How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A spreading cotton-wool tree shaded a thatched ranch by the road; the trudging files of burdened Indians taking off their hats, would lift sad, mute eyes to the cavalcade raising the dust of the crumbling camino real made by the hands of their enslaved forefathers. And Mrs. Gould, with each day's journey, seemed to come nearer to the soul of the land in the tremendous disclosure of this interior unaffected by the slight European veneer of the coast towns, a great land of plain and mountain and people, suffering and mute, waiting for the future in a pathetic immobility of patience. (I.7.4)
This is one of several problematic references to race in the book. The narrator refers twice to "Indians" as "mute"—say what? Honestly, do you know of entire groups of human beings that are silent? Didn't think so—way to oversimplify a population you don't understand, Conrad.
By the way, this is the kind of stuff that makes people really cranky about Heart of Darkness. Even though that novel(la) offers a pretty strong critique of colonialism and its violence, it also portrays indigenous peoples as "mute."
Quote #2
"Poor Costaguana! Before, it was everything for the Padres, nothing for the people; and now it is everything for those great politicos in Sta. Marta, for negroes and thieves." (I.7.7-8)
Okay, did we mention there are lots of problematic references to race? Well there are. Characters often align criminality with being "negro," and we get a sample of that tendency here.
Quote #3
It was reported in Sulaco that up there "at the mountain" Don Pepe walked about precipitous paths, girt with a great sword and in a shabby uniform with tarnished bullion epaulettes of a senior major. Most miners being Indians, with big wild eyes, addressed him as Taita (father), as these barefooted people of Costaguana will address anybody who wears shoes; but it was Basilio, Mr. Gould's own mozo and the head servant of the Casa, who, in all good faith and from a sense of propriety, announced him once in the solemn words, "El Señor Gobernador has arrived." (I.8.6)
Again, do we have to be so offensive? To say nothing of cliché? Here, "Indians" are referred to as having "wild" eyes. This is one of many moments in which non-Europeans are referred to as wild or savage.