Heart of Darkness

You might not have read Joseph Conrad’s classic short novel about colonialism in Africa, but if you’ve seen Apocalypse Now, then you’re familiar with the basic plot and major characters of Heart of Darkness, which was first published in 1899.

Like the film, the novel tells the story of a somewhat jaded man who travels up a river, through an increasingly more malevolent jungle filled with dangerous animals and hostile tribes, to find a fellow European who has “gone native” and can no longer be controlled by his superiors. Along the way, the traveler, Marlow, has many bizarre, even surreal encounters until he realizes that colonialism destroys the colonizer just as much as it destroys the colonized and that the true “heart of darkness” isn’t in the Belgian Congo but, instead, is in the chests of men.

Two ways of looking at the novel, I think, work best. The first way—the traditional interpretation—is to see the story as a metaphor for the workings of a mind. Marlow, as he steams from the sea to a remote trading post deep in the interior, travels not just back in time, as the jungle seems to become primeval and its inhabitants prehistoric, but also travels deep into collective consciousness. In a sense, he travels through the super-ego, ego, and then into the id, the part of the mind that is primal and instinctual. In this interior, he confronts the deepest fears and anxieties of the human race.

The second way of interpreting Heart of Darkness, which has come to dominate discussion in the past twenty years, is to see the novel as a post-colonial text. In short, the novel reveals more about European attitudes, most of them racist (conscious or subconscious), towards Africans. As Chinua Achebe said in an interview, “But you cannot compromise my humanity in order that you explore your own ambiguity. I cannot accept that. My humanity is not to be debated, nor is it to be used simply to illustrate European problems.” Achebe’s point is that critics who see the novel as reflective of the consciousness of all mankind are blind to the fact that it fails to present Africans truthfully. In short, Achebe asks, how can such an interpretation be taken seriously when it’s based on a lie?

However you choose to interpret the text, reading Heart of Darkness is a richly rewarding experience, and so I encourage you to check it out.