Joseph Conrad and Tadeusz Borowski, writers of different styles and different periods are seen within an image created by
a third writer, Sven Lindquist, of a man walking down the street carrying a frame from which only his head and feet protrude. These men write about what might be called the "darkness" within the heart of the human experience. This essay discusses how in dire circumstances, such as those encountered in Buchenwald and imperial Africa, each human who steps outside the frame of his normal world, according to both Conrad and Borowski, risks stepping into the heart of darkness.