FREE ESSAY ON COLONIZATION IN THE THEME OF CONRADS HEART OF DARKNESS AND SWIFT'S A MODEST PROPOSAL

COLONIZATION IN THE THEME OF CONRADS HEART OF DARKNESS AND SWIFT'S A MODEST PROPOSAL

Joseph Riley McCormack
Professor Alan Somerset
English 020 Section 007
Submission Date: March 22, 2000
Colonization in the Theme of A Modest Proposal and Heart of Darkness
Starting at the beginning of the seventeenth century, European countries began exploring
and colonizing many different areas of the world. The last half of the nineteenth century
saw the height of European colonial power around the globe. France, Belgium, Germany, and
especially Great Britain, controlled over half the world. Along with this achievement
came a notable sense of pride and confident belief that European civilization was the
best on earth and that the natives of the lands Europeans controlled would only benefit
from colonial influence. However, not everybody saw colonization as positive for all
those involved. Some of the most notable writers of the time produced works criticizing
the process of colonization. Two of the most significant works in this area are Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. Although these pieces
of literature both criticize colonization, they have different themes. The theme of A
Modest Proposal could be described as the negative effects of colonization on the
colonized, while the central idea in Heart of Darkness is the negative effects of
colonization on both the colonized and the colonizers. The differences in these themes
are significant to the strategies used by the authors to explore the adverse effects of
colonization. Swift makes great use of irony and imagery, to accentuate the plight of the
Irish. Conrad comments on the frightening changes that people involved with colonization
can go through by exploring character development and detailing a narrative of
oppression.
Swift uses irony in A Modest Proposal because it allows him to highlight the emotional
detachment felt by the colonizing British towards the Irish. It is this emotional
detached feeling that lead to the atrocities committed against the Irish citizens. The
irony in A Modest Proposal is evident right in the title. There is certainly nothing
modest about the proposal of eating the infants of impoverished Irish citizens. The irony
accentuates how cruel and uncompassionate the powerful British Imperialists were, towards
the destitute Irish population. The reader must realize that Swift is operating
independently of the narrator in a covert manner (Phiddian 607). He develops the persona
of the proposer to say exactly the opposite of what he feels. While the proposer suggests
eating poor Irish children is particularly proper at merry meetings, particularly
weddings and christenings, this could not be further from the opinion of Swift. Nor does
Swift actually believe that this plan will increase the care and tenderness of mothers
toward their children. (NA 1052) Moreover, the whole topic of cannibalism, is discussed
with tongue in cheek and is meant to suggest that the British were devouring the Irish. 
Images of cruelty and evil put, forward by the narrator, weigh heavily in the theme of A
Modest Proposal. Throughout the pamphlet, the reader is bombarded with disturbing imagery
of Irish people and their children being treated like livestock raised for consumption.
The narrator refers to the parents of the children as savages (NA 1050) and breeders (NA
1051) and dams (NA 1048). Then he compares the children to roasting pigs (NA 1050) and
continues as if he were writing a cook book. He speaks of how delicious he thinks these
infants would be whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled (NA 1049) or served in a
fricassee or a ragout (NA 1049). He describes how the carcasses (NA 1050) of these babies
could be nicely seasoned with a little pepper or salt (NA 1050) and will be in season
throughout the year (NA 1050). Flaying the carcass and using the skin of these babies to
make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen (NA 1050) is
another suggestion he puts forward. He expands beyond just slaughtering the infants for
food and leather products by suggesting the possibility of hunting the adolescents for
sport. He dismisses this idea because he imagines the flesh of the adolescents would be
too tough for eating and because hunting them would reduce the breeding stock. He also
has concerns that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice
(although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering on cruelty (NA 1051). All of the
gruesome imagery used in A Modest Proposal has earned it the reputation of being one of
Swift's most potent attacks in his war on a class of civilized people who often behave
like animals (McMinn 149).
Joseph Conrad details a narrative of oppression emphasizing the horrible treatment of
African natives during the colonization of the Congo. The Europeans claimed that they
were trying to civilize the natives, and that each colonized station should be for
humanizing, improving and instructing, (NA 2228) as if colonization was to the advantage
of the natives. In the same voice, it was said that the natives were brutes (NA 2242) and
savages (NA 2218) and that they should all be exterminated (NA 2242). Heart of Darkness
described African blacks as being criminals (NA 2216) and enemies (NA 2214) and they were
treated as such. The natives were forced to do intense heavy labor for the colonizers.
They dug holes, tunneled through mountains, moved soil from one place to another in
baskets balanced on their heads. When there was no meaningful work needed to be done, the
blacks were forced to do heavy labor just for the sake of doing heavy labor. They did
objectless blasting (NA 2215) and other pointless work in the whites philanthropic desire
of giving the criminals something to do (NA 2216). They were treated like working
animals. They were forced to carry 60lb loads 200 miles in scorching heat with inadequate
nourishment. A number of them died on that trip. In the stations they worked in chain
gangs where, each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected with a chain (NA
2215). They were supervised by other gun wielding natives who had apparently joined the
colonizers in the oppression of their people. When the overworked natives could work no
more they would simply crawl under a tree in the shade and die. If the blacks stopped
working, made a mistake, or were suspected of making a mistake, they were beaten
savagely. Beatings are very common in Heart of Darkness. The European pilgrims are
constantly in the possession of staves, just in case they should have to discipline a
native. A black man was beaten nearly to death as the result of a dispute over two hens.
Then later in the story, a black man was beaten so badly that after a few days he just
wandered off into the forest and died. It becomes increasingly clear as the plot develops
that the colonizing Europeans treated the land and the people they were colonizing with
no respect at all. 
Through the presentation of characters and their development through the story, Conrad
examines the negative effects colonization can have on the colonizers. It makes them
lazy; it reveals their weaknesses; it puffs them up with empty vanity of being white; and
it fortifies the intolerable hypocrisy with which Europeans in general conceal their
selfish aims (Watt 37). It causes them to hate and brings out the evil from within them.
The first white man that Marlow comes across in the Congo is the companies accountant.
His vanity is evident, from the way he keeps himself impeccably groomed, while other
human beings around him are living squalid, unbearable lives and dying horrifying deaths.
He wore a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a
clear necktie and varnished boots (NA 2217). Meanwhile, everything else in the station
was a muddle (NA 2217) and there were people breathing their last breaths just outside
his door. The development of his hatred while in Africa is clear when he tells Marlow
that one comes to hate those savages - hate them to death (NA 2218). His evilness is
accentuated by the flies that buzzed fiendishly (NA 2217) around him, conjuring up images
of Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. Though his character is a minor one, the accountant
gives the readers their first taste of the Congo's detrimental effects on the
colonizers.
Kurtz and Marlow are sort of mirror images of one another. Marlow is what Kurtz once was
and Kurtz is what Marlow could have been. Both are affected adversely by their experience
in the Congo. The change in Marlow is very evident by the end of the story. Near the
beginning of the story, he states that he is appalled by lies, that there is a taint of
death (NA 2224) and a flavour of mortality (NA 2224) in them. He says lies are exactly
what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget (NA 2224). Then in the end of
the story, he must make a decision whether to tell Kurtz's wife a truth that will
devastate her or a lie that will put her at ease. He lies to her. It may be good
intentions that caused him to lie, but he lied all the same. A part of Marlow died in the
Congo and he became what he hates, a liar. Kurtz on the other hand went into the Congo as
a highly respected person for whom superiors had high hopes and big plans. By the end of
the story Kurtz has gone insane. While Marlow peeped over the edge, (NA 2257) and drew
back [his] hesitating foot, (NA 2258) Kurtz had made that last stride, he had stepped
over the edge (NA 2258). Kurtz was so damaged by his Congo colonization experience that
it killed him before he made it back to civilization. It is these changes in the main
characters of the story that are most influential in developing, in the reader, a sense
of how colonization effects the colonizer.
Colonization is a part of the theme in both Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and
Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. While Swift's work deals mainly with the negative
effects of colonization on those being colonized, Conrad's story explores the negative
experiences of both the colonized and the colonizers. The differences in these themes are
significant to the strategies used by the authors to explore the negative effects of
colonization. As in much of his literary work, Swift uses a great deal of irony and
imagery to drive his point home. Conrad on the other hand, details a narrative of
oppression and delves into character development to describe his thoughts and experiences
with colonization in Africa. These works can be viewed as criticisms of events of the
past, but they should also be viewed as warnings for the future. People should learn from
the past and not make the same mistakes twice. Unfortunately it seems as if history
repeats itself and human beings make the same error over and over again.
Bibliography
McMinn, Joseph. Jonathan Swift: a literary life. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1991. 
Phiddian, Robert. Have you eaten yet? The Reader in A Modest Proposal.
SEL: Studies in English Literature (Summer 1996) : 603-621.
Watt, Ian. Ideological Perspectives: Kurtz and the Fate of Victorian Progress. Joseph
Conrad. Ed. Elaine Jordan. London: Macmillan Press. 1996. 32-47.