Research Paper on:
Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
century European imperialism in Africa. While Conrad portrays the cruelty and mistreatment of the African population by European imperialists, his principal concern is not what the effects on Africas native  peoples, but rather the effect that having such unlimited power has over the lives of the Europeans (Agbaw 188). This theme is most evident primarily through Conrads examination of the  character of Kurtz, a successful company agent operating in the Congo as a procurer of ivory. While Kurtz is a success as a company agent, chief of the upriver trading  post, he is a dismal failure as a human being because he squanders his brilliance and promise by giving in to his darker impulses and the savagery that resides in  all human beings just below the veneer of civilized behavior. The reader learns Kurtzs story obliquely through several layers of narration, as it is a fellow passenger on the  Nellie, a ship traveling up the Thames who relates Marlows strange story of Kurtz, horror and Africa. Marlow relates to his fellow passengers how he procured as steamboat captain with  this company and how his job was to travel into the interior to the inner trading post, which was headed by Kurtz. How the reader should evaluate Kurtz is the  central point of the narrative. The company accountant is the first character to refer to Kurtz and he tells Marlow that Kurtz is brilliant, and defines Kurtzs brilliance main  in terms of his value of the company. He tells Marlow that Kurtz is a "first class agent" and that he sends "in as much ivory as all the others  put together" (Conrad 84). However, while Kurtz is evaluated as good at his job and as someone who "will go far, very far" (Marlow 85), he is also an enigma,