I remember first coming across the term "Heart of Darkness" when reading Lord of the Flies in school, and being intrigued when the teacher was trying to explain its significance (I won't lie to you and pretend to you that I understood it at the time!!).
The book is actually quite relevant to me right now as I am trying to teach my S3 class about the Slave Trade - and while they accept that Africa wasn't a completely heathen society they are struggling with understanding the idea of how it was viewed by the colonial masters, and those who were slavers. I am very tempted to hand out copies of Heart of Darkness and tell them that this was what it was actually like!
What I love about Conrad here is that he really does get to grips with the difference between what African society actually was actually like and how others viewed it. Yes there was a level of development, but because things like a ship's whistle could scare the natives so much it was believed that they were an uncivilised species.
I also quite liked the way in which Conrad highlights the "darkness" that is faced by those colonials living very much in the heart of Africa and all for the demands of British society. This is illustrated in both the relationship between the Russian trader with Kurtz and also between Kurtz and the natives.
The only one slight thing that bugged me was the speed in which Marlow begins to almost idolise the character of Kurtz. To me it just doesn't sit right, and I find it a little weird particularly as Kurtz really do anything that seems worthy of Marlow's idolatry praise, while at the same time Marlow doesn't seem particularly overawed with idea of standing in Kurtz's place instead.
Still I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it got me back on track with this challenge after a couple of really tough books to get through. Well worth a read.
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