The importance of natives in Heart Of DarknessConrad has been accused of racism because of the way he depicts natives in his novel Heart of Darkness. It has been argued that the natives cannot be an essential part of Heart of Darkness because of the way they are depicted. However, a careful reading reveals that the story would be incomplete without the natives. Marlow develops a relationship with one of the natives – perhaps the first time in his life that Marlow has created a bond with someone outside of his own race. Without the natives, there could be no Kurtz. The natives are his “people” and his supporters: Suddenly, at the corner of the house, a group of men appeared, as if they had emerged from the earth. They waded through waist-deep grass in one compact body, carrying an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry rose up whose sharpness pierced the still air... And it was as if, by enchantment, waves of human beings - naked human beings - with spears in hand, with bows, with shields, with wild looks and wild movements, were poured into the clearing by the forest with a dark, pensive face. (Conrad 58-59) The first time Marlow meets Kurtz is in this scene. This shows that Kurtz depends not only on the natives for physical support, but also for protection. Conrad's depiction of the natives as "human beings with wild looks and wild movements" is ironic because Conrad does not think they have the right to be put on the same level as the white man, even though Kurtz does not could exist without them. The natives are Kurtz's disciples and worship him as a god and yet they are only considered a part of the jungle that is "dark" and "unknown...... middle of paper..... . you will never come again. Works cited and consulted Adelman, Gary. Heart of Darkness: Search for the Unconscious Boston: Little & Brown, 1987. Bradley, Candice "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Internet, October 3, 1998. Available: http://www.lawrence.edu/~johnson/heart.Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness Ed. Robert Kimbrough, 17th ed. "The Value of Facts in the Heart of Darkness." of the Nineteenth Century 40 (1985): 351-80. “Darkening the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism and the Heart of Darkness.” Ed. Ross C. Murfin New. York: St. Martin's, 1989. Watt, Ian Conrad in the Nineteenth Century: University of California., 1979. 168-200, 249-53.