PROPOSED WHITES SUPERIORITY OVER BLACKS AS SEEN IN THE HEART OF DARKNESS

Black shapes crouched, lay,sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine on the cliff went off, followed by a slight shudder of the soil under my feet. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die. They were dying slowly it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.

Along with colonialism and trade came the forced ideals of a race who thought themselves more superior than those who occupied the land before them. This was the same situation that the Native Americans endured when the Europeans landed in America. This is also clear in the Heart of Darkness where we see the Whites completely dominate the Blacks. In the above passage, Conrad says the helpers withdrew here to die. These people were not helpers, but slaves who were forced to work till physical exhaustion. The blacks are not given any personal traits or uniqueness unless they posess a similarity to the Whites. Even then, we see no glimpse of humanity in their characters.