Analysis Of Life In Joseph Conrads Heart Of Darkness

â€Å"The only journey is the one within†, said a famous poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. Life is a long journey; we learn, understand and find meaning with the experiences of this journey. A journey is full of experiences and from these experiences one changes from inside and out, and one starts to live a new life. In the book, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow tells a tale of himself going into Africa’s wilderness to explore and humanize, and he encounters Kurtz, who Marlow considered an idol at some point. The events that occurred and the surroundings which impacted those events, influenced Marlow and Kurtz to change their representation from these experiences. One can only imagine the ways one can change but the changes itself comes†¦show more content†¦It was unearthly, and the men were--No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it -- this suspicion of their not being inhuman (58). It was Marlow’s heart of darkness which ope ned after encountering the slaves near the Congo river chained like an inhuman creature. This was the first time he questioned the white-collar’s existence in Africa. And the inhuman creatures that he believed were unearthly, now he felt sympathy for them. â€Å"They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now—nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. †¦ I found nothing else to do but to offer him one of my good Swede’s ship’s biscuits I had in my pocket† (20). The evolution of Marlow came to a significant change when he felt sympathy towards the unearthly savages, because he could see their rib cages and could observe that they were slowly dying, he offered one of them a â€Å"Swede’s ship’s biscuits†. He feels as he is one of the reasons they are mistreated and blames their current situation on himself. He also felt pity regarding the food that slaves were given to eat. The colonials considered the slaves as unearthly so they gave unearthly food to them. â€Å"Brought from all the recesses of the cost in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient,Show MoreRelatedGender Role In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Essay1430 Words   |  6 PagesGender Role In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness For the most part people who read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad may feel that the novella is strictly a story of exploration and racial discrimination. But to Johanna Smith who wrote â€Å"’Too Beautiful Altogether’: Ideologies of Gender and Empire in Heart of Darkness† it is much more than that. Johanna Smith along with Wallace Watson and Rita A. 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