Why not know more…

Heart of Darkness has clearly been a highly controversial piece, however, as an accurate portrayal of a part of history that has been suppressed and glossed over, by European society, and the “other”, I think it is a highly educational novella for anyone to read. Clearly, we must take with a sense of objectivity the harsh and violent language Joseph Conrad uses, especially where it is aimed at the African natives. But this harsh language alone is no reason to avoid a book such as this. When reading literature from a different time, there always must be openness to the fact that the cultural norm the author is coming from is not always going to fit into the comfortable bubble we currently live in. This is part of what makes up studying history, and perspectives of those that came before us.
I fully agree with Miller when he explains how we should read Heart of Darkness, “as a powerful exemplary revelation of the ideology of capitalist imperialism, including its racism and sexism,” (HoD 474). It should be clear that we communicate internationally on a basis of sharing one culture with another, we will never be the same culture and we will all never fully acclimate to the perspectives of foreign societies. Therefore, we have literature and communication one person to another to imply these cultural differences. It is not for the reason of colonizing one another, but to objectively but openly view another society through the eyes of a stranger. Meanwhile always attempting to view the world through the eyes of the author, this is essentially why literature such as Heart of Darkness is created. To give eyes into the world that some will never gain on their own.