Joseph Conrad Imperialism
The Real Horror Through the Words of Conrad The horror of Imperialism haunts Africa even today, and this suffering was greedily created by the Europeans for power and resources. The Europeans concluded they were helping the Africans like the Romans who helped the Europeans, but in reality they created intense chaos. One brave man, Joseph Conrad, spoke out against the hostility that the Europeans projected onto Africa through his controversial book, The Heart of Darkness. In order to reveal the unjust exploitation of the Europeans, Conrad uses extremities and contrasting perspective.
Africans are best suited for their native land, and the Europeans just maximize the threat to the Africans’ existence. With the use of different literary devices, …show more content…
The racism used by Conrad proves the injustice shown towards the Africans: “Appreciating the paradoxical powers of expression helps shed light on Conrad's much touted criticism of European hypocrisy. Their gift of expression is not used to illuminate, exalt, and ennoble, but to create bewildering fantasies, the cover of darkness” (Literacy Reference Center). The evident negativity of the Africans is used not to show incompetence of the the Africans, but the lacking leadership and light supposedly given by the Europeans. Not only does Conrad uses the blunt truth in a racist point of view which in turn makes imperialism seem bad, he takes it to an extreme. Conrad dehumanizes the Africans and describes them through details as “bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up... his brother phantom rested its forehead” (Conrad 14). Conrad neglects them as whole, and instead he describes the as angles. Along with the lack of entity, Marlow calls the Africans “it”. Conrad includes the degrading word to show the Africans as animalistic because he feels that is how the Africans are treated by the Europeans. The brutality of the book in an extreme manner evokes disgust which makes people think that what is being done in repulsive should be
Africans are best suited for their native land, and the Europeans just maximize the threat to the Africans’ existence. With the use of different literary devices, …show more content…
The racism used by Conrad proves the injustice shown towards the Africans: “Appreciating the paradoxical powers of expression helps shed light on Conrad's much touted criticism of European hypocrisy. Their gift of expression is not used to illuminate, exalt, and ennoble, but to create bewildering fantasies, the cover of darkness” (Literacy Reference Center). The evident negativity of the Africans is used not to show incompetence of the the Africans, but the lacking leadership and light supposedly given by the Europeans. Not only does Conrad uses the blunt truth in a racist point of view which in turn makes imperialism seem bad, he takes it to an extreme. Conrad dehumanizes the Africans and describes them through details as “bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up... his brother phantom rested its forehead” (Conrad 14). Conrad neglects them as whole, and instead he describes the as angles. Along with the lack of entity, Marlow calls the Africans “it”. Conrad includes the degrading word to show the Africans as animalistic because he feels that is how the Africans are treated by the Europeans. The brutality of the book in an extreme manner evokes disgust which makes people think that what is being done in repulsive should be