Hypocrisy in the Heart of Darkness

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Hypocrisy in the Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad is a novella that exposes the hypocrisy of imperialism. This novella’s main character, Charlie Marlow, describes the atrocities committed by the Europeans in the Congo at the end of the 19th century, considered one of greatest examples of genocide at the time. (Paul Brians, et al.) Marlow sets out on the river towards the station of a Belgian company’s employee named Kurtz deep in the heart of Congo. Upon arriving in the colonized country and during his travels up the river he begins to see the truth about the company’s “trade” as well as the “cultivation” of the “uncivilized” inhabitants and culminates his enlightenment during his encounter with Kurtz. Conrad’s descriptions of the cruelties he encountered, albeit as a backdrop more than the main subject matter, point out that imperialism, contrary to popular belief at that time, was not a noble endeavor to civilize savage people but rather it was simply a horrific display of exploitation and man’s cruelty to man. Joseph Conrad’s novella contrasted the European’s view of imperialism as a noble, principled pursuit to bring culture to an uncivilized world with the stark reality that is was materialistic and evil in nature. Marlow begins his journey as a business man, going on a business trip. He slowly discovers through his observations that “business” in the Congo and his ideas of how his own “civilized” world is actually the savage one. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that the European’s attitudes towards the Congo’s inhabitants were that they were uncivilized and that the white man’s purpose there was to bring culture to their land. A true to life “white man’s burden” if you will. The rhetoric used throughout by the story’s characters make it abundantly clear what their ill-conceived notions of the colonized lands were and what their
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