Blog #17: “Heart of Darkness versus Nature of Man”

First of all, the title “Heart of Darkness” is, in itself, relevant to the earlier discussion of whether the nature of man is innate or formed by his environment. The title suggests that man is evil, but doesn’t do anything as to the reason. In order to retrieve this information, one must read the book Heart of Darkness. In this book, a character named Kurtz is corrupted in the ivory trading business. Through a long, (and boring) jungle river trip, another character named Marlow, discovers that there is a mystery surrounding Kurtz. No one knows how he is able to get all the ivory that he does. As time goes on and the book continues (through describing the water for several pages), Marlow concludes that Kurtz is exploiting the natives for the ivory. Putting himself in the Congo region, forced this evil part out of him. While it is possible that it is innate, I believe his evil source to be his environment. Without the Congo, there would be no ivory, and no evil exploitation process. Kurtz transformed from a curious individual, into a man letting greed run his life. As a result, the natives suffered. The environment caused this, and is the reason for Kurtz’s evil nature.