Review On The Joseph Conrad’s Book “The Heart Of Darkness”

People should have the quality to resist, for this, it takes courage, condition, value and above all persist, but obviously this is not possible because all people have different characteristics which make us unique and different. In this world , there are two classes of people who are able to overcome any problem or adversity and those who with anything their world becomes impossible to deal with. This is where the story that told in “The Heart of Darkness”, written by Joseph Conrad, this is a good story to show us the way emotions are difficult to carry for some people who are full of abuses of authority which are really violent and inhuman. Something that is important to emphasize is that the book is inspired by experiences lived by Conrad, experiences that changed and marked his life with a before and after.

Conrad was born in Poland but he adopted the British citizenship years later. Passionate about literature but he was not only a writer of novels and stories, but also of critical prose and articles for a London newspaper. He was a sailor in different countries although in the end, he belonged to an English fleet for 16 years, that is the reason why he adopted the nationality. Most of his works are considered autobiographical; They contain a certain sadness and deal with the vulnerability of the human being and the dilemma between good and evil. The Heart of Darkness tells about Maslow, who has the role of narrator and protagonist, and about the work he does in a company dedicated to exploiting ivory. Maslow is hired to go to the Congo in search of Kurtz, in charge of the business in the area. The trip is not as expected and leaves great sequels in Maslow, as it causes a change in the life of the main character very drastic due to terrible experiences. There is another character in the story who lives with Maslow, since it is the sailor who listens to the narration of the main character, another important character is Kurtz. Everything begins when Maslow is entrusted with the mission of looking for Kurtz.

Sailing a boat called Nellie on a river in the Congo, directed to the Kurtz station, which they were looking for because it was believed that there was lost the reason and in this lapse of time he narrates all the adventures that he lives The main character has the characteristics of an authoritarian man; tough, strong character, which respects honesty very much and does not like lies. On the other hand they also describe him as a simple man, a wide range of morals and with many fears to overcome. Thanks to his aunt, he is hired by the ivory exploiting company, although from a young age it had always been interesting to work with maps. On the trip he experiences several experiences and adversity, such as the attack of the natives, experiences of very violent deaths, diseases and the simple dangers of the jungle. Despite being a person with fears, in history he is very brave and this allows him the ability to resist and vulnerability. It focuses on the self, since it wants to fulfill this mission not only to fulfill its work but also because it also wants to meet the leader who is so much talked about. Kurtz, the other character mentioned in the work was a fanatic, extremist and very ambitious, which was not known before reaching the jungle. He was able to survive the dangers of the jungle and the experiences that go hand in hand, this made him a leader in different villages to which he had subjected them, although he himself was a slave of the jungle.

As I mentioned earlier when Kurtz arrived in the jungle, he did not really know what it was, since he was against the wild and against many things that he himself fell into throughout history and that is what makes him start to present different mental problems, which is mentioned as a madman, due to the contradiction of his thoughts with his feelings. Upon arriving in the jungle he was a leader with respect for the natives of the place, a leader who achieved good communication and respect from the natives. This changes because he is blinded by the ambition and the desire for power that we can all be tempted at once in life and can change our point of view. Being blinded by these feelings, he begins to turn the villagers into slaves, doing what he wanted to achieve his goals. Some of the measures used when he did not do what he wanted was to torture and sacrifice.

Maslow and Kurtz shared certain attitudes, they were leaders and authoritarians and like Kurtz, Maslow was tempted by the same desires as Kurtz since he admired him and wanted to be like him in every way. Maslow is involved in a personality dilemma but in the end he has a better self-control and knowledge of himself, as well as his ideas and his history, that is, he resists despite the fact that the two moved by ambition and were able to survive to different obstacles that were presented to them there was a difference between Maslow and Kurtz, which makes Maslow not end up crazy in that world of power. Maslow had more self-control and knowledge of himself, of what he wanted, of his ideas, history and a different way of resisting the unimaginable. Although we believe that the book talks about the narration of a journey in search of achieving a mission, we can see that it is a story that shows us the vulnerability of man, that is, how he reacts before the problems and makes you think in how would you behave in those circumstances. It is not a trip to a jungle, it is a trip to the heart of a man, of selfknowledge and control, which is able to decide what is best for him and not get caught in the darkness and control of the jungle and power, he decides If you continue in the dark or get out of there. As already mentioned, self-control is a great effort that each person must have to achieve certain missions in life.

At the end of the story, Kurtz dies trying to escape the inner hell he created by being in contact with his wildest self, without conscience and with an amazing and big hunger for power. He realized that everything he had done and lived had been a nightmare that in his last words he mentions it as “the horror”. Maslow on the contrary, the resistance, and determination that characterize him make his return to Europe, as a different man, a man who sees life from a different perspective. He manages to fulfill what he promised Kurtz to deliver letters to Kurtz’s fiancee and although he lied for the woman’s own good since he could not survive the heartbreaking stories of what his beloved did and lived. Because of the admiration he had for Kurtz, he prefers to be remembered as the man who would have gone far if he had proposed it.

In conclusion, this is a totally good book because it shows the perspective from to total opposing sides from where we can deduce that people are exposed to different problems, obstacles, and adversities that makes us show the inner person, that makes us commit big ideas or also not very good ideas. Everything is due to personal determination and decisions that make us overcome or stagnate in the problems. We can also say that resistance is a capacity that can be developed from lived experiences.