Racism

Slavery has been with us since the Egyptian times and with it prejudice

towards certain humans have also come about. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness

these prejudice feelings are reflected throughout the story by the characters

and their descriptions. The main character, Marlow shows much prejudice

feelings towards the native black slaves by much of his descriptions and

actions towards them.

One of the most noticeable prejudice descriptions that Marlow gives to us

is in the way in which Marlow describes the Themes River in two different

positions. He first describes the river as being a place where many people

seek to follow their dreams. In a way, his descriptions are like a great

fantasy with great feelings of serenity and full of liveliness. This

description of the river also contained many words of color; this Marlow

rarely uses to describe events. The description of the river going upstream

was extremely different from the former description. Marlow described it as

this "The air was warm, thick, heavy, and sluggish. There was no joy and

brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted,

into the gloom of overshadowed distances" (Conrad 2:16). Upriver was where

all the natives lived and this is how it is described, quite the opposite of

what he had thought before. Marlow feels extremely uncomfortable going to

this area, he even says that it seems as if the large trees hanging over the

river swallow the boat up as they move up. These words give the impression

that this area is very uncivilized and even animal like. Marlow constantly

feels that something is watching him and he called this watching monkey

tricks (Conrad 2:2). Obviously referring to the natives watching him.

Yet another description that Marlow gives to us that is somewhat

different is in the reactions of Kurtz's girlfriends to his departure and

death. We first meet Kurtz's native girlfriend. Her descriptions were much

of her savage appearances. Marlow refers too much of her jewelry as

barbarous ornaments and gifts of witch-men. This he does not know but only

assumes so. When he describes her facial expressions, they aren't very human

like but more like an animal. "Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of

wild sorrow and of dumb pain mingled with the fear of some struggling…"

(Conrad 3:4). It seems as if this native woman is not supposed to have

feelings and it is dumb that she is having them. On the other hand, Kurtz's

girlfriend in Europe was not considered dumb for having emotions of pain and

sorrow. Marlow in fact describes this woman with more respect. Marlow talks

about how her hair caught in the light a glimmer of gold (Conrad 3:16). Once