Heart of Darkness (65-86)

The author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, utilizes his dexterity in description and imagery to suggest the portrayal of racism throughout the beginning of the novella. The surplus of colors in Conrad’s descriptions possibly correlates to the inevitable darkness of the Congo and the racism that inevitably lives in it.

As Marlow recollects his experience of exploration, the color-description that is presentable in the book stands out by Conrad indirectly correlating imperialism to the color-description. Marlow, after describing his fascination of maps, states that “There was a vast amount of red—good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and,… I was going into the yellow” (Conrad 45) to illustrate the contrasting of colors in terms of imperialism. The fact that all of these colors are highly contrastable of each other suggests Marlow’s fascination in exploring the world. The word “yellow” has a lighter color-tone than “red,” thus taking into consideration that Marlow only wants to explore this area (the Congo) to purely exploit it, where “red” connotes to the fact that the areas in red are already exploited.  Conrad also utilizes colors to illustrate the racism through the novella.

Not only does Conrad’s color-description encases a symbolized meaning regarding imperialism, but also portrays the racism that occurs as a result of imperialism. Conrad’s descriptiveness through his “colors” immensely symbolizes the racism that occurs in these imperialized areas. Marlow describes the black workers by stating: “ I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire: but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you” (52). Conrad repeats the phrase “ I've seen the devil” to portray that Marlow considers these workers far more dangerous than the devil. The fact that Conrad uses this comparison to suggest the overall racism throughout the book possibly relates to Marlow’s realization of the true nature of imperialism. Marlow also witnesses two black men by describing that “While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink” (53). Marlow’s animalistic description contributes to the racism that is portrayed throughout the book since Conrad deliberately uses these terms, such as “creatures” and “all-fours”, to prove that Marlow describes these black people as animals. The fact that he is degrading the black workers by comparing them to animal behavior predominantly portrays the overall racism throughout this portion of the novella.