oh the imperialism

I originally was a little terrified at first at the eerie amount of foreshadowing that played its way through this book but it was also a little enticing to keep me reading. Upon noticing Marlow’s naïve nature and his lack of knowing of the world beyond, the reader is able to see further into his personality and his reasoning behind his actions – particularly upon giving pity to a boy he notices in Africa. Unlike many during the time period of Imperialism (where the British essentially raped Africa of any of its natural resources), I found it to be an interesting contrast between the normality of the era and Marlow’s non-racist behaviors.

Conrad begins his novel with elaborate images of a ship set to sea against a murky backdrop and an eerie feel of gloom and shadowing undertones. The use of foreshadowing is used in the frequent use of dark imagery – ranging between the shades of the sky and the clouds and throughout the story Marlow gives to his crew. Marlow mentions a dispute between two men over two black hens which ends in a gruesome death and the slow decay of man and the once standing society surrounding the corpse. “I couldn’t let it rest, though; but when an opportunity offered at last to meet my predecessor, the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to hide his bones. There were all there. The supernatural being had not been touched after he fell. And the village was deserted; the huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within the fallen enclosures.” (Conrad, Page 7) This took me even further into the repetition seen throughout the beginning pages and bringing back the images of darkness and impounding doom. In many stories, venturing into the darkness is stepping into a world unknown. Something that Marlow describes as his childish ambition to venture into a world that is unchartered or a “white spot on a map”.

I also find it interesting that Africa is normally referred to as the “dark continent” and is given little credit to what it has to offer, adding to the masses of imagery and allusion to gloom and brooding shadows. Marlow’s experience in this “dark continent” will be interesting to see after noticing his rather naïve and unusual behavior towards Africans unlike other Britons and I do wonder how his views will be challenged as the story carries forward.