Heart Of Darkness I

At the very beginning of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad establishes a symbolic representation of light and dark that contrasts with most books' use of this motif. Whereas most traditional works of literature will use the color white, light and brightness to symbolize illumination of the truth, similarly using the color black, darkness and shadow to symbolize hiding the truth, Heart of Darkness uses light to symbolize what is unknown and black to symbolize what is discovered. Maslow exemplifies this symbol with his statement that Africa "had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery - a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness" (71). Maslow is speaking of the white portion of the map as the unexplored portion and of the explored portion as a "place of darkness." In this way, he matches whiteness with a lack of knowledge. This indicates that the white people are similarly unknowing - that whites are unaware of the world. With Heart of Darkness being a story of the discovery of the evil of humanity, the whites' being unaware of this evil contrasts with the perspective of those who live in darkness - the blacks.

Furthermore, the general  scene sets this image. The scene is one of light turning to darkness - of sunset. Similarly, his story is about to transform the sailors from their white, light, unknowing selves to a darker crew more aware of the evils of humanity. The sun is described as in a "curved and imperceptible fall" (66). The sun is slowly going away, turning "from glowing white [in]to a dull red without rays and without heat" (66). In other words, the light is dimming, going from white to black. While the sailors hear his story and are "enlightened" (although an inverse term would seem to better fit with this symbol) to the evils of humanity, the sun drops below the horizon. As the shadows of knowledge overcome the white areas on their moral map, night sweeps over them, ending their light, blissful day with the dark truth.