‘"It was
unearthly, and the men were - No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that
was the worst of it - this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come
slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but
what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity - like yours - the
thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar”’ (Conrad
108).
In this section of the book Conrad is describing his trip
to the Congo and the people that he sees on his way. Conrad throughout the
beginning of the book expressed his racist view of the Africans and how he in
some ways did not consider them to be humans. He viewed himself as superior to
them. Now as he continues to go deeper into the Congo he is forced to
reconsider his preconceptions of these people. This quotation expresses the
change in his view of them because he now is describing the people from the
Congo as humans. He goes even further by realizing that these people are similar
to the Europeans. He explains that these people are still savages, but that
being a savage is part of being a human. Conrad still cannot see the Africans
as equals, but he does see that they are similar to him because they have real
relationships and families just like he and the other Europeans do. He realizes
that they are capable of having human relationships.
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