Marginalization has been living with us since time immemorial. Discrimination against people of color has been a fight since colonial time, and up to date, we are still struggling with the same problem. Marginalization affects minority groups such as Africans, Mexicans, and Hispanics. The effect of this is that they are denied equal opportunity and care given to their counterparts. Many writers in the past and present have come forth to write about the issue, and one of the most significant writers is Joseph Conrad. His work that resonates with marginalization is Hart of Darkness.
Joseph Conrad was a British writer who originally lived in the United Kingdom. In the year 1890, when industrialization had begun, he was given an assignment by Belgium Trading Company, to oversee work in one of their steamers. In this duty, he had to travel up the Congo River in Africa, and since this was his childhood dream, he finally had the chance to explore Africa. As they sailed on, the captain of the steamer began ill, and he took over the control. Throughout his travel ventures in Africa, he drew a lot of inspiration for his writing, and it is from it that he wrote Hart of Darkness.
The book focuses on issues such as racism and classism in Britain. Conrad wrote the book with horror and cannibalism, which are things that can be related to the 19th century. He shows how a European named Marlow travels down in Africa to inspect a rail station construction, and he finds Africans who are sick awaiting death in the work station (Conrad, 67). He describes this ordeal as horror striking. As he writes the book, he does consider some of the issues such as cannibal shipment that had been practiced by Marlow. The author has described Africans in a racist language as he describes them in the most animalistic ways.
In some parts of the books, the author has used words such as nigger and savage to describe black. Even though the author was only writing, and he was just giving the character of the book a voice, he was not sensitive to the effects of calling black people such names. The ways Africans have been displayed in Hart of Darkness, it was different from the way Europeans have been depicted. In the novel, Europeans have the superiority and seem to be in command even in a country that is not their own.
In conclusion, we see that marginalization has been in effect since the early nineteenth century. Even though Conrad is one of the greatest writers of all time, he ignored the suffering of black in his book. Even though he says that he writes with metaphors and irony, it is hard to miss some of the things that show marginalization to Africans. Recently, people have been protesting the killing of black people and lack of equal opportunities for the marginalized groups. Through this, it is evident that the problem has been living with us, and it might not go away anytime soon.
Work cited
Conrad, Joseph. Youth, heart of darkness, the end of the tether. Cambridge University Press, 2010.