Heart of Darkness Essay Example
Heart of Darkness-ISP
By: Robert Pittelli You can argue that nearly everyone on this planet has at least one desire within that is so dark and evil that they would do anything to achieve that goal. However, most individuals are capable of controlling and taming their greedy desires for personal gain such as wealth, power, and fame, to the point where they are concealed, leaving their sanity untouched by the extreme darkness of their sinful wishes. Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, provides the greatest example of how man’s appetite for greed can prevail and consume almost an entire race’s soul into complete and utter madness, to the stage where it is solely driven by the blackness and impurity of greed. In Heart of Darkness, the European conquest for ivory, (intertwined with greed and lust), drove their race into complete madness, which is most evidently exemplified by Kurtz. Kurtz represents a typical European male of the 20th century who had a craving for ivory and sacrificed everything for it, including stripping himself of all humanly morals by killing and brainwashing (i.e. colonizing) the inhabitants of the Congo, in order to fulfill his as well as other Europeans’ desires for ivory. Kurtz’s uncontrollable need for ivory had the unforeseen result of his soul being eaten alive by the ruthlessness and ugliness of darkness, turning him into a demoralized, crazy individual. Greed is a product of material cravings and lust for power, and these two ambitions were combined in the novel to create European colonization. Once their race became obsessed with greed, the Europeans faced the inevitable dark shadows of madness.
In Heart of Darkness, the material aspiration is ivory and to achieve this desire, Europeans ran the first, so-called ‘trading company’ that expanded through the African jungle, primarily through the Congo. However, Marlow came to realize almost immediately the dishonesty of the company, and its true endeavors. “There was an air
By: Robert Pittelli You can argue that nearly everyone on this planet has at least one desire within that is so dark and evil that they would do anything to achieve that goal. However, most individuals are capable of controlling and taming their greedy desires for personal gain such as wealth, power, and fame, to the point where they are concealed, leaving their sanity untouched by the extreme darkness of their sinful wishes. Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, provides the greatest example of how man’s appetite for greed can prevail and consume almost an entire race’s soul into complete and utter madness, to the stage where it is solely driven by the blackness and impurity of greed. In Heart of Darkness, the European conquest for ivory, (intertwined with greed and lust), drove their race into complete madness, which is most evidently exemplified by Kurtz. Kurtz represents a typical European male of the 20th century who had a craving for ivory and sacrificed everything for it, including stripping himself of all humanly morals by killing and brainwashing (i.e. colonizing) the inhabitants of the Congo, in order to fulfill his as well as other Europeans’ desires for ivory. Kurtz’s uncontrollable need for ivory had the unforeseen result of his soul being eaten alive by the ruthlessness and ugliness of darkness, turning him into a demoralized, crazy individual. Greed is a product of material cravings and lust for power, and these two ambitions were combined in the novel to create European colonization. Once their race became obsessed with greed, the Europeans faced the inevitable dark shadows of madness.
In Heart of Darkness, the material aspiration is ivory and to achieve this desire, Europeans ran the first, so-called ‘trading company’ that expanded through the African jungle, primarily through the Congo. However, Marlow came to realize almost immediately the dishonesty of the company, and its true endeavors. “There was an air