"It takes a man and all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. [...] and these chaps, too, had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple" (HOD 116).
In this quotation Marlow is marveling at the fact that the starving natives haven't turned to eat him or his crew. He realizes they are starving by their quickness to respond how they will "dispose" of the enemies attempting to attack the ship, and the fact that the crew members have long since thrown overboard their only other source of food.
This quote is interesting because Marlow is simultaneously admitting to positive attributes of the natives, while maintaining the racist overview that they have no morals. He talks about how they must have huge amounts of strength to fight off their hunger and not eat the crew members, and is even more astonished because, as he says, they have no reason to possess morals against eating the other members of the party.
This is a good example of how Marlow's internal musings could have been taken as evidence that he is a progressive thinker, and therefore less racist. However, in our time, we still see the racist setting of his mind around his musings, and define him as conservative. It is in Marlow's existential digressive thoughts that all evidence of his supposed "ahead of his time" conclusions arise. However, soon after making one of these conclusions, Marlow soon says something that defines him as a legitimate product of his time.
No comments:
Post a Comment