blackhod Black vs. White in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay

Black vs. White in Heart of Darkness      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The warm glow of civilization comforts and protects us all, but is there something more?   Is the heart of darkness lurking just below the surface, accessible to all but revealed to few?   In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad provides the reader with the image of black vs. white in an attempt to convey the idea of an ever-present heart of darkness.      Although the main plot of Conrad's tale is Marlow's journey into the African Congo, this merely sets the stage for a number of deeper themes.   Marlow was a civilized man who believed in imperialism and the acquisition of wealth until he was faced with the horrors within the wilderness.   The African jungle is a far cry from civilized Europe, and in many ways Marlow found himself at a loss as to what the proper course of action would be.   Marlow was not raised to compete with brutal savagery and had always believed in using his logical mind to think his way out of any situation.   This savagery first becomes apparent when Marlow encountered the shaded death grove early on in his journeys. Marlow saw the natives suffering immensely for what seemed to be nothing - their work seemed for naught - but he did not speak up or stop his trek.    This is also the first time that the reader gets a glimpse of the underlying oppositions within the text. Marlow glanced at one of the dying natives, one with a piece of white ... ... Bradley, Candice. "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." (24 Jan. 1996). Online Internet. 3 October 1998. Available: http://www.lawrence.edu/~johnson/heart. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. 17th ed. New York: Norton, 1988. Levenson, Michael. "The Value of Facts in the Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40 (1985):351-80. Rosmarin, Adena. "Darkening the Reader: Reader Response Criticism and Heart of Darkness." Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York: St. Martin's, 1989. Watt, Ian. Conrad in the Nineteenth Century. San Diego: U. of California P, 1979. 168-200, 249-53.