Black And White

Joseph Conrad juxtaposes black and white imagery in Heart Of Darkeness. Clear distinctions exist between these two colors as they transmit opposing sensations. White is a clean color, generally associated with enlightenment and divinity. Black is the color of mystery, evil and death. Accordingly, black and white have definite connotations in Conrad’s novel.

Europeans are supposed to be superior in knowledge and understanding. They are the white, after all. They dictate the norms of society and set the peace for development. Conrad exposes their cruelty in his novel as he uncovers their abusive behavior. They harass the natives, exploiting them to the point of exhaustion. They think of themselves as “supernatural beings” in the face of the “savages” (92). Thus, the white individuals feel enlightened, as if it was a natural consequence of the color. On the other hand, the black people become savages. Their only sin lies in their skin, but it is big enough to anticipate hell. They become but “a grain of sand in the black Sahara” (93).

Racial discrimination is present through the pages, deeply engraved in everyone’s reality. Even in the face of adversity we find “the contrast of expression of white men and the black fellows” (72-73). White Europeans are described as men, but blacks only attain the title of “fellows”. And they are so savage that “they belong to the beginnings of time” (73). It is also as if humanity had split according to color, and the white had fallen into the darkest possibility. Blacks may fall into the unprivileged group, but they got to keep the white emotions.

Consequently, moral questioning arises. Is it better to be master of a white body but slave of a dark soul? Are Europeans superior at all, or is it an act staged for centuries? Conrad’s novel begs the reader to search his soul in a quest to attain spiritual reflection. Maybe there is no white and black but shades in between. Maybe there is white and black but they never fully align with actions. Everything brings consequences, and having an undeserved advantage for centuries eventually caught up with those “supernatural beings” Conrad envisions.