In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows The Hidden Savagery of Civilization

"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth" (18). <Tab/>The stigma that is often placed on African nations is that they are full of ruthless, cannibalistic savages who have no morals whatsoever. People often think that natives in Africa are merely primitive forms of civilized people. But, in reality are cultured people and natives really different from each other? In the novel Heart …

…their previous situation was. So can it be possible for a mere sidewalk to be the difference between the native Africans and the Europeans? Maybe not, but it can when combined with other negligible pieces of civilization. Kurtz shows that even if a man is born and civilized in an educated place, he still has a hidden internal savagery to him. As Henry David Thoreau once stated, "The savage in man is never quite eradicated."