Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Book Review

 
               Heart of Darkness opens with the main character, Charlie Marlow, as a young man, returned from a sea voyage. He takes a job with a company that works to find ivory in Africa. Charlie sails south, and arrives at the main trading post of the company. He then has to wait there for rivets so he can repair the steamship he will captain, and after they arrive he sets sail on a voyage into the heart of Africa to resupply the trading post of a man named Kurtz. When he arrives at Kurtz's he discovers that Kurtz had been slaughtering natives for ivory and acting like a sociopath. They take Kurtz onto the ship, for he had become ill and on the journey back to civilization Kurtz dies of his illness. After Charlie returns to civilization he brings the news of Kurtz's death to his widow.

                You can see Marlow begin to lose some of his humanity on the voyage. As he sails deeper into the heart of Africa it is a metaphor for him sailing deeper into the darkness of his own soul. Even before he casts off, he is delayed in the first station waiting for rivets. The whole episode just shows how the people who are trading for ivory are making it harder for themselves. In the midst of Charlie's journey the boat comes under attack by some of the indigenous people and a group of people on the ship return fire. Charlie describes it as "squirting lead into that bush(63)" and it begins to show how he is beginning to feel disillusioned over the pointless voyage that he is on. Near the end of the story Marlow has to force Kurtz to get on the ship and head back to civilization and it goes to show how Charlie has decided to cut his losses, both literally with Kurtz, and morally as well, by refusing to have more unnecessary deaths on his hands.

                I think the theme of the book is that man is inherently evil, that we all have a heart of darkness and only societies mores are holding us in check, for when Kurtz is around other Europeans he talks of fine things such as progress and civilizing forces, but when he is left alone with the native people in the jungle he takes to raiding, burning and looting villages in the name of ivory. The book mentions the words heart of darkness, etc. at least 20 times. In the world today you see a lot of senseless destruction and violence on the news and in the media in general. During our evolution as a species violence was necessary for survival, for example hunting, and self defense, but even though these are no longer necessary to live in most scenarios  we can't give up the instinct itself, it is hardwired into everyone.

                This book uses the language of an earlier era. When reading early on in book I was intrigued when it used the words such as "niggers" and "savages" when referring to the indigenous African population. Those words have almost died out in common speech because as our society has grown more tolerant of people of different backgrounds and as all people, of all races, have a say in our nations affairs.

                I enjoyed the plot of the book, but the writing itself seems a bit obfuscating. While reading I thought that Kurtz died about halfway into the book and continued to think that until Charlie actually met Kurtz. I would definitely not recommend this book to everyone. The writing is complex and confusing and many of the words used in this book would offend a large swathe of the population. Even with these drawbacks the book offers a look into the lengths men will go to to for the darkness of their hearts.

I got the cover picture from here.
I got the river picture from here.