Explanation:
“And I saw that something restraining, one of those human secrets that battle probability, had come into play there. I looked at them with a swift quickening of interest—not because it occurred to me that I might be eaten by them before very long.”
Or,
“I looked at them as you would at any human being, with a curiosity about their impulses, motives, capacities, and weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity.”
Or,
“It is really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one’s soul than this kind of prolonged hunger.”
Exp. This extract has been taken from Heart of Darkness, a short novel written by Joseph Conrad. Here Marlow, the principal narrator, reflects on the remarkable self-restraint shown by the starving cannibals on board his steamer during the journey through the Congo region.
From Marlow’s narration, we learn that there were thirty natives on board the steamer, of which he was the skipper. They were all cannibals and formed the crew of the steamer. Marlow praises them for their devotion to duty and their extraordinary self-control. At times, the steamer got stuck in the river due to the shallow level of water, and these cannibal crew members would get down into the river and push it forward.
They were extremely hungry, yet the white men made no arrangements to feed them. In fact, they were almost starving. They had brought some hippopotamus meat with them, but after a few days, it began to rot and was therefore thrown into the river as it was no longer fit to be eaten.
Marlow wonders why these cannibals did not attack any of the white men on board the steamer in order to eat their flesh. They could easily have attacked the white men, who were few in number, but they did not do so. This restraint greatly astonishes Marlow. He tries to guess the reason behind such self-control, but he cannot arrive at any definite conclusion. After all, when a man feels truly hungry, he will try to feed himself by any means. A man may endure bereavement, dishonour, and even the damnation of his soul, but he cannot easily endure the pangs of hunger.
Through this extract, Marlow—or rather Conrad—delivers a subtle criticism of the white men by contrasting their greed with the remarkable self-restraint of the cannibal crew.
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