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Kurtz First Impression Of Savage Customs Summary

567 Words3 Pages

Kurtz's hypocritic intellectual pretensions have let him succeed " "getting himself adored"(p.112) by the Congolese natives in the inner station. "let us say— nerves, went wrong , and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites."(p.100) Here, we see that tribes' chiefs crawl on the ground before Kurtz engaging in unspeakable rites where people obey him with a slavish devotion. They worship him as a man /god. Kurtz is himself involved in unspeakable and shocking rituals which Marlow refuses disgustingly to report. It is reported that "the rituals involve human sacrifice and subsequent consumption of a portion of the sacrificial victim."(Moore, 2004,p.192) The International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs asks Kurtz to write a report on the superiority of White Europeans which is eloquently written . It is a reflection of the image of the White European superiority which Kurtz wants the others to follow and worship. It may represent the Belgian colonial strategy adopted by King Leopold II. Kurtz starts his report arguing that, We whites, from the point of development …show more content…

The horror!"(p.142). His final words reflect the sheer horror experienced by the Congolese population who have faced two bitter choices either working to death or extermination. They are "virtually enslaved and cruelly maltreated in the quest for rubber and ivory."(Bloom, 2011,p.29). It is also a clear message to the whole world that what is happening in the Congo is simply horror beyond imagination which must stop immediately. However, what is unique about Conrad's revulsion at the scale of the genocidal slaughter seen in the Congo is his literary genius in and allowing us to " grasp the numbing regularity in which the slaughter was carried out." (Brunner& Mills,

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