Hello everyone
I hope you all are doing fine. I am a student of English literature and linguistics so many different books come in front of vision each day but rarely comes a book which catches my attention.
In my current semester, there came a book "HEART OF DARKNESS" by Joseph Conrad.
I couldn't find the book in the market so i had to consult my university library for its availability and they had all the old copies.
This book has some uniqueness in it, I have read many regarding colonialism and imperialism but this one has a unique way of narrating it. The framing device (A story within a story) used by Conrad is really commendable.
The story starts from a character who's narrating but then MARLOW (Protagonist) takes on, I won't repeat the whole story of the book but to tell you what actually I am going to analyse, here's a brief summary of the book.
Summary
The story starts with a protagonist who is on a sail to retrieve another character in the story named KURTZ who has gone rogue during the collection of ivory in Belgian Congo. As he proceeds further into the place he witnesses the brutality of Europeans unleashed on natives. KURTZ, who was a moral character once, turned into a beast acting like God among those natives. MARLOW was successful in retrieving him but he died on the way back because he was ill not only physically but mentally
Now the point is why this book has caught my attention.
Have you noticed in the summary that not only the natives were affected but the leader who was in charge of the ivory collection at the inner station was also affected and eventually died.
This explains that imperialism or colonization is not only dangerous for those who are natives but also for those who are actually launching the attack. We witnessed in the novel that KURTZ was a noble man of the society but after going to the inner station, he changed completely.
The novella also expresses the reality of these civilised nations when Marlow says
And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."
He criticized England that they were also uncivilised and barbaric during the Roman conquest. Their own past was black and dark, now they hunt for lower nations in the name of civilization.
A question arose in my mind that how could someone use the name of civilization who was once themselves uncivilised and barbaric.
The hypocrisy of colonization and imperialism is also clarified in this novella.
The Company was run for profit. The only real feeling was a desire for more ivory."
There is an idea at the back of it, not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea.
It is clear that every nation uses the name of colonization and imperialism as they are going to make them civilised but actually they want the whole place or at least profit from that specific place.
I have examples in mind from nowadays incidents but I don't want my blog to be the root cause of some big argument, lol.
The character of MARLOW who just saw the brutality of Europeans, was forced to lie to the intended mistress of KURTZ in order to not disturb her mental peace which was already destroyed on hearing the death news of KURTZ.
I personally recommend this novel to anyone who's into reading the reality of civilizations and how they actually formed. They came into being after suffering so much brutalities...
Well, that's all from my side.
GOODLUCK AND BEST WISHES 👌
