Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is about our narrator, Charlie Marlow, who takes a journey up the Congo River for the Belgian Trading company to discover the corruption and despair in the Congo. During this time period of imperialism, Belgians inhabited the Congo saying it was the "white man's burden" to educate the Africans whom they considered inferior. What ended up resulting instead is the exploitation of rubber in the area, also many atrocities occurred as a result of Imperialism but the atrocities in the Congo were amongst the worste. This book was one of the first to provide a critical perspective of European imperialism. It was considered controversial becuase Heart of Darkness suggests that imperialism falls apart when men are allowed to operate outside a social system of checks and balances: power, especially power over other human beings, inevitably corrupts. So far in the book, I've learned that Marlow is not one who sees things superficially but derives meaning from everything and takes nothing for granted. At the moment, he and his crew are sailing up the Congo River. This book so far is kind of boring but I hope it'll get better!