Heart of Darkness...unconventionally impactful

Although I have read excerpts of Heart of Darkness in the past, reading it in its' entirety provides a completely different effect. It seems that rather than explicitly exploiting the corrupt nature of European colonialism at the time, Conrad utilizes Marlow as a tool to reveal not only the cruelty but also the ignorance of European explorers of the time.

I found this approach to be surprisingly effective, its interesting to view the Europeans as the ignorant savages rather than the Africans. I especially liked when Marlow makes a point to remind his fellow crewman that England hasn't always been the center of the civilized world, and at one point, it too was considered an undiscovered, savage place. In addition to this subtle jab at European ethnocentrism, multiple times throughout the book, I was reminded of the utter ignorance of European figures in society. One example is the doctor in Part 1...he does and says a number of idiotic things that prove his complete lack of qualification as well as the futility of Marlow's checkup. Other characters that contribute to the overall feeling of fraudulence are the brick maker, general manager, and chief accountant just to name a few. None of these men are remarkable in their talents or, for that matter, even capable of fulfilling the expectations of their jobs. It seems that Kurtz is the only real formidable antagonist and all of the others simply get by because they're never questioned by anyone.

It seems to me that Conrad is trying to illustrate the flaws and ignorance among European society as a whole...the women are naive idealists (which bothered me at times because everything else in the text appears to contain a progressive message), the professionals solely rely on the facade of their image and status in society, the colonists are completely incapable of learning anything and are too busy trying to transform Africa into their own fantasy getaway complete with all white outfits to see any of the cruelty occurring, and the others all work for Kurtz, a barbaric leader reminiscent of the European rulers of the time.

Besides the misogyny, I enjoyed Heart of Darkness and its ability to comment on society and colonialism through story telling and a complex point of view present throughout the play that ultimately serves as an objective narrator that is simply telling the things he has heard and allows the reader to interpret it however they choose.