Facing the Dark Truth in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness Conrad's Heart of Darkness has two major parts: a frank look at reality of imperialism, particularly in the Belgian Congo, and an exploration of the darkest depths of human existence. A symbolically dense part of the work occurs when Marlow and company are attacked on their journey to the "heart of darkness" and to Kurtz. The attack begins suddenly and everyone in the company is forced to deal with this intrusion into life as they see fit. The men of the company immediately fired their pistols into the brush. "The Pilgrims had opened up with their Winchesters and were just throwing lead into that bush. A fair amount of smoke rose up and moved slowly. I swore at it. Now I didn't see the ripple or the problem." The Pilgrims' gunfire prevents Marlow from seeing the snag, and that doesn't even stop the attack, although the Pilgrims are really proud of themselves. "'Say! We had to make it a glorious massacre in the bush. Eh ? What do you think? Say ?' He really danced, the little red-headed, bloodthirsty beggar. And he almost fainted when he saw the injured man. I couldn't help but say, "Anyway, you made a nice smoke." I had seen, by the way the tops of the bushes rustled and flew, that almost all the shots had gone too high. You can't hit anything unless you aim and fire from the shoulder, but these guys fired from the hip with it; eyes closed. "I think this behavior of the pilgrims is representative of the imperialist movement as a whole. It was launched recklessly, without real objectives, despite the claim that it was a movement civilizing the world. History and Listening ...... middle of paper ......g his boat across the river, on the lookout for snags There is enough superficial truth here to keep him fully occupied and not give him time. to distinguish the nature of the “little sticks” that fly everywhere When he finally understands that the sticks are arrows and that they are “shot at”, he confronts the truth hidden in the dark depths..." ( 69-70). This almost sounds like "mind your own business", but I don't think it's that simple. Conrad is simply suggesting that everyone does their "task at hand". When faced with something, you must be prepared to face the dark truth and exercise restraint. , like Conrad himself. He had gone to the Congo, on which the book is based, and showed restraint and returned alive. By staying within the boundaries of society, he faced the dark truth and wrote a book about it..