Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad's life began on December 3, 1857 in Polish Ukraine under the name Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. At a young age, Conrad's father was exiled to Siberia because he was thought to have plotted against the Russian government. After his mother's death, Conrad was sent to live with his uncle in Krakow. Conrad never saw his father again. He worked as a sailor on English ships and in 1880 became an officer in the British Merchant Service. Conrad was naturalized a British citizen in 1886. In 1888 he was put in command of a steamship and made a voyage to the Belgian Congo in 1890. The experiences he had while in the Belgian Congo are said to have inspired the novel Heart of Darkness. The main theme of the novel is the hypocrisy of imperialism. Imperialism is the extension of a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. This is quite evident in the novel because of the power that the European trading company has over the native Africans. This is first seen when Marlow sees the locals at the first trading post treated like slaves. They are tied in chains and are called “criminals”. He also sees dying natives who have been worked close to the point of death. The mistreatment and injustices only get worse as Marlow travels deeper into Africa. At the next station, Marlow overhears the manager and his cousin talking about a Russian trader who was in the same area as Kurtz, and they think he should be hanged for trespassing on Kurtz's territory. Marlow meets the Russian at Kurtz's station later in the novel. While talking to the Russian, Marlow looks through his binoculars and sees severed heads atop the fence posts surrounding the station. The Russian tells him that those were "rebels". “Marlow’s experience in Africa inspires revulsion at the dehumanizing effects of colonialism, a disgust that culminates when he discovers that Kurtz has degenerated from an enlightened civilizer to a ferocious, power-hungry subjugator of the African natives (“Heart of Darkness”).” Kurtz considers himself superior. The most widespread symbol in the novel is darkness to see themselves as individuals. The novel focuses on European imperialism present in Africa, so from the beginning it is a superiority over the natives. African natives are sometimes seen as inferior to humans. They are certainly treated as such a god, and even Marlow refers to his helmsman as a piece of machinery. The symbol of darkness also represents the presence of evil through which the ship passes leads to an ambush ordered by Kurtz of darkness is mentioned several times in the novel as the center of Africa. The closer Marlow got to the heart of darkness, the more evil emerged. Another symbol is the river. The journey up the river is slow and sometimes treacherous, while the journey back is smooth sailing. The symbols of darkness and the river show the reader a deeper concept to experience