1/25 - Article on Heart of Darkness

I found the essay discussing racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness very interesting. Having read the book, I understood a lot of the points the author discussed. However, this article also made me realize how much of the underlying details I missed. The first aspect I missed is at the beginning of Conrad's novel. The similarities and differences between the Thames and the Congo provides a very general overview of the book's argument about the civilized versus the uncivilized. The Thames is symbolic of the modern, civilized European, while the Congo represents the chaotic, uncivilized African. The author of the essay points out how both rivers are very similar in that both contain dark histories and causes the reader to question how civilized the European prospective truly is. The other aspect that the author of the article that discussed that I never realized was how Conrad does have the tendency to focus on whether or not a character is in their right place. The article uses two Africans from Heart of Darkness to defend this statement. The first is a man who is working on the steamship with the narrator, Marlow. Conrad goes into very little  detail discussing the man other than why does not belong on the ship. The second is Mr. Kurtz mistress. Conrad puts a lot of focus into this woman's description in a way that depicts her as a wild African savage and is thus in her ideal "place". This article made me realize that I missed a lot of the deeper meanings in  Heart of Darkness.