Conrad Anker

Heart of Darkness is a book that should still be taught in the 2017 curriculum. I say this because the book has racist tendencies, but these stem from ignorance rather than pure racism. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow talks about and interacts with the African with such animalistic terms, because he was never exposed to their actual culture and doesn’t know any better. This is a significant point in the way that in current events, because racism is still a prevalent problem in our society because…

imperialism. When Marlow speaks about the people in the colony, he admits that “They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale” because of “the weakness of others” (Conrad 8). The colonists take advantage of the natives for profit, and they escape with no penalty because every colonist believes the natives exist for their benefit. They think only about how the native benefits their profit and no one…

reading the first words, I knew I was in for a literary delight”, Rafael says, “The words speak to a person; one can imagine the scene that is being narrated. While reading the Heart of Darkness, I realized that the book was new and interesting in ways Conrad could never have imagined. “ At a first glance Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness may seem to the untrained eye of Charles Marlows’s experience as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa and his encounter with a manager in…

Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychology professor, conducted an experiment which examined life in confinement from the perspective of both the prisoner and the prison guard. As the study progressed, he observed that the prison guards began to display peremptory attitudes towards the imprisoned, developing sadistic and apathetic tendencies. Similar to the tyrannical behaviour of the colonizers during their relentless pursuit of superiority through imperialism, the prison guards became thoroughly…

helps them succeed. Aristotle said, “There is no great genius without some touch of madness”. Throughout many works of literature madness can be seen in many characters and is used as a catalyst to help move the plot along. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad explores the journey of Marlow, a steamboat captain, journey into the heart of Africa, and the changing of his objective to meeting Kurtz when almost everyone glorifies him. Madness is commonly seen throughout Kurtz’s life in the Congo, and…

Marlow remarks in contemplation of meaning, ‘“droll thing life is–that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself–that comes too late–a crop of unextinguishable regrets”’ (Conrad 106). This is in reaction to the death of Kurtz, a philosophical conclusion that is what Marlow learns from the culmination of his endeavors in Africa. Marlow fathoms that life has no point and that everyone is clueless of that with their…

Throughout Heart of Darkness, civilization and savagery are two contradicting themes that exist mutually. However, civilization is not a permanent state; it can drift to its opposite side very easily under the power of jungle. Joseph Conrad characterizes Marlow, Kurtz, the manager, and many other roles to demonstrate their moral and values during their experiences in Africa. The traditional western principles are constantly challenged by the nature and the people. At the beginning, Marlow lives…

terrifying third character to the story. The wilderness is given characteristics of darkness and represents uncivilized land. As Marlow is travelling down the Thames River he says that “And this also…has been one of the dark places of the earth” (Conrad 5). Marlow is referring to before there were any humans in England and how primeval the land had been. The statement that Marlow makes is the first time darkness is mentioned, and his…

exploits the destructive results of material-motivated imperialists, as well as offering a different interpretation of certain topics discussed in “Heart of Darkness.” Joseph Conrad disregards the humanity of native African people as he often refers to them as “savages,” and Achebe mocks Conrad’s portrayal of Africans. Joseph Conrad presents the savagery of the natives when he writes,“‘They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces…’” (64). Achebe exploits Conrad’s savage image of…

Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad in 1899, is the account of Charles Marlow’s journey along the Congo River into central Africa to retrieve Kurtz from the interior, where he is trapped and dying. Heart of Darkness looks into the immorality of imperialism and the Congo Free State and the harm caused by the careless exploitation of the native people. The Europeans that Marlow associates with in Africa are motivated by self-interest only and their morals are questionable. The consequences…