After the first time I finished last page of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, another work was presented to me. The world's endemic and uncontaminated species are numbered. In Age of Discovery, Joseph Banks' journey depicts the customs of a blissfully ignorant Tahitian culture. As opposed to the natives we see in Conrad'snovel, those in Banks' recount expose themselves to the europeans with ease and trust. This is the very trust that, when abruptly shattered, eliminates any hope of good-will. The impossibility of genuine, selfless curiosity is now a joke. This time, however, the punch-line exterminates an ethnicity. Banks and his kind befriend the Tahitians, and partake in local commerce which ultimately gives the carpenter a monopoly he never dreamed of having.
(20) Besides forming beneficial relations with the natives, Mr. Cook, the captain appears to think highly of respect and morality. Despite succumbing to taboo relationships in an island where they can remain a secret, he maintains a degree of european civilized values. He strongly upholds these values, and we see that the
(16). When I think of the natives in Conrad's tale, I can't help but picture mystic beings, struggling for their survival against oppressing forces. Maybe Conrad depicts the future of the Tahitian people. We do see that at the time Conrad published his novel, the empires still believed in their benevolent intentions, as did the natives.
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