Response to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"

Through graphic displays of human depravity, Joseph Conrad not only handed the reader the information on human cruelty, but submersed him into the suffering using intricate imagery deep enough to cause him to form his own opinion on the plot action.  The Heart of Darkness, a historical fiction frame narrative, breaks down human nature to its most raw element, as is alluded to in the plot’s progressive journey into deepest darkest Africa.  Joseph Conrad presented the wickedness graphically without moralizing, thus forcing the reader to come to grips with and develop his own opinion.

          Marlow, the main character and frame narrator, vividly described his surroundings during his travels from England to inner Africa.  He reported the mass worship of Kurtz, a “universal genius” well-versed in philosophy and extremely successful in the plunder of ivory from natives, and the disappointment his disciples felt when he surrendered to his own mortality.  In contrast, Marlow witnessed Kurtz’s own downfall, summed up in his final words, “The horror, the horror!”  Kurtz had encouraged the revering of himself, while unabashedly shedding the blood of countless innocents in the pursuit of the power-bringing ivory, and surrounded himself with the heads of his enemies as mementos of his superiority.  The Heart of Darkness showed man’s depravity and man’s innate need to worship.

          The Heart of Darkness is an exercise in analysis and moral development.  Because it strictly and meticulously reports the action and does not pass judgment, the novel causes the reader to think deeply about the unwise placement of faith and failure of man to act as God.  The suffering of the natives under Kurtz’s control, as well as Kurtz’s own horrific life, serve as an open-ended lesson to whomever desires to delve into the pain.  The reader, to truly appreciate Conrad’s work, must realize his own worldview, come to an understanding of the gravity of mankind’s depravity, and from that develop a framework to prevent such viciousness in his own circle of influence.