Ideology in Heart of Darkness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Ideology in Heart of Darkness - Essay Example As per , Yanse(2008)â€Å"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad is a story of a man’s journey into Africa’s dark heart to find a missing explorer. This is a metaphor for the journey into the dark heart of man†. This journey gave realization to the author that white and black skin color does not have relativity to the purity of the heart. He in this book focuses on the ideologies like White ideology, imperialism and slavery on the black race of Africa. â€Å"Conrad warns us of the â€Å"fascination of the abomination† and the â€Å"regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate, that would ensue when we encounter the truly wild other out there†(Harkins). Here the main ideology reflected by the writer is the white ideology, imperialism and slavery practiced by the white over the black men. It is unfortunate to know that white considers themselves to be a superior race and attempts forcefully to conquer the black for the purpose of slavery. According to Conrad, the white men are considered white only because of their skin surface and their heart is completely covered with evilness and darkness. The dominant white ideology largely reflects the aspect of cruelty, violence and arrogance of Europeans race. Here Kabala (2001) states that, â€Å"Africa's campaign for reparations for the injustices of slavery and colonialism recently gained significant ground.†Slavery and the slave trade were appalling tragedies ... a crime against humanity, and should always have been so,† Dominance of White Ideology White ideology is the core racist thoughts and principles of Europeans which gives an idea that only whites are exceptionally beautiful, ideal and perfect among all races. In olden times, the white men considered their race to be superior and believed that all the richness and wealth belongs to them exclusively. According to Post Colonial (2002)â€Å"A large part of colonial expressions of dista ste for African treatment of women and consequent reformist zeal arose in the fact that women's work effectively removed African men from the control of colonial power, ideology, and economic pressures†. White practiced hostile attitudes to the other races and treated them as slaves and servants, which is a heinous act. This can be counted as a sort of imperialism where a stronger race or nation takes over other race by power or by force. Caswell(2003)writes that,â€Å"Imperialism occurs when a strong nation takes over a weaker nation or region and dominates its economic, political, or cultural life† .This white ideology lead to the emergence of violence and atrocities of the west to the people of other ethnic backgrounds. The author Joseph Conrad in his book â€Å"Heart of darkness† states that men of white clan show their dominance on black people, just because their skin is black in color. Europeans, who took over the lands of Africans and exploited their nati onal wealth and power, also did not forget to torture them to great level. The author in his book mentions that just being white in complexion does not imply that they are good at heart. The author being white could never separate himself from his white racial background and on the other hand, he also despised the cruel mentality of white men towards the black race. The