Heart of Darkness: A Slow Walk through Humanity’s Ethos

Heart of Darkness: A Slow Walk through Humanity’s Ethos

Review by Jaanu

“Heart of Darkness?!” I ejaculated, dropping my head to my desk. “I just don’t want to read a sad book… It isn’t sad, is it?”

My English teacher paused reflectively. “I mean… it isn’t called Heart of Joy for a reason…?”

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, as I was told, is not a page-turner. Yet it’s remained in Literature’s collective psyche for years because of the gritty moral questions it forces on the reader. “Lord of the Flies on steroids,” as a wise person described it. The book’s plot is simple. Charlie Marlow, the captain of a steamship, curious and full of wanderlust, travels down the Congo River in Africa, in the payroll of a Company dealing in ivory. It’s a nasty business, and he meets some nasty characters; the unsettling god-figure Kurtz is an especially important one. To this book, however, plot is unimportant. Conrad jabs the reader with uncomfortably reflective questions. Do people behave nobly only out of a fear of retribution? When living in a system, free of rules, does the worst of human nature come out? In other words, does evil live inside people, barely suppressed by society’s standards? It’s a cynical view, but it’s up to the reader to define truth. Heart of Darkness is a difficult read, but a deeply meaningful one. As Mr. Clements said, “It’ll make every book you read after seem light.” 🥀