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Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril. C

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It might be contented, of course, that the attitude to the African in Heart of Darkness is not Conrad's but that of his fictional narrator, Marlow, and that far from endorsing it Conrad might indeed be holding it up to irony and criticism.

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Tragedy begins when things leave their accustomed place, like Europe leaving its safe stronghold between the policeman and the baker to take a peep into the heart of darkness.

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Herein lies the meaning of HoD and the fascination it holds over the Western mind: "what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity - like yours ..."

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The Heart of Darkness is showing their culture and religion takes control of their life.

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We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there -- there you could look at a thing monstrous and free"

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We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there -- there you could look at a thing monstrous and free"

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"Towards the end of the story Conrad lavishes a whole page quite unex- pectedly on an African woman who has obviously been some kind of mistress to Mr. Kurtz and now presides (if I may be permitted a little liberty) like a formidable mystery over the inexorable imminence of his departure…The difference in the attitude of the novelist to these two women is con-      in too many dit'ect and subtle ways to need elaboration. But perhaps the most significant difference is the one implied in the author's bestowal of human expression to the one and the withholding of it from the other. It is deady not part of Conrad's purpose to confer language on the "rudimentary of Africa."

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Africa is personified as being the other world and the antithesis of Europe

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Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality.

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"Certainly Conrad appears to go to considerable pains to set up layers of insulation between himself and the moral universe of his history. He has, for example, a narrator behind a narrator. The primary narrator is Marlow but his account is given to us through the filter of a second, shadowy person."

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"What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity --like yours....Ugly."

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"We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there -- there you could look at a thing monstrous and free."

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"Africa as setting and backdrop
which eliminates the African as human factor."

"...she fulfills a structural requirement of the story: a savage counterpart to the refined, European woman who will step forth to end the story...

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I am talking about a book which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered
untold agonies and atrocities in the past and continues to do so in many ways and many places today. I am talking about a story in which the very humanity of black people is called in question.

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If there is something in these utterances more than youthful inexperience more than a lack of factual knowledge what is it? Quite simply it is the desire - one might indeed say the need - in western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negation at once remote and vaguely familiar , in comparison with which europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest

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as a sensible man I will not accept just any traveller's tales solely on the grounds that I have not made the journey myself.

the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world.

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Quite simply it is the desire- one might indeed say the need-  in western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negation a at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.

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What a loss to me--to us!
It was though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory...
...Mr Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts...
The unseen presence of victorious corruption
I had carried half a ton on my back down that hill

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The other world
Antithesis of civilization of Europe
River Congo vs River Thames "primordial relative"
"vaunted intelligence vs triumphant beastiality
"worries" Conrad because of some of the common ancestry
"conquered"

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"It might be contended, of course...he has, for example, a narrator behind a narrator."

"'The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother'"

"A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long black arms... His white calves twinkled sturdily"

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"I am talking about a story in which the very humanity of black people is called in question." eh
I think there is some misunderstanding-- this WAS the dominant image of Africa, but he was showing it through the perspective of the Europeans-- intended to shed light on issue.
"It was and is the dominant image of Africa in the Western imagination and Conrad merely brought the peculiar gifts of his own mind to bear on it. "
He uses these tools about wilderness to juxtapose expectations with reality-- we are the same
"Herein lies the meaning of Heart of Darkness and the fascination it holds over the Western mind: "What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity -- like yours .... Ugly.”
"Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting, peacefully "at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks." But the actual story will take place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames."