees the Africans as actual people and just those whom he met through his journeys. Marlow is a man of travel, he seeks out explorations and has seen through the dark places and seems to have his own knowledge within himself on the darkness. When Marlow returns to England, Kurt’s presence seems to haunt him. He cannot shake the words off of him that Kurt once spoke to him along the journey. Conrad also uses symbolism to indicate that Marlow is also on a journey into the deepest nooks and cranny’s of his soul. Marlow 's breaks the silence and sets the tone of his tale; darkness. He states, "this also has been one of the dark places of the earth" (138). With Britain 's colonization, it has become a place of darkness. He defines the river Thames as a "running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds," a flash of bright light surrounded by the sins, darkness, of the British (139). To Marlow the Thames River is also the epitome of “light” with him describing it as shinning brilliantly. This creates an image of light for the reader and can also symbolize that Marlow is a good man. Furthermore with rivers, the Congo River is opposite of want would be considered the clean and “civilized” world of the white
Through Marlow 's journey into the shadows or evil of the Congo, Conrad 's use of light and dark imagery tells us what kind of a man Marlow is. The African people, the natives are the ones whom live in the Congo where the darkness is waiting to trick its next victim. Marlow being the light never sees the Africans as actual people and just those whom he met through his journeys. Marlow is a man of travel, he seeks out explorations and has seen through the dark places and seems to have his own knowledge within himself on the darkness. When Marlow returns to England, Kurt’s presence seems to haunt him. He cannot shake the words off of him that Kurt once spoke to him along the journey. Conrad also uses symbolism to indicate that Marlow is also on a journey into the deepest nooks and cranny’s of his soul. Marlow 's breaks the silence and sets the tone of his tale; darkness. He states, "this also has been one of the dark places of the earth" (138). With Britain 's colonization, it has become a place of darkness. He defines the river Thames as a "running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds," a flash of bright light surrounded by the sins, darkness, of the British (139). To Marlow the Thames River is also the epitome of “light” with him describing it as shinning brilliantly. This creates an image of light for the reader and can also symbolize that Marlow is a good man. Furthermore with rivers, the Congo River is opposite of want would be considered the clean and “civilized” world of the white