Essay On Imperialism In Heart Of Darkness

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has many negative views on imperialism. There are two reasons why the novella judges imperialism so critically. Imperialism has two goal and both are not met in the novella. The first goal the novella does not meet is the economic goal. Many workers are not doing there job effectively and the company is mainly run inefficiently. The other goal the novella does not meet is the goal to civilize the natives. Instead of civilizing the natives the company abuses and uses them for labour. It is clear that the novella, Heart of Darkness sees very little value in Imperialism. The only two goals of imperialism were not met. The only moment the text hesitates in its critiques in imperialism is the treatment given toward Mr. Kurtz. To start off, imperialism Heart of Darkness fails the economic goal by the inefficient of the company. To begin, in “Conrad 's Critique of Imperialism in Heart of Darkness” Hunt Hawkins explains the main goal of imperialism, “[all] global cause[s] of imperialism …were eventually influenced by economics” (Hawkins 289). Once the goal of imperialism has changed to an economic goal, it must be run …show more content…
Instead of working on the railroad the workers were pointlessly setting of explosions on a cliff, “They were building a railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on” (Conrad 116). These railroad workers are similar to the brick maker. Neither the brick maker or the railroad workers get any real work done. In a way, the situation with the railroad workers is worse than the brick maker. It is not only one person getting paid for not doing anything but many people. The company is paying for their workers to do as they please with the materials the company provided. Therefore, imperialism is frowned upon in the text because it fails the economic goal it is working