Humans are all the same. We possess little individuality, and that which we portray is superficial. Everyone is motivated by all the same intentions: greed, the desire to fulfill lustful intentions, the motif that self-preservation is the only necessary means of survival. This is exceedingly evident in two characters, the station manager and narrator, in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. While these two men are characterized to be literal opposites of one another, Conrad uses narrative techniques that include point of view, description, dialogue, and careful selection of details to demonstrate that despite their extreme differences, they are essentially the same.
             As Conrad describes the station manager, we are left with a sense of disgust for him. Conrad uses descriptive words with negative connotations such as "deplorable" "darkness" and "insolence" to depict the manager this way. Conrad uses the comparison of internals and externals to convey the true darkness and emptiness of the manager. He states, "There was nothing within him", "no external checks", "[There is] a darkness he had in his keeping." The used of this vivid description gives us an immediate distaste for the manager; we are directed to think he is an insolent moron with nothing but a blank, external shell.
             The narrator, on the other hand, depicts himself as all-knowing, the only man in the jungle with a worthwhile purpose. Conrad uses point of view and dialogue quite effectively for the narrator. The narrator's point of view and dialogue are self-glorifying. Conrad has the narrator speak in a degrading manner towards others to provide a sense of his own extravagant work, calling others "dumfounded idiots" and "faithless pilgrims." Through Conrad's use of these narrative techniques, we are led to believe that we should think more highly of this narra
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