The Importance of Natives in Heart of Darkness Conrad has been accused of racism because of the way he portrays Natives in his novel, Heart of Darkness. It has been argued that the natives cannot be an essential part of Heart of Darkness due to 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 forms a bond with someone outside of his own race. Without the natives, there could be no Kurtz. The natives are his "people" and his followers:Suddenly around the corner of the house a group of men appeared, as if they had risen from the ground. They waded waist-deep through grass in a compact body carrying an improvised stretcher between them. Immediately in the void of the landscape a cry arose whose screeching pierced the still air...And it was by magic torrents of human beings - of naked human beings - with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild looks and wild movements, poured into the clearing from the dark, thoughtful-faced forest. (Conrad 58-59) The first time Marlow meets Kurtz is in this scene. This shows that Kurtz is not only dependent on the natives for physical support but also for protection. Conrad's portrayal 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 placed on the same level as the white man even though Kurtz could not exist without them. The natives are followers of Kurtz and worship him as a god and yet they are seen as just a part of the jungle that is "dark" and "hidden... in the middle of the paper... you'll never get" out 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, 17th ed. “The value of facts in the heart of darkness.” Nineteenth Century Fiction 40 (1985): 351-80. Rosmarin, Adena “Obscuring the Reader: Critique of Reader Response and the Heart of Darkness.” Case study in contemporary criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin New York: St. Martin's, 1989. Watt, Ian in the Nineteenth Century: U. of California P, 1979. 168-200, 249-53.