Analyzing Racism and Colonialism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

This essay provides a critical analysis of Joseph Conrad's *Heart of Darkness*, focusing on the themes of racism, colonialism, and postcolonialism. The essay begins by introducing the novel and its context, highlighting the controversy surrounding Conrad's portrayal of African natives. It argues that the novel reflects racist ideologies through its characterization and narrative perspective, particularly through the depiction of the antagonist Kurtz and the Eurocentric viewpoint of the protagonist Marlow. The discussion explores how the novel reflects the European imperialist expansion, misogyny, and the depiction of the African continent as the 'dark continent'. The essay also examines the use of deception within the novel, and how the author tries to reveal the truth behind the lies of European imperialists. The essay concludes that the novel explores the brutal realities of European colonialism and the dehumanization of African people while analyzing the postcolonial mechanisms, and growing resentment about the colonialist imperialism. The paper is a critical assessment of the text and the themes within the novel.

Running head: POST COLONIALISM
RACISM WITH CONTEXT TO HEART OF DARKNESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The Heart of Darkness is one of the most popular novels that have covered the
African lives and their miseries was authored by Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad which is
a fiction based on his travels throughout the African continent along the river Congo into the
heart of the African continent. The book explores the voyage of the author Joseph Conrad and
portrays a fiction from his experiences of his voyage. The novel revolves around the voyage
of Marlow, who is the protagonist of the novel and revolves around his journey through the
river to meet the antagonist Kurtz, an ivory trader with an ill famed reputation. Conrad has
referred the African natives in his novel as savages and the central theme that he wanted to
portray in his novel in that there are very little differences between the savage African natives
and the cultured English. This has however developed a controversy among other African
authors such as Chinua Achebe who have criticised the portrayal of the African in a way that
is racist in nature and therefore brings about a great debate on the context of colonial
subjugation, colonialism and racism. This paper will argue these contexts with Heart of
Darkness as the basis of the paper and would describe how racism has been reflected in the
novel. The novel offers a unique position in describing Joseph Conrad’s stand and
implementation and use of the racist ideologies as contrasting shade of the character of
Marlow.
Discussion:
The most relevant aspect of the novel revolves around how Marlow, the central
character of the story moves from various phases interacting with the natives through the
course of his journey in meeting Kurtz, the antagonist who has been portrayed as an
antagonist opposite to that of the protagonist Marlow. The author has characterised Marlow
in his own shades and reflects his own journey. In this course of the novel the author has tried

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to depict the racist ideologies through the portrayal of the antagonist and have tried to depict
an anti-racist character through the portrayal of the central character Marlow.
In order to understand the context of racism, colonial subjugation and European
imperialism in the novel Heart of Darkness we have to look through the unfolding of the
story through its various incidents as narrated by the author. Along with, it is also necessary
to understand the context and the background of the novel. The novel is based on the
backdrop of industrial revolution and imperialist expansion of the European nations across
Africa and Asia. It was during these times that colonial expansion was taking place to
establish the superiority and to use up resources by exploiting these continents of their
resources. The most important aspect of the novel would include the necessary elements to
discover the how these aspects determine the aspects of European colonialism, about
misogyny and racism (Achebe 14-27). The novel is regarded as one of the major works of the
early twentieth century. The novel is one of the most eloquently narrated work challenging
the prejudices of the time.
The title of the novel itself is a representation of the fact that though the novel contradicts and
criticises the European Imperialism, depicting Africa as the heart of the darkness brings in the
context of racist ideologies and expression of imperialism through Euro centricity. The
Europeans have depicted the Africans in manner that have attributed them with the ideas of
the savagery, of inferiority and of continuing conflicts. The author has described Africa as the
“Dark continent”, thereby delivering a comparative sense with Europe being the greatest of
the all. The Heart of Darkness is ostensibly Eurocentric in nature through the portrayal of its
characters, the representation of the natives and referring them as savages reflect that though
Joseph Conrad has criticised the European imperialism, yet have still bounded the central
characters to European origin. The natives have still been depicted as inferior or subordinates
in the story and finds subjugation at the hands of the antagonist Kurtz reflects the Euro

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centricity of the novel through narration of the reality (Aydın 230-238). [Response to the
first question]
In fact the novel has been a reflection of the authors own experiences from voyages and
the purpose of the voyage depicts the Eurocentric aspect of the novel. The novel has criticised
imperialistic ideologies by personifying it in the form the Kurtz, who have been depicted as
the negative shade of the story.
The Heart of Darkness, has instances of truth and lies throughout the novel and explores
the horrendous examples of imperialistic attitudes of the European Masters over the inferior
natives of the Africa. Conrad have introduced how the lies have been used in the novel and
introduces the readers of the novel through the course of the stories. The story depicts
gradually the ways through which the elements of truth contradicted through the lies and
presents it in manner that brings out the truth behind the lies stated by the imperialist
Europeans. The experiences of Marlow throughout his journey reveals the truth of the torture,
subjugation of the Europeans which have been presented as a means of success for the
company trading with ivory. The plight of the natives and their inhuman conditions have
been the truth that have not been presented to the colonial imperialist or rather the imperialist
Europeans have intentionally deceived the world of their torture and subjugation which where
only represented as success stories in their countries were actually deceptive in nature
(Gribble 12-15). After the central character Marlow visits the wife of Kurtz, he too deceives
her by making a false statement to her to satisfy her emotions. Though the deception made by
Marlow can be granted on account that he did not want the lover of a dead man Kurtz, to be
discontented over the last words spoken by him, it still reflects the use of deception
throughout the novel. [Response to question no.2]

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“No, they were not inhuman” are from the protagonist of the story Marlow, who describes
about his experience when his first encounter with the natives happen during the course of his
journey along the river. He admits that these natives were ugly, savage like, and strange in
their appearances, yet they were not inhuman. The protagonist admits that it was his limited
perception crafted through Eurocentric ideas and therefore comments the above the statement
when he encounters the villages alongside the river. The colonial powers have depicted the
African and the Asians in manner that have represented them in a derogatory way, and these
perceptions have been justified in a way that cannot be accepted in humanitarian cause. The
conflict between the Europeans and the Africans have been predominant since the time the
Europeans have landed in the continent in search of the wealth and resources and the
continent have discovered ways to subjugate the people and to rule them in order to obtain
the wealth of the resources, but their perceptions changed when they landed in the continent
and found themselves in utter despair. They have never seen the people with such dark skin
and thus formed their perception that this was the continent of darkness and therefore have
started their exploitation of the resources by completely ignoring the welfare of the people
and also disregarding the mutual respect. They felt that it was their right to subjugate and rule
the inferior blacks. This led to rise of imminent racist ideas which were reflected all through
the imperialist expansion of the European policies. The novel depicts the observation of a
white from an Eurocentric perspective of the people of the African continent and therefore
the is Eurocentric in the very first narrative (Aydın 230-238).
The novel may seem to claim a Eurocentric point of view because it is based on the
depiction of a white observer of the dark African environment. The darkness is ironic in that
the European eye is not yet used to perceiving the darkness with the European eyes that are
trained in using the light in order to distinguish details. The European Marlow is such a
visitor who needs some time to get his eyes adjusted to see the facts that lie underneath the

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domineering darkness. The Eurocentric ideas have expanded for the reason to exploit these
regions without any regard for the mutual respect, development or welfare through mutual
growth or transformation of the continent. In fact as the imperialist boasted about the
expansion by stating that they brought light and reasoning through their ventures which were
actually deceptive myths of the colonialist powers.
With the colonisation of the continents, the Europeans called it the drive of the
civilisations by completely disregarding the local values, ethos and traditions and felt that
these lands were to be exploited since the people of the land did not deserve to have access to
these resources. Thus with the growth of colonies, there was an extreme growth of the white
population throughout the African continent. The institutions of slavery and slave trade were
justified to meet the demand of the colonies and to get access to cheap labour. [Response to
question 3]
Conrad through his novel have tried to present the darkness of the mankind and their
vicious intentions masked in the name of civilisations. He states that these civilised notions of
the people have created a moral mask to protect and hide their inhuman brutality in order to
achieve their immoral intentions. The Heart of darkness paints an image of Africa as a world
that is covered in darkness and infested with diseases, dirt, inferiority and malpractices. This
has been contradicted through the views of the protagonists that the perception framed by the
Europe according to their favour is deceptive and justifies actions which would lead to severe
penalisations in Europe if performed there. The heinous crimes were not reported or shrouded
through lies and were treated as justifiable since these were performed in the name of
civilising a savage and inferior race. The antithesis of Africa placed by Europe seems like an
illusion that fails to depict the reality but rather paints a more deceived image of the
continent. The development of the west has brought with them the various propagandas that
have exploited the Africa people and the communities by destroying the original rhythm of

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the life in the continent. The novel Heart of darkness have been one of the controversial work
of fiction during the times when racism was and exploitation was justified in name of
development. These were observed throughout the journey of the people and Marlow has
been rightly used it against shunning the effects of the Civilised worlds.
Conclusion:
Thus it can be understood that the post-colonial mechanism and ideological practice
as denoted by the author, Jones Conrad has deciphered equally with the native of the African
continent and the growing resentment about the colonialist imperialism that had existed to
exploit the resources and the human resources making it all the more to establish the native
cultures and traditions.

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References
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." The
Massachusetts Review 57.1 (2016): 14-27.
Aydın, Asım. "A Eurocentric Reflection in Josep Conrad’s Heart of Darkness." Journal of
History Culture and Art Research 7.2 (2018): 230-238.
Clarke, Clare, and Lindsay Scorgie-Porter. An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of
Darkness. Macat Library, 2017.
Gribble, Jennifer. "The Fogginess of'Heart of Darkness'." Sydney Studies in English 11
(2008).