Heart of Darkness – an Inward Journey
Human nature is like a coin, it has two sides. One of them is in some sort artificial, created by teachings of different religions, by living in society and by the rules that our parents taught us, and is thought to be this good one. The other one defines our true self, it is our primal nature, the dark half of human beings. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad tries to deal with this essence of darkness that sleeps somewhere within us.
Title Heart of Darkness may have two meanings. One can relate to the center of Africa, The Black Land, and the other to the human soul. Conrad describes Africa as a place of darkness , however, this darkness it thought to be brought, by the white people. Africa was land unknown to white men, but it was no different than Europe: And this also... has been one of the dark places of the earth . It was the white men who disturbed peaceful life of Africa’s inhabitants. Colonists are said to be men enough to face the darkness , but in fact, they were nothing else than the darkness itself for the black people. They invaded their land full of selfishness and greed, took them captive and used them for their own purposes. They were the cause of death for many of native inhabitants of Africa. They were brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were the allowed to crawl away and rest .
Amusing paradox and contrast can be noticed. White people (white as symbol of good) are described as the civilized society fighting against uncivilized, inhuman black savages, (black as symbol of evil) who can be a great danger for white men. In fact, those white people, are only seemingly civilized, inside they are rotten to the bone. On their own land they may behave in civilized way, because their doings can be judged, but when on foreign land, where is no control, where they are the ones who have the power, their
Title Heart of Darkness may have two meanings. One can relate to the center of Africa, The Black Land, and the other to the human soul. Conrad describes Africa as a place of darkness , however, this darkness it thought to be brought, by the white people. Africa was land unknown to white men, but it was no different than Europe: And this also... has been one of the dark places of the earth . It was the white men who disturbed peaceful life of Africa’s inhabitants. Colonists are said to be men enough to face the darkness , but in fact, they were nothing else than the darkness itself for the black people. They invaded their land full of selfishness and greed, took them captive and used them for their own purposes. They were the cause of death for many of native inhabitants of Africa. They were brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were the allowed to crawl away and rest .
Amusing paradox and contrast can be noticed. White people (white as symbol of good) are described as the civilized society fighting against uncivilized, inhuman black savages, (black as symbol of evil) who can be a great danger for white men. In fact, those white people, are only seemingly civilized, inside they are rotten to the bone. On their own land they may behave in civilized way, because their doings can be judged, but when on foreign land, where is no control, where they are the ones who have the power, their