Heart Of Darkness: Luck Or Preparation

I don't know why but I found myself in a discussion with my grandfather about luck. He said that luck affected human beings in different ways but that there were certain human beings that were luckier than the others. I liked how he explained to me the concept of luck but he was not able to change my previous idea about luck. Once a tennis coach said to me that luck doesn't exist, incredible things happen when preparation meets opportunity. I really liked this explanation since it opens a controlled variable which is inexistent in luck. Preparation is one thing that can be controlled and opportunities will always come and go, therefore; if a person is prepared for everything then the opportunity will come accompanied by success.

Luck doesn't determine a person it is what he is made of or prepared to accomplish. An alternative reality is proposed by Conrad when he says, "If a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds of fearful weapons suddenly took to travelling on the road between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and left to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm and cottage there-abouts would get empty very soon" (Conrad, 33). I have always been intrigued with this idea. Would the most important continent today be Africa instead of Europe or USA? Would the global language be an ancient tribe dialect? Was the chosen race to dominate all others chosen by luck? I prefer to believe that it was a matter of preparation that the Europeans were able to dominate the American and African continent. The Europeans had the weapons and the resources to do this, and when the opportunity appeared they accomplished this domination.

Conrad portrays the image of an European in a very different way than a slave. He depicts a slave as "All about others were scattered in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence. While I stood horror-struck" (Conrad, 29). These slaves were of little importance to the Europeans, they only cared about the work they did. Conrad creates some ambiguity with the use of the word horror-struck. He could be feeling bad about the slaves and being horrified at the exploitation they receive or he is horrified by these slaves and doesn't like them at all. When compared to the description of the Europeans the slaves are portrayed as less than humans. The Company's chief accountant is described as "Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing" (Conrad, 29). The admiration he feels for this European is evident. In other words, he adores the European and disgusts the slaves.