ipl-logo

Desensitiation In Heart Of Darkness

830 Words4 Pages

Justin Pascual
Mrs. Parmar
Oct. 28, 2015
Period A
Heart of Darkness Essay:
The Desensitization of Marlow

It is hard to imagine the harsh and horrible truths that many people face, and is even harder to imagine not being affected by these horrible truths. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, many vivid images of the horrors of the Congo are painted in the reader’s head as well as experienced by the protagonist Marlow. These images include the dense and desolate forests of the Congo, the treatment of the inhabitants of the Congo, and the overall savagery that Marlow’s mind and body experience while in this region. Marlow’s venture into the Congo to seek the elusive monopoliser Kurtz, leads him to adapt to the savagery and brutality …show more content…

This can be seen when Marlow sees the first natives that are chained together and the European following behind with a gun at Outer Station.
“Black rages were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib; the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck”…”these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men” (Conrad, 61).

It is firmly displayed when Marlow says this that he is surprised to see the natives due to their new skin tone, and also due to their enslavement. By Marlow saying this, it foreshadows that there will be more enslavement of the natives and also that the prejudices of the natives of Africa are wrong as they are not savages, but only enslaved workers. As Marlow progresses deeper into the Congo, he also progresses deeper into the Heart of Darkness and his qualities of civilization and sensitive nature dissipate with every instance of …show more content…

This can be seen during the sequence of events before the attack on the steamboat on his way to Inner Station. “’Will they attack?’, whispered an awed voice. ‘We will be butchered in this fog’, murmured another.” (Conrad, 59) The pilgrims that are aboard Marlow’s ship as well as Marlow himself fear an oncoming attack from the natives and it shows that they no longer think about the natives as peaceful and now think of them as savage and offensive as a whole. This may leave Marlow with a new sense of the fact that no civilization exists in the Congo because the natives display that they are not civilized by attacking the steamboat and killing a man. Marlow’s sensitivity to the lack of civilization starts to vanish after seeing the potential brutality of the natives, but Marlow will soon be fully immune to this due to his reaction to the sheer terrifying things he

Show More
Related

Dr. Olivia Judson Book Report

1349 Words | 6 Pages

Dr. Tatiana’s sex advice to all creation By: Olivia Judson The book Dr. Tatiana’s sex advice to all creation is a exhilarating, funny, and a illuminating experience. The book is composed of all possible creatures by letter about their sex lives that is explained by one person, Dr. Tatiana, a sex columnist in creation with a vigorous amount of knowledge of evolutionary biology.

Read More

Heart Of Darkness Dialectical Journal

1556 Words | 7 Pages

The reality is that King Leopold’s “charity” resulted in the death of ten million people, which is approximately 50% of Congo’s population(Cleary). The difference in Marlow’s previous perception he learned from European’s justification and the reality he learns in Africa impels Marlow to develop his hatred towards deception. This explains his sentiment towards the

Read More

Heart Of Darkness Dialectical Journal

728 Words | 3 Pages

(Conrad 6) These people lived on Hunting their food, and finding their own water, they are the complete opposite of the people on the boat. Marlow had to go to the doctor to get his head checked before he left for his journey and they said most people did not come back. He had to get his head checked because most people either die out there or come back insane Paragraph Two All the natives Marlow has run into so far has been put into slavery.

Read More

Comparing Poisonwood Bible And Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

774 Words | 4 Pages

“ It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these man could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies” (Conrad 19). Upon seeing the beaten and broken “enemies” Marlow realizes that the European subjugation is not all that it is cracked up to be. It causes serious pain and suffering for the natives of the country, which is particularly shocking to Marlow as Europe claims to be so elevated and

Read More

Theme Of Ignorance In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

1186 Words | 5 Pages

He claims “ten days [is] an eternity,”(18) when ten days of waiting is trivial compared the terrible lives of the slave labor, where Marlow observes the natives “dying slowly”(17) and likened their demeanor to the “deathlike indifference of unhappy savages”(16). Here, Marlow’s ignorance of the hardships of the natives is dreadfully obvious. He does not consider the struggles of the natives around him as toilsome as his own, even though the reader can clearly see the opposite is true. The native's lives are far worse than Marlow having to idly wait for 10 days before continuing his journey. Marlow represents the reader, so this is Conrad’s first step to making the reader self-aware of their own apathy and dehumanization of black people.

Read More

The Controversy In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

97 Words | 1 Pages

Hunt Hawkins presents the controversy that Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness, encounters, as its contents portray Africans as dehumanizing, savage, and uncivilized beings. In order to provide a sufficient amount of information with regards to the controversy, Hawkins introduces the analysis of distinct scholars to describe racism, imperialism, and human nature. As a result, an analysis of the characters are provided to the audience and allow an individual to understand why Conrad decided to write Heart of Darkness the way he did. Thus, during this process, Hawkins describes the manifestation of the darkness that eventually consumes Kurtz.

Read More

Animal Representation In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

1016 Words | 5 Pages

By describing the men as “ants”, their insignificance in Marlow’s life is highlighted. To Marlow, the Africans hold no importance and he sees them as nothing more than insects. Moreover, Marlow describes the Africans as having “faces like grotesque masks”. The negative connotation of the word “grotesque” seeks to show the preconceived notions Marlow had regarding the Blacks. Never having come across a Black man before, the

Read More

Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad Madness Analysis

1320 Words | 6 Pages

With the confusion Conrad provides leads Marlow to allow for his curiosity to advance to an obsession. There is a mere difference between having an idolization and an obsession, Marlow went from a moment of idolization and jumped straight to a dramatic obsession. This turning point happens through Marlow ghoulishly stating “Where the pilgrims imagined it crawled to I don't know. To some place where they expected to get something. I bet!

Read More

Into The Darkness: How And Why Is A Social Group Presented In A Particular Way?

1119 Words | 5 Pages

Into the Darkness: How and why is a social group presented in a particular way? Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes a multi-faceted approach to the issues that surrounded 19th century colonization and imperialism in Africa. Marlow’s journey into the heart of Africa serves to highlight the hypocrisy of this endeavor, and how this deceit followed the rhetoric utilized by the colonizers in order to justify their colonization of Africa and the treatment of the natives. As the novel progresses, Africa becomes more of a backdrop for Conrad to truly expose the depravity of European intervention in Africa. Through Marlow’s narrative, varying connotations of words and his own main character’s reactions,as well as copious amounts of descriptive imagery, Conrad casts Europeans in a negative light in order to criticize imperialism and colonists.

Read More

Savagery In Heart Of Darkness

2048 Words | 9 Pages

Civilization and Savagery in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness portrays the differences between the civilized Europeans and the “savages” of which they were tasked to bring into civilization. Marlow recounts a tale of his experiences as a captain of a river-steamboat for a Company that trades ivory. He retells the story of his predecessor, Fresleven, a Dane, characterized as being told of being “the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs.” Fresleven dies in a scuffle with the natives due to an argument regarding two black hens.

Read More

Reflection Of Heart Of Darkness

1822 Words | 8 Pages

When he encounters the people and places, he describes them so detailed, it is a joy for one to read. Especially the parts where they are moving on on the river before the hullabaloo prior to arrival in Kurtz’s station. The passage that starts with “Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world…” (41) describes the place so profoundly, readers can almost see and feel it once they shut their eyes. The “silence” and the “warm, thick, heavy, sluggish” air is enough to make one feel uncomfortable while the “reaches opened before us and closed behind” description for the river that is surrounded by an immense crowd of trees definitely makes it possible for one to feel the exact feeling Marlow tries to describe by saying “It made you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing that feeling.” (43).

Read More

Heart Of Darkness Imperialism Analysis

1315 Words | 6 Pages

Marlow tells his shipmates on the boat (the Nelly) that the natives passed him “within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (16). Marlow’s story of his experience exhibits how the Europeans captured the natives and forced them to work; to strip their homeland of its resources and natural beauty. When the Europeans colonize Africa, they do not want to help the African people, but exploit them and put them to work for their own desire of obtaining ivory, rubber, and other resources and goods. As the Europeans imperialize the area, they do not build culture or assist in the development of the Congo region, but break down culture as they enslave the natives and take away their rights, along with stripping the area of resources and natural, earthly beauty, which is conveyed through the cruel physical treatment towards the natives. This treatment is also presented through the literary devices that Conrad decides to use to reveal the experiences of the natives to the

Read More

Definition Of Evil Essay

638 Words | 3 Pages

It’s clear as Marlow first gets to the outer station and witnesses the cruelty the Africans face that he subconsciously identifies the actions as evil; but he does nothing to stop the inhumanity. Sometimes the degree of evil might be minimal but it’s still there. Evil once lived wherever pain resides. If evil was eradicated from the world we would no longer see pain or suffering. The day when no one is suffering, when no one is in misery or agony, is the day evil will cease to

Read More

Imperialism In Heart Of Darkness

1238 Words | 5 Pages

Marlow tells his shipmates on the boat (the Nelly) that the natives passed him “within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (16). Marlow’s story of his experience exhibits how the Europeans captured the natives and forced them to work; to strip their home land of its resources and natural beauty. When the Europeans colonize Africa, they do not want to help the African people, but exploit them and put them to work for their own desire of obtaining ivory, rubber, and other resources and goods. As the Europeans imperialize the area, they do not build culture or assist in development of the Congo region, but break down culture as they enslave the natives and take away their rights, along with stripping the area of resources and natural, earthly beauty, which is conveyed through the cruel physical treatment towards the natives. This treatment is also presented through the literary devices that Conrad decides to use to reveal the experiences of the natives to the

Read More

Heart Of Darkness Research Paper

915 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the Heart of Darkness, nature has always been an adversary to Marlow and his crew. Their expedition up the Congo was not only tough physically but also mentally. Located near the equator, the Congo was physically exhausting for Marlow and his crew to traverse through. “It was hot there, too; big flies buzzed fiendishly, and did not sting, but stabbed.”

Read More

More about Desensitiation In Heart Of Darkness

Related Topics

Open Document