The africa within the mistress

A very good theory was proposed to me today in class. Unfortunitly I am horrible with names and can't give credit to the owner of the theory. I was presented with the notion that Kurtz's mistress symbolized the African people. His reasoning was that Kurtz, prior to coming to Africa, was considered a normal successful man. Once in Africa he altered. My classmates theory is that the mistress altered him. She was for him what Conrad viewed as Africa, or maybe even the foil, as Alex would say. I re-read the portion where Marlow describes the mistress. It strikes me that I thing we, as a class might have overlooked her significance. Marlow is clear in every notion, whether we call it racism or the norm of the time, of the description and image of the savages. Yet when he sees the mistress and is forced to describe her, he falters. He can't make up his mind. He states on page 1944, "She struck me as beautiful- I mean she had a beautiful expression. I know that sunlight can be made to lie too, yet one felt that no manipulation of light and pose could have conveyed the delicate shade of truthfulness upon those features." Time-out, that to me is a man torn by a precedent, and now must swallow the reality that all savages might not be animals. I am glad that my fellow debates hadn't risen this point for I am hard pressed to counter it. Let me know your view point, it is interesting never the less.