Symbolism in Conrad

One particularly critical symbol to understand if an individual is to understand the psychology behind Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is the symbolism of the Europeans juxtaposed with the savage cannibals. The narrator Marlow is very surprised by the reversal of European and African roles and his initial illusion of European social and moral supremacy is ultimately shattered. Europeans like Kurtz and the manager seem to show little restraint and adherence to a moral code and seem to metaphorically cannibalize the land for natural resources while providing minimal compensation for those force to work with them. While starved to death by their minuscule pay and supposedly corrupted by their savage nature in the Heart of Darkness, the native cannibals show restraint in not eating each other or their European companions to support a human necessity. This European lack of the restraint for trivial goods juxtaposed against the African upholding of moral dignity dispels Marlow’s reality providing a dreamlike reality.