Heart of Darkness – Passage Analysis
             "Once, I remember, we came upon a man of war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on there-abouts. Her ensign dropped like a limp rag; the muzzles of the long six inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech---and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives---he called them enemies! - hidden out of sight somewhere."
             In this passage Conrad is teaching us something extremely important. It is said that "intelligence of what men do depends upon the context in which they do it." Marlow is watching such an occurrence. He sees the Europeans firing "tiny projectiles" and their cannons producing a "pop", though the Europeans see themselves fighting an all out war against the savage enemies in the name of imperialism. For them, this is a honourable battle where emotions and pride are at stake. Marlow, however, sees things quite differently, as portrayed in the passage. He looks at this event and reduces it from the Europeans' image of an intense battle to a futile firing of "tiny projectiles" into an empty forest. He gains a new sense of reality while in Africa, and opens his mind to new and previously unheard of ideas. For the first time, Marlow recognises the inaccuracy of European order a
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