In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow is working for a company that is supposedly in Africa to do charitable work and help bring the Native Africans into the modern world in order give them a better life. This sham may have fooled the Europeans back home, however, Marlow knows that the company just wants to sell the areas abundant natural resources and ivory. This greed for money paired with the separation from civilization leads to the severe mistreatment of the Native Africans. As Marlow is going to Africa, he notices a ship firing at what appears to be nothing; however, someone assures him that it is shooting at the enemies, which is what the Europeans in Africa refer to as the Natives. Conrad writes, “There she was, incomprehensible, firing …show more content…
The Europeans in Africa believe the work they are doing is holy, so they view themselves as pilgrims, however, Marlow knows the truth in what they are doing because the lack of civilization has not corrupted him. Because of this, he becomes increasingly angry with the Europeans and begins to express his anger to them by being extremely rude and sarcastic. As Marlow waits at the central station on the Congo River, he observes a group of Europeans and says, “They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence. The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it” (60). Here, Marlow is sarcastic when he refers to the Europeans as pilgrims. He knows they are the opposite of what a pilgrim is, worshiping ivory and money instead of a God, so he calls them faithless, creating an oxymoron that Conrad uses to show just how angry Marlow is towards these Europeans. Conrad is using this plot event to tell the reader that the rules of civilization are necessary to keep our human nature from