Heart of Darkness Pages 78-90

Conrad uses the Congo river and the areas around it to enhance the idea of dark versus light. On page 80, he says " I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark..." The Russian man who came aboard the ship uses the setting to contrast to this enlightenment when listening to Mr. Kurtz. Another example of using setting to symbolize the aspects of colonialism is on page 82 when the Russian man is describing what the forest like while waiting for Mr. Kurtz to come back from his ivory hunts and he says "the woods were unmoved, like a mask-- heavy, like the closed doors of a prison..." Again, everything that describes Africa sounds very dark and savage, which is what Europeans thought of Africa during the colonizing period. Another example is on page 83 when he describes the ruined house with the shrunken heads used as ornaments. I think that this really reinforces the general European population's idea at the time that Africa was a savage place, which goes along with the dark and ominous mood.