Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad

This dark adventure has confused many and enlightened a few. Historically still controversial, it remains a classic piece of Western literature, probing into the feral depths of human nature and the process of how civilizations decay. Conceived as a late 19th century frame narrative, the main story describes the journey of the Englishman Charlie Marlow into the Congo River delta, working for a Belgian trading company. Arriving at his destination, Marlow experiences the chaotic environment in which African slaves follow the laws of their greedy exploitators. Before he has time to get used to the circumstances, he's suddenly sent on a secret mission up the river to bring back a certain man named Kurtz, who is supposed to have gone out of control.

Much of the remaining story centers around Marlow's journey into the heart of Africa, in search of the mystical man he's supposed to retrieve. Facing violence and hate from the black natives, Marlow slowly gets to experience a different side of what it means to be a colonialist in a place where you're not wanted. When he finally arrives at his destination, the meeting with Kurtz changes his life completely. The strange man, worshipped by the natives as a god, has left aside the hunt for ivory and replaced it with a will to gain power. His dark impulses and tribal rites both scare and seduce Marlow, until he's no longer certain of his mission in Africa anymore.

There are two parallel stories in this book, making it an unusually esoteric read. The obvious story is a critical recollection of the British colonial history in Africa during the 19th century, describing the filthy greed and exploitation in a region where natives were enslaved to serve a growing empire. Although Conrad doesn't explicitly take an anti-colonialist viewpoint, his analysis of the human behavior during these conditions lead us into the heart of the story. The search for ivory is a lifestyle of materialism, motivating an empire whose impulse is to expand to satisfy its own internal neurosis. The parallel to the West today, in particular American imperialism in the East, couldn't be more striking.

Kurtz is the alienated colonialist whose interests are not to be found in material exploitation. He regards the ivory as worthless. Instead he pursues raw power and dedicates his time to explore the dark aspects of human nature. He's both a product of a decaying empire and an outcast from civilization. His goal is to transcend his environment, and himself, to challenge the pity colonialists who want him to conform to the decay around him. Kurtz is dangerous because he is both an honest reflection of the exploitation of the region, and someone who dares to break free from the materialism and alarm his brethren: civilization has become its own disease.

Although there are countless other aspects to the story, what we learn from Conrad's brilliantly conceived work of art, is that the defining character of a civilization is its ideals, values and goals, not its raw power domination. Brute force alone, as in mindless imperialism, is slow suicide. The heart of darkness found in a civilization that fails to see any problems in enslaving a world region for ivory, parallels that of the uncivilized human soul, thus suggesting what is civilized on the surface may be animalistic on the inside. Are we still free, prosperous and morally superior creatures in the face of the horrors we create abroad? Can we heal our wounds by attacking other beasts? Or are we just lonely, desperate souls, clinging to an empire about to fall under its own weight?

He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—"The horror! The horror!"

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad