Heart of Darkness Analysis

Heart of Darkness; Setting Analysis

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad is the story of a man by the name of Charles Marlow who recounts his journey up the Congo River to a group of friends, years after the events occurred. His story tells of him becoming a captain of a ship, and his adventure trying to navigate the Congo river. This story is based in the early 1800’s when slavery and colonization of Africa and african people were big political issues. During this time Belgium had been slowly taking over the Congo and using its natural resources. The goal, or some said the cover of European settlement in the Congo was to colonize and to “enlighten” those who were not yet “civilized”. Allthough this was a part of the colonzation, there were definitely those there for their own personal wealth. Europeans would go over as “pilgrims” but as marlow says, were there based fully on greed. The two main themes of this book play into just that. One is the fact that man can not survive without civilization, and the other is that man is basically evil.

Mans need for civilization is strongly implied during Marlow’s trip between the two stations. At one point in the book, Marlow describes the scene in front of him, “I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. One was off. The thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal… A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. No change appeared on the face of the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on.”(80 hihat people turn to when there is no civilization. Without the infrastructure of a basic civilization, nothing good comes out. While the congo was supposed to be turning into a glimmering land of enlightenment,...