Two Worlds

Conrad´s Heart of Darkness, is full of symbols. These symbols can be both obvious and discrete. Conrad´s use of symbolism is a technique to tell his audience more about the setting, characters, and the actual story plot with less. This way, the audience becomes part of the novel and needs to understand the symbols in order to understand Conrad's book. The river is a major symbol because it conveys how separate the natives and the Europeans worlds really are. 

The Congo river seems to be the "heart" of the "new world" Marlow is exploring in order to find Kurtz. It is as if everything in the novel evolves around the river. The river is the only effective way to travel within Africa. Traveling up the river is a bit of a task but compared to trying to press through the thick forests, it is a walk in the park. It is safe to say that the only way to travel in (present day) Democratic Republic of Congo. 
The river is a gate to another world. On the river Marlow and his crew feel like they are still in Europe. As soon as they set foot on land reality hits and they get the feeling of being "impostors". And once on the boat they are no longer "impostors". Conrad uses the river to express how naive the conquistadors were with new lands. Conrad is laughing at the thought that even though, Marlow is so far away from home he still thinks "Belgium" owns the water he is sailing on. The river is so significant for the purpose of telling the audience and make them understand how ridiculous the action of conquering is. 

Another way the river helps Conrad prove this point is the fact that the river flows against them when going deeper into Congo. The majority of rivers flow towards the ocean and empty out in the ocean. Yet, Conrad specifically mentions: "“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress". The reason for Conrad to write this, is simply to make sure the readers understand that the Belgium Company put so much effort, time, money, and lives into something that was unsuccessful  All that time and effort was clearly a waste because it took them half the time to leave then to arrive. 

Symbolism helps the readers understand what the author is trying to express to us with his/her writing. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad was successful in conveying his opinion on colonization, and stripping resources from lands for personal benefits. He told the audience all of this, by using one symbol: the river.