Imperialism and Significant Impacts on the Victims and Perpetrators - Essay Example

Imperialism in Hearts of Darkness Imperialism refers to a practice or policy by which a country extends its power by gaining hold of or acquiring control over other areas of the world in the mold of colonies or dependencies. The term imperialism gets mostly used to describe the 19th and 20th century western economic and political dominance. The 19th and 20th century witnessed the forcible imposition of far more powerful foreign governments control over weaker countries. Imperialism had effects on both the victims and the perpetrators. In the contexts of both the film and the novel, the victims of imperialism got to be the natives while the perpetrators were the European and American forces that invaded their lands. The novel ‘heart of darkness’, 1889, by Joseph Conrad documents the attitudes on racism and colonialism characterized by the European imperialism. The novel documents document the story of a European named Kurtz who explored the Congo and managed to establish himself as a god. The novel got adapted by Francis Ford Coppola into a film ‘apocalypse now’, 1979, which goes further to examine the imperialist effects on the victims and perpetrators. Unlike the novel, the movie gets set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A look at both the film and novel reveals just how imperialism had a profound effect on both the perpetrators and victims. Both the film and movie set out on a journey to find out just how the imperialist wars transformed the perpetrators. They reveal the madness that imperial action had on both the victims and the perpetrator. In ‘apocalypse now’, the story gets based upon Conrad’s novel but instead of focusing on the Congo, the film focuses on the unexplainable venture of America into Vietnam. Colonel Willard sets out with a crew on a United States Army patrol boat in search of Colonel Kurtz, regarded as one of the army’s most decorated soldier and has instilled his control deep within enemy territory (Coppola). At the end of both the film and the movie, the viewer or reader gets to witness just how the war transformed the character named Kurtz. The end of the film and novel reveal just what has become of Kurtz and his thought process. It becomes clear that the war transformed the European idealism of imperialism in Africa and the American idealism in the film. A clear impact of imperialism in both the film and novel can get witnessed on the character named Kurtz. In the novel, Kurtz has managed to slip deep into enemy territory to the farthest reaches of the Congo. There, he has established himself as a god and has his army of local tribesmen. When Marlow who is in search of Kurtz arrives his station, he gets astounded at how Kurtz has changed his mind set and does not make similar moral judgments as a normal person. Kurtz narrates to him of how he has undertaken brutal raids on surrounding territory with his army of tribesmen in search of ivory. He tells Marlow of how his army of tribesmen is able to use their primordial instincts and kill without judgment, passion, or feeling (Conrad 2012, p.66). The fact that Kurtz has collected severed heads of his victims on the fence posts of his station ascribes to how ruthless he had become. The reader gets to notice just how much Kurtz had become of a savage through his conversation with Marlow that he could no longer view the atrocities he was committing without despair or madness. When Marlow sets out with Kurtz on the steam boat, Kurtz gives him some personal documents on how to civilize the natives whom he refers to as savages. He even goes further to say in the documents that the imperialists should kill all the brutes. Kurtz eventually dies on the steam boat and this can be attributed to the harsh conditions of the jungle he had set himself in. the environmental conditions of the jungle had a significant impact on the imperialists health as witnessed by his death (Conrad 2012, p.77). It goes to show the reader how dramatic the imperialist action of trying to invade the Congo had impacted on Kurtz. In the film, Colonel Willard also gets engulfed by the sequence of imperialism. The audience notices this through a scene where Colonel Willard together with crew members pushes their way through the jungle on army patrol boat in search of Colonel Kurtz. As they ride along, they get to witness a burnt out chassis of an American helicopter that was stuck on a tree. This indicates to the viewer how the war had vicious effects on the American perpetrators of the imperialist policy on Vietnam. Along the way, the boat encounters a Vietnamese dugout that was filled with produce and people. The crew is unable to tell whether the people were friends or enemies. They could neither communicate with the natives because of language barrier. A young Vietnamese girl makes a sudden dash to protect a crate that had produce. This lead an American armed with a machine gun begin to fire at the people (Coppola). In one swoop, he wipes out the entire group of natives. It later turns out that the young girl was dashing for her puppy. The mother to the girl is not quite dead after the ordeal. When the patrol boat chief asks to take the woman for medical attention, Colonel Willard shoots and kills her because he does not want his mission to get delayed. He does this in accordance to the imperialist instructions of the war. This reveals to the audience the further brutality that imperialism instilled on the perpetrators. In Conrad’s novel, the hypocrisy of imperialism on the natives can further get witnessed as Marlow travels in search of Kurtz. The novel documents his travel up the river to the Inner Station from the Outer Station. The incidental scenery of the novel offers a harsh picture of imperialist enterprise. Along his travel, Marlow gets to witness the cruelty, torture, and near slavery conditions that the natives got exposed to (Conrad 2012, p.65). The imperialist viewed the torture and cruelty they served on the natives as a benevolent project in their bid to civilize them. Kurtz for instance, narrates to Marlow how his men would engage with other enemies from surrounding territories by viciously killing them without fear of judgment. Kurtz had imposed himself as a god upon the natives who almost got to worshipping him. Through the documents he bequeathed to Marlow, he openly admits that the natives should be suppressed or exterminated if the imperialists would like to civilize them. In the novel, the African natives get viewed as objects and not human beings. They get murdered without consideration. For instance, Marlow keeps referring to his helmsman as a machine object (Conrad 2012, p.56). He views Kurtz’s African mistress as statuary. The novel gets the reader to view how dehumanizing the imperialists were to the native Africans. The imperialist claimed to ‘trade’ with the Africans yet they practiced forced labor on them and took their ivory through force as witnessed through Kurtz’s operations. The novel reveals how imperialism dehumanized the natives. The movie goes further to illustrate how brutal the war was to the natives. As Willard makes his way up the Nung River with the American patrol boat, they encounter mutilated bodies littered along the banks of the river. Many lives of the natives got lost as a result of their repression against imperialism. The movie shows a number of US army airstrikes on helpless villages. Willard and his companions on the boat get forced to observe assaults on VietCong villages by the American fighter planes (Coppola). The natives got exposed to extreme force and brutality of the army’s expansive missions. The audience gets to witness how some of the army commanders had turned into maniacs who could conduct any form of atrocities on the natives of the Vietnamese hidden deep within the jungle. The movie further illustrates the damage that the war had on the victim’s environment. Frequent air strikes on the jungles left the environment degraded from its initial natural fauna. Bodies were littered over the environment as a result of the imperialist war. Imperialism had significant impacts on both the victims and perpetrators. The imperialists got affected by the war psychologically and physically. In the novel and film, the imperialist encounter harsh environmental conditions that impacts negatively on their health. The war also causes the imperialist to lose their morality and turn out into savages engulfed with madness. ‘Apocalypse now’ captures this aspect through Colonel Kurtz who lost his humanity and lived like a savage after interacting with the native tribesmen. Colonel Willard who sets on a mission to find Kurtz also becomes engulfed in the madness that the war had on the imperialists. Imperialist armies were also cruel to the natives by undertaking their killings without plausible reasons. The natives implied in the film and novel also have to live with the cruelty, torture, and brutality exercised on them by the imperialists. They get to lose their resources and lives as they engage in rebellions against the imperialists. The natives get dehumanized within their own territory. Reference Conrad, J., 2012. Heart of Darkness. New York: Start Publishing LLC. Coppola, F. F. (Director). (1979). Apocalypse Now [Motion Picture]. Read More