Analysis of Racism on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"

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Analysis of racism on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
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Analysis of racism on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
Joseph Conrad's experiences in the Congo is depicted in his book heart of darkness. The story set in the epicenter of colonial power play in Africa. The story borders both imperialism and racism as depicted in the character Marlow. During the colonial period, the European master's interest in Africa was to colonize and amass as many resources as possible. They viewed Africa as a dark, uncivilized and this opinion became the basis for racism, discrimination, and segregation. African affairs had not been of interest to the Europeans.
The heart of darkness was written between 1898 and 1899 and depicted colonial rule of the greedy and vicious King Leopold the second. Leopold not only exploited the resources (rubber and ivory) but also took advantage of African slave labor. Previously, the novel had been hailed as a master revelation of atrocities and effects of imperialism during the colonial era. However, critics have questioned the role of character Charles Marlow's view of African and whether it is racist and whether the entire novel is anchored on racism that does not deserve any credit in the literal world that it has gained in the past. This paper joins the discussion by examining the character of Charles Marlow as a racist. The article while pointing to instances throughout the novel that support the view that Marlow's view of African was indeed racist and that the book does not deserve the literary credit it received.
In analyzing the racism in Josephs Conrad's novel, ‘heart of darkness,' one character becomes of particular interest. Charles Marlow a sailor in whose person Conrad base his experiences in the condo, exhibits a racist view of Africa throughout the story. In the opening statements, Marlow claims that Africans were savage and uncivilized, and the imperialism serves to the advantage of ‘savage’ Africans who would benefit from it intellectually, spiritually and uses the same line of argument to justify European occupation of Africa. Marlowe's representation of Africans is, therefore, unfair and detrimental. Marlow describes African as similar to animals and had annoying attitudes, and Marlow says "he was paddled by black folks. You could see from apart the white of their eyeball glistening. They shouted; their body streamed with perspiration and had faces like grotesque masks. They had bone, muscle and wild vitality (Conrad pg.20).
Marlowe further exhibits racist tendencies when he comes face to face with cannibals. When he journeyed down to the inner station, Marlow came into contact with starving cannibals. In his racist predisposition and general Europe view of Africans, he believed the cannibals were who were starving were supposed to go for them and devour them and feed on them. He says "why in the name of all gnawing devils of hunger didn’t go for us" (Conrad pg.700). According to Marlow, Africans are ravenous and full of uncontrollable animalistic appetite that is supposed to be unleashed at the site of a potential source of food. To him, he was baffled when the cannibals did not make a move at him. All through Marlow says he...