Toto's Africa, Best to Keep it in Song Form

I feel that Charlie Marlow, a character in John Conrad's Heart of Darkness, experienced disorientalism. I believe Marlow's disorientalism complements, and enhances our understanding of his experience. Marlow begins the story with lofty ambitions. He was a man who wanted to be a sailor in order to explore the world. He seems to be a character that was greatly affected by imperialism and its fascination with other cultures. He may have been expose to the postcards similar to, The Toilet Girls or The Exotic Beauty. The postcards maintain an idea of the white man’s burden. Conrad understands these notions; Marlow benefits from the white man's burden because it allows him to travel to new places, but he does not have the desire to help people.  

Conrad writes, “Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you-smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage…”(Conrad 15).  Marlow does not think about the people or the dangers of exploring a new land he only thinks about his adventures and himself. He creates emotions for a place, and therefore does not create a complete atmosphere. His lack of perspective, intentionally written in Conrad's style, limits his ideas of Africans. 

Marlow maintains a level of excitement and adventure through part I and II. Although  Conrad writes in an impressionistic style, Marlow's experience in Africa is not simply and impression. Conrad's writing style especially does not dictate the character’s psychological experiences.  Later in the novel, Conrad seems to change his views of Africa because the harsh taste of Africa that he is recieving. The expeditions and postcards try to recreate a new world within the “controlled environment” of  British society.  Marlow loses the safety of British society immediately after the loss of  Kurtz.  As he travels through the heart of  darkness in search of Kurtz, he learns that  European superiority cannot survive in Africa. At some level, this novel maintains an idea of  both Orientalism and disorientalism as Marlow becomes disoriented.