#4

   In  Joseph Conrad's short novel Heart of Darkness displays the European view of the inhumanity found within the natives of Africa.  However, as the story progresses Conrad begins to show the relation between the seemingly primitive peoples of the African Congo and the civilized Europeans.  Conrad's protagonist Marlow recognizes the relation as he journeys further into the Congo.  He sees how the African natives, "howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-- like yours-- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly" (Conrad 108-109).  Marlow begins describing the actions of the natives as something barbaric with "horrid faces" and savage movements such as "leaping" and "howling".  These are actions that would never be done within the civilized domain of the white man. Yet, even as Marlow recognizes these actions as animalistic, and thus makes the African people non-human, Marlow is cognisant of the fact that there is a "kinship with this wild and passionate uproar".  Here Conrad demonstrates that although uncivilized there is some similarity between the savage and the civilized.  At the same time Conrad is saying that there is still a major difference: the primitive African remains backward while the European has left the primeval state and become a beautiful creature.  The beauty that the European evolved into makes him superior to his ancestrally related African counterpart.  Conrad describes the 'kinship" as ugly.  For the civilized Westener it is disgusting to think that at one time people of his culture were in the same backward state as the African, yet that is the ugly truth.  Through Marlow's realization of these facts Conrad shows that although there is a relation between the imperialist culture and the primeval culture, the imperialist still has reason to look down upon the culture that is still within the primitive state.  This patronizing done by the imperialist power gives reason for the dehumanization suffered by the less modern culture.