Analysis

Imperialism: Backfired

As history has shown, stronger nations regularly use imperialism over smaller nations to gain a benefit for themselves. However, both Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" depicts how imperialism leads to madness and evil behavior as moral and ethical boundaries are taken away. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" tells the story of Marlow and Kurtz, two men working together in Africa with varying opinions regarding imperialism. Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" tells the story of two veterans, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, and their imperialist based schemes based upon convincing people that they are kings and have divine power. Kipling and Conrad both make it clear that even though a strong nation may gain a material benefit for themselves through imperialism, the same nation will lose morals and ethics as a direct result of the imperialism.

In "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, Marlow is shown to be skeptical about imperialism. The Company he captains for, on the other hand, is shown to be money driven. The Company trades along the Congo in Africa and exploits many Africans. Marlow observes the following:

Six black men advancing in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. ...I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them...(260)

Obviously, the Company is exploiting these workers and they can't do anything about it. Kurtz, on the other hand, is consistently friendly with the natives, angering his European acquaintances in the process. Kurtz has convinced the African people that he is a god. He tells stories of going on brutal raids in search of ivory. Kurtz last words before dying were, "The horror! The horror!" (313) as he was dying onboard the steamship during repairs

In Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carne are ex-soldiers who travel to Kafiristan, in the Afghan mountains. Their plan is to convince the natives they are kings and have divine power. During planning for the trip to Kafiristan, Carnehan says, "We are not little men, and there is nothing that we are afraid of except Drink, and we have signed a Contrack on that. Therefore, we are going away to be Kings" (161). Everything was going great until, against the advice of Carne and others, he decided to marry a native girl. Sure enough, after Dravot tried to kiss her, he writes,

'The slut's bitten me!'...clapping his hand to his neck, and sure enough, his hand was red with blood. Billy Fish and two of his matchlock men catches hold of Dan by the shoulders and drags him into the Bashkai lot, while the priests howls in their lingo-'Neither God nor Devil but a man!' I was all taken aback, for a priest