In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, Marlow encounters many different settings and places that influence his thoughts and add to one of the themes of the book. The story is set at the turn of the 19th century as Marlow begins his personal story on a boat on the Thames river in England. In his story he goes to Belgium to sign up and work for a Belgian trading company moving ivory down the Congo River to a seaport for export from Africa. The settings in Africa are rich with symbolism relating to the common theme that civilized people will become savage and uncivilized if they have to live with people they consider to have those traits. One area the setting ties in with this theme is when Marlow sees a train of black slaves starving and chained together and only then begins to realize the horrors of imperialism. Another area that supports this theme is shown when Marlow's boat first pulls into the area where Kurtz lives and he begins to notice that Kurtz is not all he is expected to be. Kurtz has become and uncivilized monster. .
Conrad makes a detailed portrayal of the changing from civilized to savage when Marlow sits down in the shade of the forest to escape the heat and realizes he is surrounded by starving native - "They were dying slowly.not enemies.not criminals.nothing earthly" "(Conrad 83). Marlow offers one of them a biscuit and the native man does not see it as food. Marlow realizes that these people have suffered under European rule. They are not being enlightened" to the efficient European ways. Marlow sees that the Europeans presence is not making the Africans more civilized, it is turning the Europeans into the savages that they despise. This epiphany is the beginning of Marlow's understanding that he has not taken a job with opportunity and money; his job is filled with, inefficient European people who have forgotten the reasons for colonizing Africa. They are people that now take their insanity out on the natives they came to teach and civilize, but ultimately have begun to emulate.