Heart of Darkness - Section 3

As Marlow continues to catch glimpses of Kurtz’s subordinates as he ventures farther down the river, he and the reader continue to see the lawless nature of Europe-occupied Africa.  As he eavesdrops on the conversation of one manager, Marlow overhears the man’s description of “a pestilential fellow” who steals precious ivory from native tribes (104).  The word “pestilential” invokes images of death and disease, creating a hostile and inhospitable mood that the reader associates with a man who appears to be rather high in Kurtz’s chain of command.  This manager suggests soon after that he arbitrarily hang a native to assert his power of this “pestilential fellow” (104).  Without hesitation, the man with whom he is speaking to “grunt[s]” in reply that hanging a native would be an excellent idea.  The impulsive urge to murder at random speaks clearly to the entitlement that the Europeans wreak upon native African people.  The responsive “grunt” of the manager’s companion further raises doubts that the colonists have any semblance of a conscience, since the word has a strongly primitive and nasty connotation.  The primitive connotation of the word also ironically points out the way the Europeans view the “savages” who are native to Africa, when the colonists themselves are no less human.  Many simple conversations such as this one that Marlow overhears exemplify the way the colonists of Europe feel that they are entitled to stroll into Africa and treat the land and the people as subhuman property.