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In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad uses several motifs. Motifs are recurring literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes. One of these is the “primitive—civilized” motif, which shows that all men have both primeval and cultured impulses in them. The “primitive—civilized” motif is the dominant theme of Heart of Darkness. Kurts, the chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow’s quest, was asked to write a report by the International Society for Suppression of Savage Customs. It was movingly and powerfully written however scrawled at the end of the report at the foot of the page was the sentence “Exterminate all the brutes!” Kurtz exemplifies the principles and opinions with which Europeans justified imperialism.