Heart Of Darkness

While reading Conrad's passages in his book, The Heart of Darkness, I noticed many comparisons and views that he had about Africa. It seemed to me like he compared Africa and Europe to each other, mostly criticizing the way Europeans criticize Africa. He believes that many Europeans and westerners are ignorant to the problems in Africa, and the culture that surrounds it. Conrad believes that western civilizations have become hypocrites due to imperialism. They want to spread peace, but their idea of peace is invading and imposing their beliefs to other civilizations. This historically has been the case of not only Africa, but the entire world. It seems like every nation has been impacted in some way by imperialism, and Conrad firmly believes that Africa does not need the influence of any western civilization. While watching Apocalypse Now, I saw some of the hypocrisy that Conrad stated. The Americans seemed to feel like the Vietnamese people were inferior to them, by calling them 'gooks' and by bombing villages without mercy. We tried to influence a nation that did not seek our help, and therefore both parties suffered. In my opinion, the United States should not play the role of the world police. What we should do is contact nations and see if they would like any humanitarian assistance, and go from there. If they want our help, great, but if they don't, who are we to impose on their human rights? We as citizens of earth, should be willing to help each other, and sometimes war cannot be avoided, but sometimes it can, and should.