I actually love to read, I find ita very relaxing pastime. I am now changing my attitute towards it. First with Hamlet, and then this story, I am having a hard time with it.
Kurtz believes that the stations"should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a center for trade of course, but also humanising, improving, and instructing."
Marlows aunt helps get him his job, she is happy that he will help in " weening those ignorant millions from their horrid ways."
Marlow sees that colonization is not really working: the workers are all starving and working in terrible conditions. Everything that is going on is all in the name of profit, it is not to help the people.
The natives seem as though they worship Kurtz, which makes him look good since he is bringing in the most ivory. But, that is where the most savagery is going on with the heads of "rebels" on top of the poles.
The International Society for the Sippresion of Savage Customs also seems as though they are trying to "civilize" the people of the Congo.
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Imperialism is a big theme in HoD. The callous way that they treat the natives is appalling. It is interesting to note that Marlow is not immune to this sort of moral failing. He doesn't seem to mind when one of the porters dies on the march from the Outer Station to the Central Station. In general, he seems only a bit annoyed by the most brutal outrages against the natives, at least in parts I & II. In part III, he gets a little more annoyed when the pilgrams shoot into the crowd, but he doesn't do much to actually stop it -- only mitigate it a bit by blowing the steam whistle. On a larger level, Marlow never even questions the basic idea that the Europeans have a right to go in a "civilize" the Congo. He sort of feels that, as long as they bring improvements to the standard of living or moral character, the Europeans have a duty to help the "lesser" people of Africa. He just doesn't like it when they are immoral.
ReplyDeleteMarlow understands that empires are not built without the kinds of activities he saw in the Congo and that "civilization" is just robbery with violence, and men going at it blindly.
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