WFB and HOD and "Three Ways of Going Wrong"

The Kerr article brought up an insightful connection between the novels that we have read this semester. As Kerr talked about the evolution of the Kurtz and the magistrate, one thought struck me. Heart of Darkness and Waiting for the Barbarians teach the truth that the more time you spend with a group of people, the more you assimilate. This assimilation is shown by sympathy, compassion, and understanding of the native peoples.

In Waiting for the Barbarians, Colonel Joll, immediately is hostile to the barbarians. He arbitrarily view the barbarians as a threat. When he interrogates them, he is certain that he is being lied to; he continues with his pointless investigations. Next, the army officers that visit the Magistrate during the first chapter also hold this view. When the Magistrate offers his honest views of the barbarians, the main officer scoffs and immediately looks down upon the Magistrate. However, the Magistrate is not that way anymore, assuming that he was at one point.
The article quotes the reason for this evolution from the book: “sunk, after years in this backwater, in slothful native ways.” We know that he has spent a substantial amount of time on the frontier, and his time in the frontier has also exposed him to a lot of things. For example, he takes an interest in the archeological artifacts there, and he now speaks the frontier’s patois. The hallmark of this metamorphosis is his taking a barbarian concubine. He is genuinely curious to find out more about this person.

In Heart of Darkness, this theme rings true. Although Marlow is not at the same level of hate of the barbarians as Joll, he is still biased against the Africans. Marlow retains his prejudices about Africans and generally does not seem too concerned about the going-ons over there. At best, he is a passive, sometimes critical observer. At worse, his silence to the other Europeans is symbolic of his acquiescence to the system. However, he adopts a totally different stance once he spends time with Kurtz. As Kerr says, “He develops a curiosity about Kurtz and even finds himself drawn into the role of Kurtz's partisan and fellow-conspirator, as if he really were on Kurtz's side, as his enemies in the company believe.” Kurtz is the Magistrate’s equivalent in Heart of Darkness. He has transformed from a simple European imperialist into an enemy of the company. By the end of Kurtz’s time, everyone agrees that he has gone too far. By the end, he has become the “native” that he is supposed to be only working with.