The Nature of Humanity

The Heart of Darkness addresses numerous themes, but there was one theme that seemed to stick out in my reading more than the others. Man's inhumanity to man seems to be very dominant in this novel. It seems that the nature of humanity is selfish and demeaning. The men in this novel had one care in the world and that was finding ivory. There was a part in the reading discussing the collars around the necks of the natives, I found that degrading. I realize that this really happened, but was it necessary. I have a real problem with the nature of humanity, if someone is slightly different than another does not make them subject to abuse and mistreatment. John Merrick, main character of The Elephant Man, made this powerful and truthful statement, "People are frightened by what they don't understand."