The 'Grove of Death' and the Dying Natives

On his way towards the Central Station, Marlow first encounters a…

‘hole’ in which many native people seem to have retreated to die, presumably having been worked to the bone.

The language used to describe them is consistently dehumanising: 

“Black shapes crouched, lay, sat…” (20) 

• ‘shapes’ implies their human characteristics have been removed 🡪 the colonial regime does not see them as humans. 

• The tricolon of ‘crouched, lay, sat’ compounds how passive and devoid of life they have become 🡪 all verbs associated with being low down. 
  

“they were nothing earthly now…

nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation,” (20) 

Language associated with suffering and darkness reminds us of the notion that colonialism is supposed to…

bring the light of Christianity and advancement to Africa; instead it seems to have plunged its people into greater darkness.