In section II of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow dedicates a chunk of his narration to describing the surreal atmosphere of his journey into the prehistoric unknown and the “savages” on the sides of the river (page 35-36). I found this passage particularly interesting because Marlow, a man of a different generation with different social norms, seems to look more kindly upon the natives than most of the other characters do and most people of that day and age would towards a black person. Even with this apparent kindness of perception towards these natives (not enemies and certainly not criminals) there is still clearly as presented in this passage a obvious sense of “looking down” on the “prehistoric [men]” (35). When talking about the setting, how serene and “unknown” the terrain was at night, Marlow recalls how you would just go around a corner and there would be “a glimpse of… hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage…. Of a black and incomprehensible frenzy” (35). The way he recalls the natives in the night is almost like aliens, how they are like “phantoms” floating by this world unknown. Almost as if they were not both human, though often elsewhere he insists on stating their inherent humanity. Marlow seems to be a man torn between the views of his time and his own personal understandings (his own understandings seems to be torn in multiple directions as well), telling a tale about problems of imperialism.
I am not sure myself if Marlow’s disparity in his views of the natives adds, subtracts or does neither to the text, what do you think?
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