As somebody once said, “Symbolism is when you use one thing to represent something else, usually a material object representing something immaterial.” Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness is a book that has symbolism. Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness follows the sailor Charles Marlow as he pilots a steamboat up the river in Africa. He does this because he wants to, and unfortunately ends up being attacked quite a bit along the way, until he eventually reaches the high-flying big shot Mr. Kurtz, who promptly dies. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness, symbolism is very important because it is the very vehicle through which many of the text’s deeper themes are conveyed.
One of the deepest themes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness is the idea that no man has control of his own fate (status of the rest of us still pending, though given other evidence, it’s not looking good). As expected, this theme is symbolized through rivets. When Marlow is trapped at the Inner Station thanks to his rivetless existence, there is nothing he can do about it except sit and mope. “‘I…hate…rivets…like…a…lot’” (Conrad 7-69). This quote shows that Marlow hates rivets. He hates rivets because they were what was limiting him in life, much in the same way that everyone hates copyright laws and corporeality. But much like Marlow in this situation, the average human cannot change copyright laws, nor can they abandon their corporeal form. Through these facts, Joseph Conrad argues that both Marlow and the general populace have no control over their lives.
Another one of the biggest arguments of Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness is that Joseph Conrad is a massive stinkwad, as well as a right proper goober. This is made clear at many parts throughout the book, mostly through the portrayal of Marlow’s aunt, and, more importantly, Kurtz’s intended wife (who both symbolize women), and the portrayals of Africans (who symbolize Black people). For the former, Kurtz’s wife is shown to have an unnatural level of adoration over her husband, being completely devoted to his life over her own. This reflects ideas about gender roles at the time dubbed “The Cult of Domesticity” by 20th century historian Barbara Welter, which included the belief that women had to stifle their own ambitions so as not to show up their husbands. Besides this, Conrad also generally voices through Marlow such thoughts as, “‘It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are…also…they…stink’” (Conrad 16-46), which clearly does not live up to today’s standards of basic human decency and respect for women. As for the latter, Conrad makes a very big deal over Africans being uncivilized (besides just referring to them generically as Africans), at one point even using the phrase “‘deathlike indifference of unhappy savages’” (21) to describe a line of chained-together Africans shuffling past Marlow. If being a product of the times was an Olympic sport, Conrad would win a gold medal, as he didn’t simply believe that African culture was inferior to European culture, but he believed that African culture was entirely nonexistent, at one point describing the very languages of the native Africans as “‘strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language’” (90). Yowza! That’s racist!
Anywho, those examples are all canned beans compared to the biggest symbol in Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness: Charles Marlow himself. Marlow is an incredibly aggressive man, as seen when he tells Kurtz for no good reason, “‘“If you try to shout I’ll smash your head with—” There was not a stick or stone near. “I will throttle you for good,” I corrected myself’” (Conrad 89), or when he murders his ship’s main mechanic and then dances in joy before phasing out of existence, no doubt in an attempt to dodge the consequences of his villainous actions: “‘I slapped him on the back and shouted…He scrambled to his feet…I…snapped his…head…I tried a jig…and…vanished’” (Conrad 39). All of this evidence points towards the fact that Marlow symbolizes Nile crocodiles, some of the most aggressive animals on this planet, who hold no reservations about killing humans and are capable of vanishing at will (so long as there is a somewhat deep body of water nearby). Through this symbolism, Conrad conveys the common theme that men are crocodiles.
Symbolism is one of the greatest aspects of Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness, being used to eloquently convey the themes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. If Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness did not use any symbolism, its narrative would feel much flatter, and nobody would ever talk about it because there would be nothing to analyze. If symbolism was used in modern literature in the same amazing way it was used in Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness, then books would be much more interesting to read. As somebody once said, “(Kicker)”.