Paper Summary:

Using Marlow, a character in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", this analytical essay looks at the history of colonialism and the European conquest. Describing and analyzing the inner monologue of the character, the writer presents a different view that Conrad, in writing this novel, was portraying the brutal conquest of other continents. Breaking down various imagery and metaphors, the writer paints a picture that is meant to help one understand the sublime meaning within the text.

From the Paper:

"The first images of African nature that Marlow provides are found in geographical maps and these images set up Africa as dangerously devoid of humanity or civilization. This supposed lack of civilization in Africa, or its "darkness", corroborates the idea that Africa is essentially empty and therefore available to be divided up amongst European nations. Marlow first references this idea of Africa lacking humanity by stating that as a child, "I would... lose myself in all the.. many blank spaces on the earth... there was one yet, the biggest, the most blank... that I had a hankering after" (1894). He then states that Africa, the blank space he had been describing, had "become a place of darkness" (1895). These descriptive images of Africa as a "blank" and "dark" space have the effect of denying African people agency and erasing their humanity, since from their viewpoint African land would most certainly not be blank or empty. Yet if Africa is positioned as blank, an idea which Marlow aligns himself with by default as no other maps that offer an alternative perspective seem to be available to him, then the colonization of Africa would not be land theft or morally objectionable."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. Vol. F. New York:W. W. Norton, 2006. 2709 - 2714. Print. 6 vols.
• Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. Vol. F. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. 1891 - 1943. Print. 6 vols.
• Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.

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