Colonialism, Essay Example

Colonialism is a long gone allegation that Joseph Conrad widely presents in his novel, heart of darkness. Charles Marlow is the protagonist of the story of Kurtz. Marlow, an Englishman who is a captain of a boat explores and encounters the colonialism in the story, which he classifies into three: The Congo wilderness, the Europeans’ cruel treatment of the Africans and the acts of human beings committing heinous evil acts.

Colonial oppression clearly represented where racism is the key factor. The African characters treated badly by the European empire ruled. The brutal racism presents Africa as the other world. This is due to the lack of knowhow, lack of moral and judicial restrictions to protect its people. The Europeans take advantage of this and colonize the Africans, while enslaving them in their own land. This presents a harsh picture of the Europeans who hypocritically pretend to bring “light” into Africa. Kurtz, for example, is a trade agent sent to Africa to bring civilization and progress. He is eloquent and charismatic at first but later emerges with inner savageness. He speaks out openly that he takes ivory by force instead of trading, thus ruling through violence and intimidation.

Women portrayed negatively in the story where Kurtz possesses African mistresses. He ends up dying on a stream boat with his final words, “the horror! the horror”. Marlow’s attempt to bring him back to civilization bears no fruits and upon his return to England, he forced to lie. Little did Kurtz acquaintances know that the civilized, noble, admirable and charismatic character of Kurtz faded away, and he was exactly the opposite before his death. Horrified with the reaction of Kurtz’s fiancé, Marlow fears to reveal the whole truth, thus lies to Kurtz’s fiancé of the noble death of Kurtz. He had however turned into being an earthly god before his death. This was exactly the opposite of what his acquaintances expected of Kurtz.