In Heart of Darkness, Marlow spends a large portion of the boat ride through the Congo pondering the idea of restraint. Specifically, he looks at the differences in the restraint of the natives verses the Europeans. Throughout the novel, the natives are depicted as savage and cannibalistic. They are treated horribly by the Europeans, whether it be murdering their brethren or enslaving them. On Marlow’s steamship there are several natives being put to work. However, the pilgrims never thought to share their food with them. In fact, they had thrown overboard the majority of the food the natives had brought onboard because they could not stand the smell (Conrad 37). Marlow wondered about how the natives could handle the hunger and refrain from attacking the pilgrims, as he believed that they were cannibals. He says: …show more content…
What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear – or some kind of primitive honor? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze” (37-38). Hunger is a powerful force. As Marlow says, hunger cannot be simply overcome, only sated. Yet, the natives resist this force despite the fact that it could kill them. Whether or not they were actually cannibals, hunger can make even the most sane man turn to desperate measures. Marlow could not figure out how they could resist the force of hunger, even comparing it to the improbability of a hyena resisting eating from a battlefield