Gray Shades: Cultural Ambiguity in Heart Of Darkness and Waiting For the Barbarians

The theme of civilization plays a major role in both Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad portrays Kurtz as regressing from a civilized man to a crazed native. In Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate witnesses “civilized” people do unspeakable and uncivilized deeds. In both books, there is a contrast set up between civilized and uncivilized, and, as the novels progress, the readers’ perception of this contrast is changed.
In both books, there are characters who interact in the wilderness but see a stark contrast between themselves and the native people. In Waiting for the Barbarians, Colonel Joll will stop at nothing to fight the barbarians, even if they have not provoked a fight. He casts the magistrate as a traitor to the Empire because the magistrate dares to think from the barbarian’s point of view, and dares to sympathize with them. Joll sees the world in black and white, and unlike the magistrate, he does not hesitate or get confused when the barbarians do not prove to be the aggressors he expects; instead, he tortures them until their version of the truth matches his own. Similarly, the manager of the company in Heart of Darkness, despite living among natives, treats them as tools and is unable and unwilling to listen to their worth as human beings. Kurtz’s association with them is irrefutable proof to the manager that he has gone mad. Similarly, the accountant, who manages to retain the look of a European gentleman in Africa, confides in Marlowe that he resents the natives.
Other characters, however, are unable to draw such a distinct line between two civilizations. The magistrate and Kurtz stand out of their respective novels because they cannot fathom such a distinction. They both exist at a point that is close to where one culture ends and another begins; so close, in fact, that it becomes hazy to them. They both partially assimilate in the native culture, while still keeping parts of their past civilization. The assimilation has a wide range of effects on both characters. In Kurtz’s case, he lives among the natives, but is held up as special and unique because of his European culture. The book is ambiguous as to whether it is the native culture or the feeling of superiority he gets from being a part of European culture that causes him to go so insane. The magistrate, on the other hand, lives within the Empire but sympathizes with the barbarians. It is unclear in his case whether his civil upbringing has led him to take pity on the barbarians or whether his experience with the barbarians has made him more open-minded. Certainly, the characters who are able to see cultural ambiguity when surrounded by natives have a very different experience than the characters who only see a stark contrast.