9. while it could be argued that there are elements of racism in every novel produced in this period and prior, Heart of Darkness , due to its mystic setting (in which the people are often associated with the jungle) and focus on the interaction of two worlds, this perceived bias and racism appears so easily. For example, when Marlow takes the sick Kurtz aboard with him, he describes the people that watch after them in this way, “When the next day we left at noon, the crowd, of whose presence behind the trees I had been acutely conscious all the time, flowed out of the woods again, filled the clearing, covered the slope with a mass of naked, breathing, quivering, bronze bodies.” Marlow does not distinguish deliberately between the people and the nature itself, the nature that intimidates and is described as dark. This blending of the people in the nature is a recurring theme, Marlow even once declared that “the mist itself screamed.” this indicates that Marlow (or Conrad) associates the people with primitive nature as opposed to advanced humanity. Although this racism is blatant, i do not believe that this is enough to exclude it from the literary canon. Perhaps it should not be so lauded, but we cannot change history, nor can we shy away from it.