In Joseph Conrad's short story, The Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses oppositional patterns such as light and darkness, or black and white, to further show and emphasize the deceptive nature of man within history. However, Conrad unexpectedly creates an inversion of traditional definitions of light and dark, creating a work that establishes a theme in which all is not as it seems. Conrad uses physical locations to show the contrast between the two. Through the actual characters in the story, almost all white men, with the exception of Marlow, are portrayed negatively through such images. C Through his reversal of the definitions of light and darkness, Conrad effectively demonstrates that white men can, at times, be more savage than natives. Conrad portrays the light of a corrupt civilization entering the dark and uncivilized homeland of the Congo. In the absence of the white man's civilization, a civilization marked by corruption and evil, the black jungle of the Congo represents darkness, defined as the absence of light. When Marlow speaks and describes the Belgian city of Brussels, he uses bright imagery to convey a deeper meaning: "In a very few hours I have arrived in a city which always makes me think of a whitewashed tomb." (Conrad 13) Conrad's use of a whitewashed tomb, or a hollow grave, in defining the building from which Marlow departs is significant because the offices in that building are fueled by greed and send men towards an almost certain death in the pursuit of wealth. The use of the white tomb implies death and imprisonment within the colonizer's superficial idea of ​​civilization and highlights the hypocrisy of their intentions. The white men in the white company send unsuspecting sailors...... middle of paper ......ruption, and the black natives represent purity. Joseph Conrad goes to great lengths to emphasize the importance of deceptive appearance, and he does so through careful use of contrasting images of light and darkness. It takes the common symbols of light and dark and completely inverts them. The white city of Brussels, which sends white men to search for white ivory, comes into conflict with the dark jungle of the Congo, where the black natives live. The white man's cruelty towards the innocent natives shows Conrad's use of light and dark imagery to emphasize the deception of the characters' appearances. Throughout the tale, light is seen as more threatening and evil than darkness, and white characters as more corrupt than black ones. Ultimately, Conrad's story is about the penetration of a corrupted light into the darkness and the consequences that result when the darkness becomes tainted..