Essay On Heart Of Darkness Imperialism

“Imperialism” stems from the Latin root word imperium, literally meaning supreme power. Throughout history, all imperialistic pursuits required the establishment of a “supreme power,” overturning the balance of power, giving one group of people greater authority. As a result, social checks and balances are disrupted, leading to exploitation of the colonized, yet the public is often unaware, falling victim to a socially induced misperception of social life. This misperception is termed “false consciousness,” derived from a Marxist concept referring to the systematic misrepresentation of dominant social relations (Little), including the belief that capitalism promotes political freedom (Ratner, 2013). In response, post-colonial literature works to undermine societal false consciousness, allowing the public to recognize financial exploitation of the colonized and the power imbalance between the oppressors and the oppressed. The undermining of false consciousness is tackled in various fashions: for example, Joe Sacco’s Palestine unmasks Jewish colonialism of the Holy Land through graphic journalism, in which pace, narrative, and hand-drawn images are utilized, permitting enhanced communication of characters’ feelings and vivid visualization of events. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, adjectival style and descriptive story form are manipulated, allowing for extensive imagery from a personal point of view. Finally, George Orwell’s 1984 employs pure fiction to frame a world where hegemony is established and its dangers brought to light. All three works of post-colonial literature demystify false consciousness concerning capitalistic imperialism, and communicate how Zionist and European colonial powers share numerous unnerving qualities with the domineering Upper Party of 1984. Joe Sacco’s Palestine utilizes a unique combination of narrative, comic illustrations, and graphic architecture that is able to “mediate, authorize, commemorate, and circulate trauma in different ways,’” rendering the Israeli/Palestinian conflict more cogently than mainstream journalism (Mather, 2016). Through this comic form, Israeli colonialism is exposed in a manner that humanizes the Palestinian people, contrary to how historic photo essays depict those involved in similar world conflicts. Sacco reframes the conflict in a manner that allows drawings to highlight to certain details, reckless structure to communicate disorder, and a manipulated order of thought/speech bubbles to alter pace. For example, Sacco depicts a brutal attack on protesting Palestinians (Figure 1.1) with chaotic images of dominant, fierce Israeli soldiers hitting Palestinians with clubs and throwing them into Jeeps. Meanwhile, Palestinian faces express terror, yet perseverance. In combination, the illustration humanizes Palestinians, portrays the power imbalance, and demonstrates the nature of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. In effect, Sacco is combatting false consciousness regarding misperception of the nature of Zionism. Additionally, Sacco works to emphasize the dispossession of the Palestinian people, a prime instance being when Sacco interviews a woman whose son is imprisoned and house has been bulldozed (Figure 1.2): The defeated expression, slow paced speech, and dark, empty, room sends a chilling message across to the reader—this woman lost so much: her child, her home, her country. The impression of strength is a recurring theme throughout Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, where narrative imparts personal descriptions regarding the imbalance of power between colonists and the colonized. A leading example is when Marlow provides two starkly different observations of both a Congolese …show more content…
In effect, the intensity of this description translates to the reader. Conrad also manipulates “the principle of end weight” (Nofal, 2013), where heavier phrases like “I could see every rib” and “each had an iron collar on his neck” are placed at the beginning of clauses, catching the reader off-guard with unsettling information. The descriptive, carefully structured form of Heart of Darkness paints a painfully uncomfortable image for the reader, highlighting the severe oppression of the African people and contributing to the decline of false consciousness concerning colonial capitalism. George Orwell brilliantly reveals financial exploitation through the Book of the Brotherhood: The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. The Book, although fictional, applies to both the fictitious situation in 1984 and real world political interests, for example:
Whichever power controls equatorial Africa, or the countries in the Middle East, or Southern India, or the Indonesian Archipelago, disposes also of the bodies of scores of hundreds of millions of ill-paid and hard-working coolies. The inhabitants of these areas, reduced more or less to the status of slaves, pass continually from conqueror to conqueror. (Orwell,