Joseph Conrad Imperialism

At the turn of the 20th century, African states had been colonized and were being used by the European nations with imperialistic ideals. With imperialism came the praise and promotion of the imperialistic ideas. However, unlike other times in history where a nation had taken over another, there was criticism written by some of the writers living in the imperialistic countries. Two of these writers were Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, and George Orwell, who wrote “Shooting an Elephant”. Both of their pieces comments on the dark side of imperialism and the effects it has on the colonized states and the people of the states.
In Heart of Darkness, Marlow reaches Africa and sees the brutality inflicted upon the native people.
They are forced to do strenuous work for the trading companies. The men are treated like slaves and often badly beaten. The Europeans who inflict this violence are not penalized for this cruelty, but rather encouraged to do so as if without restraint and without consciousness to the suffering they are causing.
They are told that these people are their enemies and that they are criminals. In astonishment as to what he saw, Marlow says, “I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil hot desire, but by all the stars! these were strong lusty red-eyed devils that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you” (Conrad 13). These men were not challenged for their actions because the natives were held to no value. They were numerous in number and held no value as human individuals. They were simply free tools for labor and if they died it did not matter because there were at least ten other men that could take his place. This disrespect is not only seen in Africa, but also in Burma in Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”. After Marlow shoots the elephant, the European officers were discussing whether or not he should have killed such a valuable beast. The younger officers commented saying, “It was a shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any Coringhee coolie” (Orwell 1026). Besides the imprisonment of the native peoples in their own homes, imperialism suffocated the
country. The people were forced to work without pay and rations of food. This caused many to die not only from overexertion, but also from malnutrition and disease. Marlow describes a group of natives he passed through in a shady spot: “They were not enemies, they were not criminal, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” (Conrad 14). This lowly state that the natives lived in allowed no room for them to better themselves or build their own economy and improve their lives. Imperialism inflicted pain and suffering and many future problems on the countries that were colonized.
The natives of the countries being colonized were not the only individuals who were affected by imperialism. The sailors and government officials sent to the colonies from England were also permanently changed. Marlow had started out as an excited and energetic young sailor up for a new challenge, but soon found himself despising the everyday scenes he was exposed to. Orwell was affected in a similar light as Marlow was: “For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better” (Orwell 1019). He found himself hating his job and looked forward to leaving it. Marlow travels to the very innermost station of the Congo to meet the renowned Mr. Kurtz, who himself was once an eager young man hoping to make a name for himself, but had changed and became twisted in the wilderness of the Congo: “The wilderness patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball—an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and—lo!—he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation” (Conrad 44). According to the Russian, Kurtz had “wandered alone, far in the depths of the forest” (51 Conrad). He had discovered several villages and eventually got the tribe to follow him and went on “expeditions” for ivory, which were raids on other villages.
The natives also affect the men from the imperialistic countries.
Marlow describes one of the peculiarities of Mr. Kurtz saying, “The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own” (Conrad 44). These powers of darkness would be the human greed, hunger for power, and eventual corruption that they led to. In contrast to Kurtz, Orwell did not become overtaken by these powers of darkness; the Burmese people abused and disrespected him, yet he was still sympathetic with them although he had authority over them. Rather, the people controlled him just by giving him the feeling that he was being pressured: “A white man mustn’t be frightened in front of “natives”; and so, in general, he isn’t frightened” (Orwell 1023). The fear of being mocked by the Burmese, whom he had authority over, forced him to make a choice against his will. Orwell had decided that he shouldn’t kill the elephant, but he knew that was what the people were waiting for so he did it anyways to avoid making himself look a fool. He said, “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys” (Orwell 1022). It comes to be known that the natives are not nearly seen only as property by all of the Europeans. Certainly that fact that Kurtz befriended the people and that they respected him enough to listen to his command meant that they had reached a bind laborer and slave driver. His feelings must have also
stretched beyond those of superiority over the people since he had them attack Marlow’s ship, which was to come and take him home to England. He did not want to leave. He preferred to stay and live in the primitive ways of the natives. So, even though his command controlled the people, the people controlled his feelings. This sort of bond extended to Marlow and his helmsman. Marlow experience a great sense of pain at the death of his fellow man and unsuspected friend. Just as many people of that time would have thought, Marlow says, “perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara” (Conrad 46). Orwell, Marlow, and Kurtz’s experiences of imperialism caused them to see past the primitiveness of the people and forced them to see the evil and brutality of those men who walked by them in civilization. The effects of imperialism can be seen in the history of the real world, where the scramble for Africa caused the exploitation of many African states. Many of the poorest nations are on the African continent. The poverty of these nations could have been prevented if imperialistic countries had not exploited and depleted their resources and ruined potential economic establishment. The publishing of novels and short stories revealing the effects of imperialism gives new light on the ideals that had been widely accepted. Although Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is fictional, we can rely on it to learn about the criticism that was expressed by people against imperialism. We can also rely on George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” as a first-hand account of life in an imperial colony.