Response to Heart of Darkness

An important quality that Marlow the seaman exhibits through out the first half of this story is explained by: “For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny” (5). And Since Marlow is taken from the sea and placed in a land of much controversy and confusion, where no one really understands the entirety behind the reasoning of the British colonizers over these oppressed black men. The mystery however is solvable to Marlow because only the sea contains secrets that Marlow can not unveil, and here on land, Marlow is used as a tool for understanding what many do not understand.
This story shows the oppression over the black people, and the overwhelming superiority that the British men have in the land, and it could be said that the author, Joseph Conrad is simply celebrating the power of the white British man. However, he includes Marlow, someone who is able to close the gap between the oppressor and the oppressed. Marlow shows how weak, lost, and misguided these colonizers are in actuality.
“He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible which is also detestable” (6), and “Nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness in others” (7). These two sentences show the pity Marlow has for the British and how clueless they are to the entirety of the oppression in which they believe that have full control over. The first quote shows how they are living just like the blacks in this detestable land, but not only are they there, but they understand less about it then the blacks. Their mere flag and ownership of the land gives them no natural inquisitive knowledge of what to really do. They basically just live there, hurting the natives and showing their power over them; which leads to the second quote: they are only powerful because their counterparts are weak.
Marlow then further diminishes the legend behind the British people and how they are superior, enlightened, and able to create a perfect functioning society. In comparison the natives and Marlow know more about a functioning society then the white men show capable. Marlow puts women to work who ask for it, and trust them just as he would trust any hard working individual (8) and compares that to how the British would make women seem incapable of anything with one of their own white woman saying, “it’s queer how out of touch with truth women are!” and how if they tried to create their own world out of their own truths “it would go to pieces before the first sunset” (12). He also diminished the honor of the British man’s perfect superior qualities when we see one lose his temper and act out of emotion because he “felt the need at last of asserting his self respect in some way” when he was feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of controversial sensible opinions in a room of blacks that he should feel completely in control over (9). The British goal of colonization is to enforce their government upon others, but in this place it doesn’t seem to smoothly operate because again and again the oppressed people show that they still have power, because they have knowledge of the land, and how life must function in that area.
I then asked myself how is it that such a powerful nation such as Great Britain can falter when put up against what seems like a very weak opponent who can put up very little resistance in combat. It is obvious that not only do the British want to feel in control; they are also colonizing for the benefit of money. Perhaps it is then that they falter because they succumb to the power of greed, and lose track of their intelligence and strategy in lust for money. Then it is obvious why the black men can stand up against the British, and that is because they see no purpose in operating for financial gain. They are not enticed by the money and the benefits. On page 23 we see that Marlow isn’t either:

“I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back on that station [the British]. In that way only it seemed to me I could keep my hold on the redeeming facts of life.”

The power and evil of money is further amplified as a drug to the British on page 24 where it reads, “The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages.” They basically operate for money and they let their greed control their actions.
If we look at all of these bashful remarks against the British and the boastful remarks for Marlow and the black natives we can understand that this story, or at least the first half, is showing some serious problems in British colonization and the life they are trying to and pretending to live in the Congo. Conrad is showing us that there is superiority within the simplicity of the native life.