Cultural Ignorance in Heart of Darkness, By Joseph Conrad...

An inescapable ignorance dominates the way we define culture. It is all too easy to define culture when a group of people feel as though they are part of the same culture. A bias arises when defining this term, because we consider ourselves to be cultured. We define culture with our own definitions, and we judge it through our own prejudiced eyes. To accurately define culture, we must take ourselves out of the cultural boundaries we have been accustomed to. Of course, this is impossible. Accordingly, defining the essence of culture is something I cannot attempt to do. In Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, the attempt to define the cultural line leads to the corruption, greed, and evil of the white man. Even when†¦show more content†¦They use the natives for work that does not even exist, and a pleasure arises from treating natives as their slaves. At the central station, Marlow is struck by the seemingly pointless operation of the bricklayer. The central station cannot perform its supposed duty due to a lack of material that will never reach the station. The men become paralyzed in a state of inefficiency that traps them in the heart of darkness. Their existence becomes stagnant and non-moving. The men waste away their lives placing themselves above the natives for no apparent purpose. In Apocalypse Now, soldiers even begin to surf in the middle of a war battle! Marlow claims, What saves us (those that do work) is efficiency-the devotion to efficiency (Conrad 10). They are able to escape the reaches of darkness by keeping their mi nds set on just doing their job. It seems though, that efficiency does not save these men. Ignorance becomes their real saving grace. By ignoring the greed of his fellow man, the working white man allows his heart to escape this darkness. By refusing to acknowledge the horrible deeds done by those around him, the working man can avoid the inescapable path I referred to previously. So what causes the white man to dive into the heart of darkness? Sure, greed is the primary driving force, but the way the white man feeds his greed causes the problem. Men such as the Manager and Kurtz, see the natives as mere workhorses, as a part of the other world, theShow MoreRelatedThe Oral Tradition Of Storytelling1510 Words   |  7 PagesAmerican culture and the White culture’s total disregard for their ways. In this story, Silko’s storytelling can heal and transform the experience of loss, whether it be personal or cultural. In the story, all of the tragedies of Ayah’s life are caused by the intrusion of white authorities into her home. The cultural oppression of Native Americans in this story is told through the personal losses Ayah has suffered due to white culture. 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