Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad Rhetorical Analysis

Society 's Ignorance of Racism Racism is extremely prevalent in current times, yet society tends to turn a blind eye towards it. By ignoring racism, society essentially condones it, and teaches future generations to do the same. Authors often choose to incorporate the belittlement of their characters based on ethnicity to address social problems. Joseph Conrad utilizes racism in his literary works to bring to light this widespread issue. In his novel, The Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses verbs connoting animalistic traits to create an apathetic tone towards the dehumanization of natives, demonstrating how racism is inevitably ignored in society. The dehumanizing nature of the standalone verbs creates an apathetic tone illustrating
Right as Marlow arrives at his station for the first time, he realizes how brutal Kurtz and his men treat the natives. As he walks to his building, some natives walk by with "black rags wound round their loins, and the short ends wagged to and fro like tails" (18). The verb "wagged" gives the natives animalistic qualities as they appear to have tails. Typically a dog 's tail wags when it is running or works hard. Marlow consciously makes this comparison of dogs with the natives, which shows his apathetic feeling towards them as he knows he reduces them to less than human, yet he continues to do so. This emphasizes how racism flies under the radar as Marlow is giving humans the qualities of an animal without even thinking about it. Furthermore, just as Marlow gets off the ship and continues towards his cabin, he sees several "black shapes crouched . . . between the trees" (19). Conrad 's usage of "crouched" likens the natives to feral cats, such as panthers or lions. Adding to this dehumanization is the metaphor of the natives as "black shapes" that aren 't even identifiable as human. This metaphorical concept is extended throughout the text with other inanimate objects as stand-ins for the natives. The apathetic tone appears again in their unwillingness to
So often are the whites at the station given the chance to step up and change the way they act towards the natives, yet they never do, demonstrating how they are unconcerned as to how the natives are treated. Many of Conrad 's works are related to racism to help enlighten others of this issue. Several authors have a goal of bettering the world through the messages in their writing and discuss ignored problems of society. Racism has been an ongoing problem and still is in communities around the globe, and it continues to be ignored time and time