Heart of Darkness is an engrossing novella that points out many issues that are wrong with the way third world countries were overpowered and used by westerners at the end of the nineteenth century. I feel that Joseph Conrad is trying to convey a very anti-colonial view.
             These views come across as Conrad writes about Marlow first entering the mouth of the river and settling at his company's station. For a start the scene has moved from Belgium, a grand and powerful country at the time and also London, to the deep forest of the Congo. Both Belgium and London are filled with culture but the forest is not. Conrad implies that western civilisation has tried to deprave its own style onto the colony and what's worst of all; they make the natives do the hard work. This is evil, because they are seeing their culture as one designed for all, one that would make the world a better place. It is an arrogant, naive ideal. An example of this in the book is when Marlow sees the black natives following him up the hill. There are six men, all carrying earth in baskets on top of their heads. Marlow describes them as being like zombies and having extremely frail bodies as he quotes that he could see every rib and that the joints of their limbs were like knot in a rope. The men also were chained together by the necks and their ankles. It is explained that they were criminals but this is harsh as they would not be called a criminal in their own community but under western rule they are. Marlow even shows his arrogance as he calls them savages, even though he does not know their crime. He just presumes so as he is from the west ad has a very ignorant view of how they live. The depraving of western culture is part of the human capacity for evil.
             Kurtz, a main figure in the story, is shown by Conrad to have given in to the power of evil and indulged himself in his Heart of Darkness. It is fascinating to see what power can do to p...