Rhetorical Analysis of Heart of the Darkness

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Rhetorical Analysis of Heart of the Darkness
Heart of the Darkness is set in the initial years of 1900 when the significant colonists were on their mission to imperialize developing countries and enslave them to make money. Conrad exposes this hidden reality through a rhetorical fiction, in which he addresses the plight of Africans in early 1900 and the country’s occupied economic, social, political and cultural situation through several rhetorical devices. His intended audience is all upcoming generations whom he wants to expose to the history of colonialism and its impact in developing and backward countries like Africa (Murfin 106). This essay takes the most famous quotations for analysis with Conrad’s deliberately applied rhetorical strategies in the heart of the Darkness.
Heart of Darkness by Conrad is a perfect example of rhetorical fiction which became a source of study and analysis of the physical and mental trauma of not only oppressed but also of the oppressors who had lost ethical concepts in the hands of greed and corruption (Youtube). Although the whole novel gives references to Conrad’s intentional use of rhetorical strategies to achieve his purpose, below are given a few of the most rhetorically controversial quotations from the text.
Another critical line taken from the reading is, "He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified"(Conrad 3). This controversial line by Conrad is ethos representing the ethical concerns which are one of the most dominant themes of the novel. He calls himself as a seaman taking the largest share of trust from the audience. The man resembling pilot is less trustworthy for the reader/ audience than the seaman because they are well-aware of the thinking pattern and actions of the narrator throughout the text (Nofal 3). This immediate insight into the character of the storyteller imparts liability to the book while utilizing ethos like this, Conrad succeeds to stimulate moral concerns in the reader/audience.
Another phrase “it was just…..quite right”. (Conrad 15) is one of the finest examples of pathos by Conrad in the novel where he had already prepared the minds to come to something foreboding. The already cautious and suspicious mind of the reader comes to digest this line with the heaviest word “conspiracy” in a sinister political scenario that has already disturbed the psyche of readers (Youtube). The mind promptly begins to conceive images of conspirative groups like Nazis, and the reader senses threatening the progress of the story that strongly affects the psyche.
Another example of rhetoric is “then glancing down…. Died out slowly” (Conrad 21). It is one of the richest set of words with the most profound emotional appeals in the text. With many pathos-loaded words like delicate ‘black bones’ and ‘sunken eyes’ to depict a little African girl, the author produces the extreme emotions of pity in the reader for those occupied and oppressed only for bei...