Throughout Heart of Darkness, the treatment of the natives is consistently demeaning. They are described as savages, animals even in various passages. These descriptions may just be simple observations by Conrad or, the way Chinua Achebe views this novel, a very racist perspective.
Conrad was a man of his time. He really did travel by ship for a good part of his life. During these journeys, chances are he witnessed the behavior and treatment of the natives. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad never gives his opinion on how the natives are abused, he just states it. With this, it is difficult to tell whether Conrad himself was prejudice towards African culture or whether he just felt the need to state the facts. In the book, however, there are many offensive passages that can be taken as prejudice towards African culture.
The natives are repetitively described as savages, but the real savages are Kurtz, Marlow, and the rest of the crew who will do anything just for ivory. Their greedy motives drive them to the ends of sanity, a sanity Kurtz winded up leaving behind. Kurtz himself can be seen as the worst savage of them all. He places heads on stakes in front of the house he was residing in to face him, all but one, which symbolizes an entrance to all those who want to join him in his savage life lived in darkness. Kurtz surrounded himself with walls of ivory – death. His final screams, “The horror! The horror!” shows the utter darkness he sees for living a life of savagery. His transformation, his fall to the primitive savage inside him, is the real heart of darkness, “[…] he had stepped over the edge”.
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