Usefulness of a Lens in the Heart of Darkness

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Analytical Essay

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad tells the story of Marlow during a night on a ship on the Thames River. Marlow recounts the time he spent working for a European company, it follows his first visiting the European business “the Company” headquarters. The story then continues to follow him as he travels to Africa to gain control of his steamboat and witnesses a lack of reason, inhumanity, and neglect. The novella can be read and viewed through a variety of lenses which can alter the way the book is read. These different lenses give the reader a new perception and meaning to the piece of work while reading the text. Viewing the novella from an ecocriticism, critical race theory, and post-colonial criticism lens helps the reader better understand the true nature of what is happening in Conrad’s book. These lenses best pertain to the book and provide the most insight into the true meaning of the text.

By using the Ecocriticism lens, the writing is addressed by means of an environmental and ecological aspect. In Xiaolan Wang’s abstract “Ecological orientation and moral concern in Joseph Conrad’s jungle novels,” he further explains the usefulness of the Ecocritical lens in Conrad’s work arguing his “marine and jungle novels imply some ecological ideas–criticism of industrial civilization and advocate of primitivism. Therefore, ecocriticism provides us a new perspective to Conrad’s novels.” In Conrad’s work descriptions of the Earth, Nature, and Marlow’s surroundings are commonly used allowing the reader to gain a better understanding of the environmental status of the Congo. Descriptions of ‘[t]he air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, a town on earth is such an example (406). Looking at this quote without a lens leaves the reader with a scenery, although investigation through the Ecocriticism lens shows the reader what might be environmental air pollution caused by the so-called “biggest and the greatest” city. Terrence Bowers displays the effects of nature in his article “Paradise lost: reading the Earth in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’ stating, “Nature’s power assumes a more ominous aspect when Marlow represents the African ‘settlements’ as barely surviving.” He continues to say the western colonizers have no better chance of beating nature than the natives. The story’s last page continues to portray “ … a black bank of clouds” resubmitting the ideas of this environment and nature’s effect on the story throughout (471).

The Post-Colonial Criticism lens discusses the work as a consequence of post-colonization issues such as identity, culture, and politics. The colonization of Africa plays a major role in the novella, utilizing the Post-Colonial Criticism lens to further establish this. In Marlow’s story Africa, more importantly, the land is described as “invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion” (423). Viewing this quote through the Post-Colonial lens shows the colonization of Africa to be an infiltration of the land, the word invasion shows how the colonization is undesired. Similarly, Samet Güven speaks about how the African natives were affected in his journal “Post-Colonial Analysis of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Güven acknowledges “[the colonizers] dominated nearly all parts of Africa to benefit from the natives” quoting the Marlow in Conrad’s story:

I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther (417).

The use of the term ‘devil’ illustrates the cruelty of colonialism and imperialism imposed on the people of Africa by the Europeans (Güven). Viewing the narrator’s words can give a bigger picture of why the colonization in the story is occurring:

The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth… Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth!…The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires (xxx).

The narrator shows that behind the colonization is greed for wealth. The description of the many different types of people gives the reader the understanding that this is a societal problem rather than just a single group of people. Pietro Deandrea also identifies the colonization aspect of the story in his contemporary literary criticism “Dark Paradises: David Dabydeen’s and Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Postcolonial Re-writings of Heart of Darkness.” He shows how the “Heart of Darkness’s voyage into the Congo has inevitably lent itself to several postcolonial reflections, triggering off an ongoing critical debate around the novel’s supposed eurocentrism/racism or anti-colonial stance.” This observation shows the worthiness of the Post-Colonial Lens to the analysis of the story.

Adopting the Critical Race Theory lens examines racism and power as written in the book. It is no secret that Heart of Darkness is filled with racist ideologies, and as seen in the novel, Marlow blatantly uses derogatory slurs to describe the Africans as “dusty niggers with splay feet” in Conrad’s original text. Yet when employing the critical race theory lens, even more racism becomes obvious. Colonials are shown to call the native Africans “savages” and go as far as expressing that they will hate them until they die (419). In her short story criticism “Colonizers, Cannibals, and the Horror of Good Intentions in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Carola M. Kaplan sets up the definition of racism as the mistreatment of another human being based on their looks. She makes the claim Marlow’s relation of cannibalism to the native Africans, a relation that is not because of any evidence, is a “violence” inflicted by Marlow onto the culture (Kaplan). She then points out that this “violence” is an example of all “linguistic descriptions” of one persons, and their culture, using their power and exploiting another person’s people and culture (Kaplan). Kaplan’s final claim is that of the language used to justify intrusion, usurpation, and conversion caused the physical violence throughout Heart of Darkness (Kaplan). Or in other words, the judgment of the natives is not because of any of their actions but the fact the native Africans are cannibals, therefore, giving the colonizers an excuse to mistreat the people. In the story, Marlow seems to have a similar lens identifying “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves. . .” (409). This realization perfectly shows the racism involved in conquering other lands, identifying the only reason they are treated as less than human is because of their appearance to the colonizers. The same can be said when Marlow recognizes that the Africans were nothing but humans “[t]hey were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now—nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom” (xxx). Continuing to support the idea of the Natives being mistreated. In Chinua Achebe’s article ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,’ she suggests “that Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist.” This observation reassures the observations that can be made through the Critical Race Theory lens.

All three of the critical lenses can be used in some instances, such as this single quote from Marlow:

In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere (415).

The beginning of the quote shows the Ecocriticism lens with reference to the environment around them. This lens is continued with baffling firing into the continent for no apparent reason considering the shots had no effect on anything. This leads to our next lens: post-colonial criticism. When viewing the quote from this angle you see colonizers destroying the very land they are trying to obtain disregarding what they have taken from others. Through the critical race theory lens, the calling of the natives “enemies” is obviously racist considering they pose no threat to the crew and are not even to be found nearby.

Using the three critical lenses: post-colonial criticism, critical race theory, and ecocriticism, the reader is better able to understand Conrad’s work from different angles. Each of the lenses provides different insight, therefore, revealing the secondary meaning of the text and a better analysis. These three lenses draw attention to the major ideas within the book and draw attention to certain important aspects. The book is then given more meaning because of the lenses providing a more inclusive takeaway from the novella it becomes more useful to the reader.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.’
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Russel Whitaker, vol. 148, Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center, https://ezproxy.cerrocoso.edu:2419/apps/doc/H1420062121/GLS?u=cclc_cerroccc&sid=GLS&xid=658b2fb2. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019. Originally published in Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987, Heinemann International, 1988.
Bowers, Terence N. ‘Paradise lost: reading the Earth in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.’
Conradiana, vol. 45, no. 2, 2013, p. 93+. Literature Resource Center, https://ezproxy.cerrocoso.edu:2419/apps/doc/A453294296/GLS?u=cclc_cerroccc&sid=GLS&xid=1b8aa173. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.
Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness.” Philosophy and Literature, edited by Cameron Thompson,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc, 1969. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.
Deandrea, Pietro. ‘Dark Paradises: David Dabydeen’s and Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Postcolonial
Re-writings of Heart of Darkness.’ Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 368, Gale, 2015. Literature Resource Center, https://ezproxy.cerrocoso.edu:2419/apps/doc/H1100118545/GLS?u=cclc_cerroccc&sid=GLS&xid=e151732f. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019. Originally published in Rewriting/Reprising, edited by Georges Letissier, Cambridge Scholars, 2009.
Güven, Samet. “Post-Colonial Analysis of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Journal of
History, Culture & Art Research / Tarih Kültür ve Sanat Arastirmalari Dergisi, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2013. EBSCOhost, doi:10.7596/taksad.v2i2.233. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.
“Heart of Darkness.” Edited by Judith Boss and David Widger, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph
Conrad, Project Gutenberg, 18 June 2009, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.
Kaplan, Carola M. ‘Colonizers, Cannibals, and the Horror of Good Intentions in Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness.’ Short Story Criticism, edited by Joseph Palmisano, vol. 69, Gale, 2004. Literature Resource Center, https://ezproxy.cerrocoso.edu:2419/apps/doc/H1420056487/GLS?u=cclc_cerroccc&sid=GLS&xid=d9de792a. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019. Originally published in Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 34, no. 3, Summer 1997.
Wang, Xiaolan. ‘Ecological orientation and moral concern in Joseph Conrad’s jungle novels.’
Forum for World Literature Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009, p. 159+. Literature Resource Center, https://ezproxy.cerrocoso.edu:2419/apps/doc/A287112079/GLS?u=cclc_cerroccc&sid=GLS&xid=77a1a720. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.

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Usefulness of a Lens in the Heart of Darkness

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