ival in France Jim finds himself in a ‘world unlike anything he had ever known or imagined.’ p58 He experienced the horrors and living and fighting in the trenches and the way war transformed soldiers into different people that became unrecognizable. As he sees the people killed and replaced and killed again he becomes a veteran of war and feels himself growing older. Marlow begins to lose his innocence when he arrives in Africa and witnesses the effects of colonialism. He had previously believed that colonialism would bring prosperity to the colonizing country as well as enlightenment, civilization and religion to the country being colonized. He begins to question the motives of the Europeans in Africa when he sees the disorganization and lack of purpose at the Outer Station. These doubts are reinforced as he travels up the river. He learns that individuals are only interested in personal gain. The managers and company agents were so obsessed with obtaining ivory that they forgot their morals and civilized ways. ‘The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages.’ p46 Being in Africa gave the Europeans a sense of power, which enabled them to treat the black natives like animals. ‘Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest.’ p 35 When meeting Kurtz, Marlow learns that civilization tends to restrain man’s savage tendencies. When man is left to his own desires without a protective, civilized environment, he becomes drawn back into savagery.Both characters embark on a journey of self discovery where they learn more about themselves and man. On Marlows journey into the heart of the Congo, he realizes that there is darkness in all men’s he...
