In Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, the narrator journeys into Africa on what the Europeans termed a "civilizing" mission. The journey, which is spiritual as much as it is physical, becomes more than a simple mission, however, as the narrator must confront the powers of light and darkness: the dawning [light] realization is that the "civilizing" mission is inherently dark and evil. by the end of the novel, it is understood that "instead of bringing light into darkness as it claims, the 'civilizing' mission uncovers the 'darkness' at its own heart" (xi).

In superstitions and stories, light is generally a symbol of good. In the case of Heart of Darkness, light did not serve as proof of an underlying good within the civilizing mission. Instead, "the sunlit face of the land [gave] a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the rofound darkness of its heart" (58). At first, Marlow (the main narrator) believed that the darkness existed through the savage

Marlow's enlightenment was best shown in a speech he made about first entering the deeper part of Africa. He said, "I seemed at one bound to have been transported into some lightless region of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist - obviously - in the sunshine" (95). It was not until later that Marlow realized what his words had meant. It was not until later that Marlow became enlightened with the idea that the heart of darkness existed within the imperialistic hearts of those behind the civilizing mission.

It was when he met his main contact, Kurtz, that Marlow's view changed. Not only had Kurtz set himself up as a god-like person, but he wanted all that the tribe had to be his own. He wanted complete control over all that was around him. Marlow was thus enlightened to the true nature of the civilizing mission: while the people of Europe were worrying about the savage nature of the Africans, it was a European who was behaving in a savage manner. Rather than civilizing

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Approximate Word count = 710
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)