Travel's Fingerprints

The Root of All Evil?

While reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I began to wonder about the effect travel can have on a person's character and, conversely, the effect the travels of other people can have on the "natives" of the visited land (and whether or not the natives become "corrupted" by contact with tourists, as the list of study questions asked). We have encountered a few examples of travel's power to change tourists in some of our previous readings; in Sheltering Sky, for example, Kit undergoes a complete and rather dark transformation. Heart of Darkness, however, seemed to revolve from the very beginning around the changes a traveler can experience, with some focus on the changes the natives undergo, as well.

Travel's power to change people was acknowledged very early on in Heart of Darkness, when the physician comments on the changes that "take place inside" (p 13) and when Marlow considers how the wilds of Africa may turn even a "gentle, quiet" man such as Fresleven into an animal (p 10). Marlow even begins to experience these changes himself; he can feel them creeping inside of him, enveloping him more and more the longer he remains in this foreign land. 

The natives, too, are changed by travel (in this case, the travel of other people); indeed, they you might even call them "corrupted," for their indigenous character and ways seems to have disappeared in Heart of Darkness, replaced by indifference and lugubrious survival. The influence of the Europeans has changed their society; they trade ivory for petty European goods such as bracelets and brass wire - items they once had no knowledge of nor use for. The European influence has also affected their character and their spirit; they appear in Heart of Darkness as a forlorn people, apathetic shadows of the vibrant society they once were. 

It is interesting to note that all of the personal, character changes that take place in Heart of Darkness, and even Sheltering Sky, seem to be negative. Men (and women) are either turned into greed-driven beasts (as in the case of the Europeans) or shells of human beings (as in the case of Kit and the Congo natives). This changing effect most likely does not apply to all forms of travel; the imperialism of Heart of Darkness is certainly far more sinister and heartless than a weekend getaway to Cabo. Still, that weekend getaway is not completely barren of consequences and influence; both the travelers and those who come in contact with the travelers are affected in some way, regardless of whether or not that affect is profound or lasting, as it is in Conrad's novel. It is enough to make one think more carefully about their travels and about all the little fingerprints they leave around the globe, on places and, more importantly, on people.