The Age Of Wonder And Heart Of Darkness: Exploit Vs Coexist

The Age Of Wonder narrates the story of an expedition sent to explore the Pacific Islands. This story, as well as Heart Of Darkness, deal with colonization. The idea of colonization is through explorations done by more powerful countries colonize or name the land they find as theirs. What the Europeans decide to do with this land differs but the concept of colonization is present in both stories. In fact, the colonization of the Congo greatly differs from the colonization of Tahiti. To get the ivory that the natives had in their land, the Europeans used force and exploited their land. They enslaved the population to increase the effectiveness of the exploitation. On the other hand, their purpose in Tahiti consisted of botanical exploration, astrological readings, and mapping of the Pacific Islands.

As a matter of fact, their relationship with the natives differed greatly. In the case of Tahiti they become friends and managed to coexist with them. The relationship of Banks with the Tahitians is an example of acceptance "Trading also brought him into regular contact with Tahitians of every class, and helped him establish a broad base of good friendships […] His journal shows him constantly enlarging his Tahitian social circle, referring to people by their names, many of them in terms of trust and affection" (The Age Of Wonder, 20). When compared to the relationship forged in the Congo, the one Tahiti seems better because they trade and have the ability to coexist. Developing good friendships replaces the exploitation of land and trading replaces slavery. Through Banks, as well as trough Kurtz, the relationship with the natives is defined. Kurtz wanted exploitation and ivory, on the other hand Banks searched for intellectual enrichment through the understanding of their culture and their flora and fauna. One of Banks observations of this culture is "It is almost beyond belief that Indians could raise so large a structure without the assistance of Iron tools to shape their stones or mortar to join them" (The Age Of Wonder, 31). Throughout his discoveries and his understanding of the Tahitian culture, Banks suffers a change. He comes to understand their culture so much that he realizes that they were doing fine without colonization. They didn't need their innovations to build vast structures, and certainly didn't need their idea of property to make them greedy.