İbrahim Çelik FLE218

NOVEL ANALYSIS
1668243

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MEDALLION

When I started reading the Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, I started with a prejudice. I
thought that it was written in favor of imperialism and that it was calling Africa as the heart of
darkness. But, page by page I understood that the situation was not like that. As Marlow went
into deeper places of Africa, I saw that realities they believe and claims they have were totally
lies. Their understanding of world, especially Africa and the Africans as slaves, comes from
their nature; their calling Africa as the heart of darkness is just because of darkness they have
in their hearts. In the novella, I see that every comparison the Europeans make between
Europe and Africa is just the opposite.
The most important claim of the Europeans is bringing “enlightenment” to the
Africans. They call themselves as enlightened and the Africans as creatures living in darkness.
It sounds very human from outside; helping people to live in better conditions of education,
sanitary, organized cities…etc. but, is it really the situation? If you listen to Marlow, you
understand that the situation is not like the Europeans tell. “It was just robbery with violence,
aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as is very proper for those
who tackle darkness.” This sentence is an example of what the Europeans call as
enlightenment. The real situation is that they go there to devastate Africa for their greed and
they use the Africans as their slaves. They make them work till they die from hunger. If we
think about who is living in darkness and who is living in enlightenment again, we can
certainly say that the Europeans are living in darkness of their hearts and they bring their
darkness to Africa, not enlightenment.
The second point is in the topic of being “civilized and being primitive”. According to
European way of thinking Europe is always civilized and other cultures are primitives.
However, as we mentioned above, this is, again, not the reality. We see from the novella that
when the Europeans are exposed to conditions in Africa, they can behave more primitive than
the Africans. The comparison of the pilgrims and the cannibals on the steamboat of Marlow
can be a good example of “primitiveness of civilized Europeans”. The pilgrims attack to
jungle, aimlessly and without thinking, with their guns which cause a cloud of smoke, when
they hear the sounds of natives among the trees ashore. And they throw the hippo-meat which
is the meal of the cannibals. They are the pilgrims of ivory and materialism, that is, it must be
questioned how civilized they are and how ethic their being in Africa is. As for the cannibals,
yes, they are cannibals, but they don’t attack to Marlow and his crew on the boat. Although
they are too hungry, they can be patient. Marlow says “No fear can stand up to hunger, no
patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to
superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze.
Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black
thoughts, and its somber and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn
strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonor, and the
perdition of one's soul -- than this kind of prolonged hunger.” Satisfying the hunger is one of
the basic instincts of human beings and these cannibals just endure it; and they don’t do it for
religion or traditions, or anything else. There is no reason for their behaving like that, because
it doesn’t need a reason; it is there because of itself. So, we see from these comparisons of the

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İbrahim Çelik FLE218
NOVEL ANALYSIS
1668243

pilgrims and the cannibals that the civilized European pilgrims behave more primitive than
the cannibals whom they call as primitives.
Another issue is in the frames of “order and chaos”. The Europeans think that they live
in order and the Africans live in chaos. Even today they believe in that idea. It is true that we
see news about military rebellions in African countries, but this is what the Europeans want us
to believe. On the other side of the medallion there are guns given by the Europeans to the
Africans. As much as they fight each other, they won’t figure out that they are exploited by
the Europeans. So, there is a chaos in Africa caused by the Europeans. And in the novella,
these Europeans cause chaos in Africa, in Congo. They go there and they devastate natural
life. “…the cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work
going on.” These people of “order” destroy everything aimlessly. Because of the hunting
desires of these people, many of the animals in Africa are in danger even today. However, the
Africans who are living in “chaos” according to the Europeans lives with these animals more
than thousand years and they don’t cause any extinction. They live in jungles, but there never
happens a fire or thing like that. Then we have to question here who is living in order and who
is living in chaos. This is what the Europeans avoid answering. As we see the order concept of
the Europeans is dangerous than the chaos of the natives in Africa according to novella.
To make a conclusion, it can be said that the reality on the surface is not always “the
reality”. Light doesn’t mean light; darkness doesn’t mean darkness as it is known. Darkness
can be better than enlightenment. And the concepts that the Europeans are telling to world can
mean the opposite meaning as it can be seen from the novella. The novella transfer this idea to
us very successfully and to understand it better, as the readers we have to give up thinking in
the way we have thought since today, because this way of thinking is indoctrinated to us by
the common thinking way of the Europeans. If you want to get the idea of the novella, you
have to read the meanings inversely.

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