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Heart Of Darkness: Cruelty - College Essay

Heart Of Darkness: Cruelty

In Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness the Europeans are cut off
from civilization, overtaken by greed, exploitation, and material interests
from his own kind. Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual
responsibility, and social justice. His book has all the trappings of the
conventional adventure tale - mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense,
unexpected attack. The book is a record of things seen and done by Conrad
while in the Belgian Congo. Conrad uses Marlow, the main character in the book,
as a narrator so he himself can enter the story and tell it out of his own
philosophical mind. Conrad's voyages to the Atlantic and Pacific, and the
coasts of Seas of the East ...

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darkness.
We have noticed that important motives in Heart of Darkness connect the
white men with the Africans. Conrad knew that the white men who come to Africa
professing to bring progress and light to "darkest Africa" have themselves been
deprived of the sanctions of their European social orders; they also have been
alienated from the old tribal ways.

"Thrown upon their own inner spiritual resources they may be utterly
damned by their greed, their sloth, and their hypocrisy into moral
insignificance, as were the pilgrims, or they may be so corrupt by
their absolute power over the Africans that some Marlow will
need to lay their memory among the 'dead Cats of Civilization.'"
(Conrad 105.)

The supposed purpose of the Europeans traveling into Africa was to civilize the
natives. Instead they colonized on the native's land and corrupted the natives.

"Africans bound with thongs that contracted in the rain and cut to
the bone, ...

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Heart Of Darkness: Cruelty. (2004, September 12). Retrieved February 1, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-Cruelty/14199

"Heart Of Darkness: Cruelty." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 12 Sep. 2004. Web. 1 Feb. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-Cruelty/14199>

"Heart Of Darkness: Cruelty." Essayworld.com. September 12, 2004. Accessed February 1, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Heart-Of-Darkness-Cruelty/14199.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 9/12/2004 03:16:35 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1087
Pages: 4

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