They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom" (Conrad). These men were literally being worked to death to create a railroad that would only benefit the Europeans trying to bring goods to the coast to ship back to Europe. The Europeans did not care about the blacks and their culture, their families, and their way of life. They just saw them as something in the way of progress, like the jungle. Again, this shows the theme of the heart of darkness, and that heart is the evil and greed in the hearts of men who will treat people that way.
Conrad also shows how the natives' culture was changing because of the European influences and forced work and relocation. He writes, "On some quiet night the tremor of far-off drums, sinking, swelling, a tremor vast faint; a sound weird, appealing, suggestive, and wild -- and perhaps with as profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country"...
This is the dying sound of the natives and their culture, and it shows how the Europeans destroyed the natives' way of life and their culture, and did not care about the harm they did and the changes they made in the country. Conrad consistently shows throughout this novel that the imperialistic takeovers of foreign countries by European nations were cruel and devastating to the natives. This cruelty and greed so that one country could dominate another was the real heart of darkness. When Conrad wrote this novel, imperialism was still common, and many Europeans did not know of all the many cruelties that were taking place overseas. He wrote this novel to show them what was really happening, and to make them think about what so many native people were giving up - their entire way of life.
References
Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness." Youth and Two Other Stories. Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1927. 2005. 21 July 2005. http://www.boondocksnet.com/congo/congo_heart.html
