While reading Heart of Darkness, I noticed that Conrad was injecting many pointed criticisms of colonialism into Marlow's narrative. Even things that Marlow doesn't directly condemn, Conrad seems to completely despise. This made me think about what Conrad's opinion would be about the United States invasion and subsequent quasi-colonialization ("occupation") of Iraq. Though more humane and altogether less oppressive, the occupation of Iraq draws striking parallels with the Belgian colonialization depicted in Heart of Darkness.
For one thing, Marlow's disgust at the incompetent mismanagement and overall ineffectiveness of the Company could just has easily been a scathing critique of our government. The way the Company seems lost and confused in the Congo parallels our apparent strategy (or lack thereof) in Iraq, at least at the beginning of the occupation. Furthermore, Kurtz's self-serving exploitation of the natives for his own profit mirrors certain American businesses taking advantage of the chaos in Iraq to reap abundant monetary rewards.
If any lessons can be taken from Heart of Darkness and applied to our world, I think that the evils of colonialism is an important theme that is extremely relevant in modern times. Though we are not as blatantly imperialistic in our motives, the result in Iraq is the same as what happened in the Congo such a long time ago. Perhaps if those who made the decision to go into Iraq had read Heart of Darkness, the world would be a better place. Actually, there's no way George Bush would have made it past page 5.
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