Heart of Darkness: The Negation of Colonial Subjectivity Anonymous College

Heart of Darkness is a novel that is chockfull of metaphors alluding to light and shade; a literary device meant to connect the reader’s preconceived notions associated with meanings of light and dark. The story, written by Joseph Conrad in 1899, was right in the midst of the “Scramble for Africa” and Conrad being a product of European Imperialism, alludes to much of his own inherent racism and the sense of European superiority. A product of this biased perspective comes through in the passage found in part one of the novel, when Marlow searches for a shady spot to rest in, instead coming across the starving, diseased bodies of many African slave labourers, sent to the “gloomy circle of some Inferno” (Conrad 52) to die a slow death. These workers have become “inefficient” and thus “allowed to crawl away and rest” (Conrad 53).

The passage I will be analyzing comes right after Marlow’s discovery, when he describes the “black bodies” and compares many aspects of light and dark within this nightmarish chasm. The metaphor used in comparing the “black bones” with their “blind, white flicker in the depths of the orbs” sets a startling image of horror, intended to startle and disturb the reader. The process of dehumanization continues...