Heart of Darkness: Revelations of Man's Dark Self In Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness Europeans are cut off from civilization, overwhelmed by greed, exploitation and by the material interests of his own species. Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual responsibility and social justice. His book has all the characteristics of the conventional adventure story: mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense, unexpected attack. The book is an account of the things Conrad saw and did while in the Belgian Congo. Conrad uses Marlow, the main character of the book, as a narrator so that he himself can enter the story and tell it with his own philosophical mind. Conrad's voyages to the Atlantic and Pacific and to the coasts of the Eastern Seas brought contrasts of novelty and exotic discoveries. By the time Conrad undertook his harrowing journey to the Congo in 1890, reality had become stark. The African adventure represented his descent into hell. He returned devastated by illness and mental distress that undermined his health for the remaining years of his life. Marlow's journey to the Congo, like Conrad's, was also significant. Marlow experienced the violent threat of nature, insensitivity to reality, and moral darkness. We noticed that important motifs in Heart of Darkness connect white men with Africans. Conrad knew that white men coming to Africa claiming to bring progress and light to "darkest Africa" ​​were deprived of the sanctions of their European social orders; they have also been alienated from ancient tribal ways." Thrown upon their inner spiritual resources they may be completely damned by their greed, their laziness and their hypocrisy to moral insignificance, as the pilgrims were, or they may be so corrupt gives their absolute power over Africans that some Marlows will need to leave their memory among the 'dead cats of civilization.'" (Conrad 105.) The supposed purpose of Europeans traveling to Africa was to civilize the natives. Instead they colonized native land and corrupted the natives. "Africans tied with thongs that contracted in the rain and cut to the bone, had their swollen hands beaten with rifle butts until they fell off. defecation, hands and feet were cut off for their rings, men were put in lined up one after the other and shot with a cartridge, the wounded prisoners were eaten by worms until they died and then were thrown to starving dogs or devoured by cannibalistic tribes.