American Research Journal of English and Literature

 The present article provides new insights into Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (1899) and Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Man Who Would Be King” (1888), by applying two Marxist notions, namely class struggle and subsequent alienation. It argues the Marxist orientation of such texts against prevalent postcolonial parameters. In Heart of Darkness, the Company arguably represents the bourgeoisie, while workers like Kurtz represent the proletariat. Kurtz exerts himself in order to procure ivory so that the Company makes profit. Thus, Kurtz is alienated from the product of his labor. As a result, he alienates himself from Africans as well as Europeans. In “The Man Who Would Be King,” the imperialist Europeans in India represent the capitalists, while Dravot and Carnehan represent the proletariat because they cannot benefit from the resources of India. Consequently, Dravot and Carnehan alienate themselves from Europeans and go to Kafiristan, where they establish themselves as kings and gods. However, Dravot and Carnehan do not benefit considerably from their positions and their crowns. Hence, the analysis shows that Kurtz, Dravot, and Carnehan are exploited in stratified societies, and they all die after experiencing alienation from the product of their labor and from other human beings. It is our contention that both texts interrogate different facets of oppression operating within imperialistic endeavors, not only racial but also class-related oppression. Since this social and economic oppression extends across different racial and ethnic boundaries, it is argued that colonialism replicates on its own agents the different sorts of exploitation it exercises on the colonized.