"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad

The first time I read “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad was roughly the same weekend I was reading “The Island of Dr. Moreau” by HG Wells. I was twelve years’ old and I had to take a book home from school. I took “The Island of Dr. Moreau” then thought that it was too short so picked up “Heart of Darkness” as well. I had one very interesting weekend ahead of me and one that would pretty much scare the crap out of me. The first reading experience I had of this book was not the one I had planned from the title and the first chapter of the book. From the first chapter it looked like an adventure through the Belgian Congo but as you get into the book, it is absolutely terrifying and totally not what you expect. It completely changed my perception on literature from that time period of the late 19th and early 20th century and how terrifying books from that time can really actually get.

My favourite character in the book was Marlow because obviously, we see the action through this character and we perceive this entirely new part of the world through the eyes of this man who really thinks he has seen it all until he saw the Belgian Congo. Marlow is very self-assured until he gets in the heart of the Belgian Congo and experiences and sees things he had never seen or experienced before and he hopes he never will again. The greatest quality of Marlow’s character is the way in which he is open to these experiences, expects danger and strife and definitely doesn’t believe anything to be easy and simple. Since he expects danger and is constantly prepared, he manages to stay alive a lot longer than we expect him to. He is always prepared not only for danger against other people, but also danger to his steamer and when involved with the people he is seeking out in the Congo. However, the biggest fault that Marlow has is his inability to see apart the moral from the immoral. This is probably a product of his time but he seems to side constantly with Kurtz and this of course, puts him not only in the way of more dangers. But, in the modern day reading, it does not make Marlow a positive character in our light. It actually makes him seem like a colonial and a racist, possibly even a bit of a supremacist as well. Of course, the reading of the book has changed over the years and now that we live in a more liberated day in terms of racial justice, we can see that Marlow is not looked on favourably in his actions towards other, native characters of the Congo. Marlow represents the changing world in the act that the native people are now coming to their senses and driving out the non-natives who are trying to take over their country. It is Marlow that suffers the wrath of this and upon his return, he must choose what he has to do and he promises that he will never return to the Belgian Congo ever again. In all aspects, the people of the Congo won the battle and the war.

A key theme in the book is the human anatomy. I love this theme because it really does explain how the people in the Belgian Congo live. First of all, we have the explanation of Kurtz and what he looks like, but even before that we get the image of a violent man. This is because we have the image of the fence outside Kurtz’s house in which he has human heads atop the spears on the fence. Here we have the image of the human head as a status symbol of power. The human head is some kind of trophy for power and having some control of the Belgian Congo’s people. The human anatomy is explored also in the way in which the people of the Belgian Congo are described almost as animals. We get the image of these people as savage and impulsive like animals and the way in which they act is almost not human, but they look human. Marlow is the one that narrates this and so we can only assume that this is how Marlow feels about these characters of the book and not an unbiased, balanced viewpoint. Marlowe’s concentration on the human anatomy has obviously come from his previous experiences within the Belgian Congo of seeing the heads on sticks and the dead bodies littered on the grass floors. This theme, I believe, is not only used for the sake of making the natives look like animalistic people but also because it is so clear about the theme of power. Power and status rely on the human anatomy. You have to look a certain way, you have to own human heads on your fence and when this is seen and done, you have to look like a violent human being. To look like a violent being, you must have the anatomy of one. It is a perfect balance between looks and personality that relies heavily on the anatomy. It changes the way you read the book because the reality of it is that because Marlow doesn’t understand the culture in which he has traveled in to, he puts it off as animalistic and wrong. Even through the way they look is human, Marlow reduces them to animals.

This book means a whole lot to me because I remember it scaring the hell out of me because of its way of making everything about the outdoors look dark and scary. I was already terrified of the outdoors and now, I was even more terrified of the outdoors. It impacted my latter reading experiences in a way that few other books could because it made me want to read more about the frightening world amongst the waters. Books like “Moby Dick” and “The Wreck of the Mary Deare” and books like “Captain Blood” and others. In my re-readings of “Heart of Darkness” I had seen numerous things and I have also taught this book and so, I have been able to investigate each theme in great detail. My re-readings have included things like exploring how Kurtz’s last words are a reflection of everything that is experienced in the book and why Marlow seeks to cover them up at the end when he goes to tell them to his wife. The best thing about the book though has always been the way in which Marlow always seeks to tell the truth even though his truth is covered in bias, judgement and prejudice.

I think far more people should read this book because of the way it has changed in its massively biased opinion throughout the ages. From being just a novel with opinions it has become one of the most horrifying things ever written. This book is still read and enjoyed by people today as well because of the way it depicts cannibalism, murder and savagery. It is graphic and the way it is graphic is descriptive and often overtly brutal. I think Conrad was purposefully being over the top here. In my next re-read of this book, I want to explain the way in which Conrad uses overt racism in order to make Marlow look like a problematic figure, sometimes even more problematic than the violent Kurtz.

“We live as we dream--alone....”

"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad