Imperialism And Racism In Joseph Conrads Heart Of Darkness

The Negative Impact of Imperialism and Racism In the novella ‘Heart Of Darkness’ Marlow is a sailor who is telling the story to four other sailors about his expedition to The Congo and everything that ensued after he went on the expedition. Imperialism and racism has a negative impact on Marlow and Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s novella â€Å"Heart Of Darkness† which reveals the savagery of the practice of imperialism. One of the impacts that is shown is near the end when Kurtz comes down with jungle fever and starts to show the symptoms. When Kurtz dies his last words are â€Å"The horror! The horror† (Conrad 69). When Kurtz says this, he is feeling remorse for everything that he has done to the natives of the land and all that he had put them through.†¦show more content†¦Then he sees that some of the Africans after they are done working they are left to die off from starvation and exhaustion. This is one of the key moments that Marlow starts to question if imperialism is really helpful to the Natives at all, if what him, Kurtz, and the Europeans are practicing is even morally right. Kurtz says what he is doing for the Natives is helping them by civilizing them and all of their savageness when in all actuality he only came to The Congo to fulfil all his wishes and his lusts. He tells all the colonizers that him and the Europeans is only there to help the Natives Christianize and civilize all the â€Å"ignorant† Natives, but they are actually there just for exploiting, trading, and manipulating just for the sake of ivory and money. Kurtz knows about the tragedy and heartache that him and the Europeans put upon the Natives by the practice of imperialism which he chooses to ignore or to even at the least acknowledge what they have done. Instead of owning up to the negative impact of the practice and imperialism that him and the Europeans participated in he decides to ignore his part of the problem he had a hand in and says â€Å" The Romans were conquerors and n otShow MoreRelated Comparing Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness and Kiplings Poetry1515 Words   |  7 PagesImperialism in Heart of Darkness and Kiplings Poetry   Ã‚  Ã‚   Imperialism sprung from an altruistic and unselfish aim to take up the white mans burden1 and â€Å"wean [the] ignorant millions from their horrid ways.†2 These two citations are, of course, from Kipling’s â€Å"White Man’s Burden† and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, respectively, and they splendidly encompass what British and European imperialism was about – at least seen from the late-nineteenth century point of view. 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