Not Lost In Translation: Power at Home, Influence Abroad

Congo River: The river Maslow & his crew traveled in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

On page 32 of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Maslow recalls a conversation with a comrade of Mr. Kurtz’s who pries on Maslow’s social status in an attempt to calculate the advantages of befriending the traveler. The inquirer, clearly aware of Maslow’s family connections, asks Maslow about his past and his European social circle. Maslow recalls, “It suddenly occurred to me that the fellow was trying to get at something – in fact, pumping me. He alluded constantly to Europe, to the people I was supposed to know there…His eyes glittered like mica discs – with curiosity – though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness” (29). The asker, believing that Maslow is of a high European social and economic class, puts on an air of haughtiness. Maslow’s Aunt’s “influential acquaintances [produced] an unexpected effect upon that young man”, and yet Maslow condones the misjudgments (30). Instead of correcting the nosy fellow, Maslow lets “him run on…and think what he [pleases] about the powers…behind [Maslow]” (33). Why would Maslow, a self-proclaimed truth-teller who appears unconcerned with the asker’s class, allow this stretch of the truth?

Following his retelling the conversation, Maslow explains his own manipulative motives. Aware that he went “near enough to [lying] by letting the young fool there believe anything he liked to imagine as to [Maslow’s] influence in Europe”, Maslow says he did so because his primary goal is to find Kurtz, and he has a “notion that it somehow would be of help to that Kurtz” (32). Maslow’s curiosity of and preoccupation with Kurtz, the notorious ivory trader, leads him to, in effect, lie about his influence in Europe. How ironic that he uses his victimization by Kurtz’s acquaintance to squeeze out every drop of information about Kurtz! Instead of forming a bond of culture, the two men use each other to satisfy their individual curiosities and pursue their motives.

In a foreign country, when one feels out of place, one may try to band together with others of one’s own “kind” (race, ethnicity, economic strata, place of birth) and/or compartmentalize others into social, economic, racial, or cultural categories. When one accustomed to being a part of the majority becomes one of the minority, or even when one finds oneself in a strange place lacking the social conventions and expectations of home, one often seeks comfort in attempting to recreate their native society (obviously on a much smaller and simpler scale). Is it human instinct to desire camaraderie with people of one’s homeland or culture, or is this desire just fear of not fitting in with people of different backgrounds? Are you willing to become a “pretense” in order to feel more at home in a strange place? (32).