Nicoboozo was a clean little town, the huts wide apart, the chief was old,
hospitable and incurious. He dashed us a chisken and hamper of rice, saw that the
hut we were to sleep was swept… Greene, 1980:133
To sum up, the uncivilized African people in the thick jungle if Liberia and perhaps the African people in general have good traits and behavior, Here,
morality plays an important role in human life. David Hume in Brand;s Ethical Theory, says
… morality naturally has a influence on human passions and actions: Men are
often moved to do something because they think it is good or right, or moved
not to do it because they think it ought not to or that is bad.
Brand, 1959:31
Based on Humes idea about morality, we can say that the African natives in the novel are doing something which they think is good or right. They are rally
not motivated by materialism or reward. For them, hospitality is one of their obligations in receiving their guests, regardless of what colors their skins have.
3.3 Honesty
Honesty is also one of the aspects of morality. As it has been mentioned in the previous pages, the villagers who are also the African natives have shown
their loyalty and hospitality. As we know from the novel that the carriers who are
Universitas Sumatera Utara
hired by the narrator are also the black men. It is interesting to note that although the carriers encounter so many difficulties and dangers during the tiring journey
and are paid with a little sum of money, they never want to deceive their master. They always work obediently and serve their master honestly.
The carriers are hired under a contract to serve and to carry the narrator and his cousins things along the journey until the mission is accomplished, They
are paid with an amount of money based on a legal agreement from the local government.
…. The government wage for a carrier was a shilling a day....I believe it was
legal to contract over a period at a smaller rate, … I said that the
Government wage didnt include food, and I was paying for their food…. They
had contracted…. They had agreed to work for three shillings a week.
Greene, 1980:47
Three shilling a week is really a little amount of money for the tiring and dangerous journey through a dense jungle in African. We can imagine that they do
hard work along the journey, They have to carry bags, trunks, etc,. including six boxes of food, two beds and chairs, mosquito-nets, three suitcases, a tent, two
boxes of miscellneous things, a bath, a bundle of blankets, a folding table, and even hammocks. Sometimes the narrator feels ashamed of himself since he has to
exploit his men. He treats them unproperly by insisting them to work hard with a minimum wage. He says:
Universitas Sumatera Utara
…. The merits were all on their side. I was exploiting them like all their
masters, and it would have been no comfort to them to know that I could not
afford not to exploit tham and that I was a little ashamed of it.
Greene, 1980 : 129
When the narrator says that he is ashamed of himself, he wants to say that he is really impressed by their honesty. He has heard from the other white
men that the black people like to cheat their masters. They have warned him not to believe his carriers because most of the carriers are liars. Now, he himself finds
out that in spite of their harsh skins, ugly faces, they are full of tenderness. Their poverty do not change their goodwill. These primitive people seem more polite
and more generous that the white men. It is for the first time for the narrator to unashamely admit that this trive is actually equal to those who are civilized.
I was for the first time unashamed by the comparison between white and black.
There was something in this corner of a republic said to be a byword for
corruption and slavery that at least wasnt commercial. One couldnt put it
hinger then this; that the little group of priests and had a standard of gentleness
and honesty equal to the native standard. Greene, 1980:82
Here, the narrator is talking about the moral standard of the natives. He says that there are two aspects of the natives moral standard gentleness and
honesty – which are equal to those of a group of priests and nuns
Universitas Sumatera Utara
Characteristically, this moral standard shapes the positive norms of social behavior, where an individual interacts with other people in his community. The
natives are, to a certain extent, the anti thesis of the negative forms of such behaviors, such as aggression, harm, destruction, or selfishness. These people tend
to have good behaviors, such a helping, cooperating, exchanging and maintaining friendship. Some say that these kinds of behaviors are also called helping
behaviors or prosocial ones. The word helping here refers to an act with a goal from the helped prespective to the benefit of other people and can result from
numerous motives, such as a feeling of obligation, expectation of rawards, indebtednes, or compensation. But, as it is seen in the novel, the carriers real
desire is not the expectation of the reward or compensation, but how to maintain a good friendship. They never think of the differences in race, religion, and
geographical area. It is a sound morality with its mutual tolerance and respect. Again, the narrator has to admit that he never find any dishonesty in his
during his adventure in the jungle of Africa. He says :
And these were the people one had been told by the twisters, the commercial
agents, on the Coast thet one couldnt trust. A black will always do you down.
It was not good protesting later that one had not come across a single example of
dishonesty from the boys, from the carriers, from the natives in the interior:
only gentleness, kindness, and honesty which one would not have found, or at
least, dared to assume was there, in Europe.
Greene, 1980:80
Universitas Sumatera Utara
In the last line of the quatation above, the narrator is audacious enough to assume that gentleness, and honesty will rarely be found in Europe, where
civilizes people live. It is a typical note of a contrary idea of how a white man dares say that the black are gentler, kinder, and more honest than the white people.
Ironically, although the black people serve that white well, most of the white consider them as inferiors.
Fortunately, this kind of feeling of superiority does not happen to the narrator of the novel. From the very beginning of his journey, he has treated his
workmen as his employess. Both parties have created a friendly atmosphere on their relationship. Therefore, there is most no gap between the master and his
men. It is likely such kind of relationship between them, but it is true, as what the narrator himself admits :
Our relationship was to be almost as intimate as a love- affair; they were to
suffer from the same worn nerves; to be irritated by the same delays but our life
together, because it had been more perfectly rounded, seemed ofterwards
less real. For there is so much leftover after a love affair; letter and mutual
friends, a cigarette case, a piece of jewelry, a few gramaphone records, all
the jewelry, a few gramaphone records, all the usual places one has seen each
other in. But I had nothing left but a few photographs to show that I had ever
know these three men. Greene, 1980:51
Universitas Sumatera Utara
From the quatation above, we can understand that both parties, the master and the workers are joined together by the realization that they are dependent on
one another. This realization has formed a motivation in their minds to woek together harmoniously.
The narratror himself as an obervant of everything around him along his long journey, notes an important event from his carriers. He is very impressed by
their honesty to him. They do know that he narrator and his niece, Barbara, bring a box caontaining a large sum of money and other precious jewelry. They actually
can easily steal it and disappear in the dense jungle. But they never have the idea to that because they honest people. For them, honesty is the best policy. The
quotation below shows the narrators astonishment of his mens honesty. It astonished me that I was able to travel
trough an unpoliced country with twenty - five men, who knew that my
money box contained what to them was a fortune in silver. We were not in
British or French territory now; it wouldnt have mattered in the black
government on the Coast if we had disappeared and they could have done
little about it anyway…. It would have been easy, less drastically, simply to
mislay the moneybox or to lose us in the bush…………………….but poor fool
one could tell the Coast whites were thinking, he just didnt know he was
being done. But I was not done; there wasnt an instance of even the most petty
theft though in every village the natives swarmed into the hut where all day my
things were lying about, soap to them very precious, razor, brushes.
Greene, 1980:80-1
Universitas Sumatera Utara
What the natives have done to the narrator and his niece, consciously or unconsciously, might be highly appreciated. By being honest to their master for
not stealing his things, they want to show that they have perceptual nature of moral. It has a conspicious place in their moral reflection and discourse of the
honest men. Besides that, it can be said that they have not infringed one of the human rights; that is, right to the property. They believe that they rightfully may
not infringe to those who have the right to posses something. It seems that this kind of view is nearly the same as what John Locke pointsout the systematic
theory of right:
It is morally right for X to have or enjoy Y, and it is morally wrong for any one to interfere
with Xs having for enjoying Y. Brandt, 1959:442
The justification for the right, as it is suggested above, provides a relevancy to moral action of honesty revealed in the previous paragraphs. The
absolute right to property is obviously respected by the carriers. There is something noble in the hearts. They have done what they should do, especially to
their masters. It is undoubtedly that this kind of trait is morally admirable. We do not see any racial discrimination in the novel.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
4.1 Conclusions
