Essay On Inhumanism In Heart Of Darkness - 1869 Words

To combat these fears, Conrad and Marlow set the scene of the story in a dark, unknown land, and as their burdens increase and threaten their identities, the white men react with racism and cruelty. With his burden of insecurity and struggle to maintain his identity, Marlow attempts to cover up the truths about the inhumanity of the Europeans. To justify the horrors he uncovers and to rebury these threats to his power, Marlow depicts the natives as primitive savages deserving of the white men’s rule. He calls them â€Å"not inhuman† as he describes their ferocity and wildness because he feels threatened by the idea of his â€Å"remote kinship† to these uncivilized natives (Conrad 45). Like many Europeans, Kurtz enters the African setting with†¦show more content†¦The white men justify this exploitation and destruction of Kong and the natives’ way of life because they fear the unknown and threatening monsters within the island’s jungle. In addition to the monsters and natives they fear, the white men feel threatened by the failures they see in themselves. Kong’s superiority in protecting Ann Darrow threatens Jack Driscoll’s role as a white man who must save his woman from harm. His burden, the knowledge that his own power is insignificant compared to that of Kong and the natives who kidnap Ann, leaves him desperately chasing after Ann while Kong fights his battles for him, displacing his status as the superior white man he once thought himself to be. This inadequacy leaves Driscoll desperate to rebury the truth, a burden which threatens to drag him down from his once high position on the racial hierarchy of the world. In Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan also feels the threats against his power as the orphaned son of an English lord. Yet his unconventional upbringing as the adopted member of a tribe of apes on an African island and fear of his similarities with the native tribe are the truths that weigh him down. However, Tarzan has an innate sense of power and nobility as he, like his English counterpart, obtains an education, establishes his right to rule, and feels superior with his white skin and English language. From an early age, Tarzan considers himself to be different from the ape tribe, and later in