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Literary analysis of heart of darkness
Literary analysis of heart of darkness
Describe racism through conrad's lifetime
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No Racism in Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe challenges Joseph Conrad's novella depicting the looting of Africa, Heart of Darkness (1902) in his essay "An Image of Africa" (1975). Achebe's is an indignant yet solidly rooted argument that brings the perspective of a celebrated African writer who chips away at the almost universal acceptance of the work as "classic," and proclaims that Conrad had written "a bloody racist book" (Achebe 319). In her introduction in the Signet 1997 edition, Joyce Carol Oates writes, "[Conrad's] African natives are "dusty niggers," cannibals." Conrad [...] painfully reveals himself in such passages, and numerous others, as an unquestioning heir of centuries of Caucasian bigotry" (Oates 10). The argument seems to lie within a larger question; is the main character Charlie Marlow racist, and is Marlow an extension of Conrad's opinion?
Achebe says yes to both notions. He points to Marlow's speech about the Thames and the Congo as revealing his view of "Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization," and notes the description of the Africans as "limbs [and] rolling eyes," or, in Conrad's words, "ugly" (315). When they are not incomprehensible "savages" or "brutes," the Africans are farcical: "[The fireman] was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. [...] to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat" (109). Achebe discusses Conrad's withholding the ability of speech from the majority of the African characters. The Africans are not humanized, as the whites are, having no dimension, no tone or color save an alien black. They are never personified; Conrad refers to them as "black shapes" or "mor...
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...ifferent standpoint, the story for the story's sake, much like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mysteries which said nothing about society overtly at all. Unlike Mr. Doyle, Conrad's attempts to make social commentary on the pillaging of Africa immediately thrust him into the shoes of his character, and though he attempted to do good by shedding light on the matter, he made only a half-hearted attempt; not racism, merely a lack of strength of conviction.
Works Cited:
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa," from Chant of Saints: a gathering of Afro-American Literature, Art & Scholarship, Michael Harper, ed. University of Illinois Press, 1979
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer, 1902. Signet Classic, New York 1997.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Introduction to Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer copyright The Ontario Review Inc., 1997.
As far as china Achebe's article of Heart of Darkness is considered, I disagree with his narrow approach towards Joseph Conrad's novel. Achebe does not take into account that Heart of Darkness is narrated from the perspective of the main characters Marlow who has never been exposed to the African culture before. As a result, Marlow does not aware of the African's way of living and also their traditions. The book contains several racist thoughts towards the Africans, but it also provides a deep sharp criticism towards the Europeans as well. Although the discrimination towards the Africana is obvious in the novel, but the readers must be aware of the historical text in which the novel was written.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Bantam Classic Edition. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1981. Print.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer. United States of America. Bantam Books. 1902.
"I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,' [Conrad] began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would most like to hear" (Conrad, 9). Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's best-known work, has been examined on many bases more than I can possibly list here, but including imperialism, colonialism, and racism. I would reason that all bases of analysis are perfectly acceptable through which to critique Conrad's novella, or any piece of writing. I would reason this, were some of these bases mainly, racism not taken to an extreme level. In arguing racism, many critics seem to take Heart of Darkness as Conrad's unwavering view on Africa, Africans, life, or whatever else one may please to take it as. I, therefore, propose that Heart of Darkness be taken for what it truly is: a work of fiction set in late 19th century Europe and Africa.
Conrad’s main character Marlow is the narrator for most of the story in Heart of Darkness. He is presented as a well-intentioned person, and along his travels he is shocked by the cruelties that he sees inflicted on the native people. Though he is seemingly benevolent and kindly, Marlow shows the racism and ignorance of Conrad and in fact of the majority of white people in his era, in a more subtle way. Marlow uses words to describe the blacks that, though generally accepted in his time, were slanderous and crude. He recalls that some of the first natives he saw in the Congo looked at him “with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages” (80; part 1). Marlow casually refers to the Africans with the most offensive of language: “Strings of dusty niggers arrived and departed…” (83; part 1). To Marlow, and thus to Conrad, the Africans are savages, dogs, devils, and criminals. Even the stories that Conrad creates for Marlow to narrate are twisted and false. The natives that Marlow deals with in the book are described as cannibals, and they are even given dialogue that affirms th...
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness ; And, The Secret Sharer. New York: Signet Classic, 1997. Print.
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 1783-1794.
David Denby's "Jungle Fever" is an article written in response to Achebe's speech. It disputes Achebe's assertion that Heart of Darkness is without literary value because of its racist background. The article is an account of a discussion about Heart of Darkness that took place over the course of two days in a class at Columbia College. In between episodes it disputes Achebe's conclusion. Denby is of the opinion that the book is a scathing attack on imperialism and cannot be condemned as evil and worthless. It makes significant contributions to literature and to the intellectual environment of its time, and is therefore a worthwhile work. The fact that Conrad appeared to share the prevailing opinion at the time about the humanity of Africans does not outweigh the point of the novella, which is that imperialism is a "rapacious folly".
Achebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. New York: Wylie Agency, 2006. Print.
One of Achebe’s main points is that the dehumanization of Africa and Africans has fostered and will continue to foster unless otherwise opposed. As Achebe begins to move away from the novel and towards Conrad’s life, he states that Conrad was born, at a time, when the black population was viewed at a low level. Achebe describes the accuracy of Conrad’s view of the people of the Congo as “grossly inadequate even at the height. of King Leopold’s International Association for the Civilization of Central Africa.” [pg.6] Achebe states that Conrad’s image of Africa is not of his own, but of the Western imagination and that Conrad is simply showing the norm.
Through several examples, Conrad often shows the pointlessness and savagery of the English colonization in Africa. Probably the first instance of this is when Marlow comes up to the French-man who is "shelling the bush". In this scene, the French see something move and so they start shelling it for that reason. The shelling really does no good; if fact, it probably does not even kill what is out there. This represents what the English are doing in a way -- they are trying to conquer a land by shelling it to death and by trying to kill all the people who live there. The next example that Conrad gives is when he sees the black guard, who is leading the black slaves in a chain gang, straighten up when he sees a white man. What this shows is how everyone tries to look better than they are when they are in front of a supposed superior person. Also it shows that if a person can suck up enough -- and sometimes betray their own people -- they can move up in the world.
* Watts, Cedric. “‘A Bloody Racist’: About Achebe’s View of Conrad” in Joseph Conrad; Critical Assessments, Keith Carabine, ed., Volume II: ‘The Critical Response: Almayer’s Folly to The Mirror of the Sea’ (Mountfield: Helm Information Ltd., 1992)
To Joseph Conrad, the Africans were not just characters in his story, but rather props. After reading Achebe’s famous essay and Conrad’s novella, I’ve come to a side with Achebe. Conrad “was a thoroughgoing racist”; Heart of Darkness platforms this clearly. Throughout the novella, Conrad describes and represents the Africans and Africa itself in a patronizing and racist way. Constantly throughout the novel, Joseph Conrad was describing Africans by using words bearing a negative connotation.
By exhibiting the deeds of the Europeans, their portrayal becomes so negative that they become the savages. Conrad clearly is sympathetic to the plight of the Africans, and any racial epithets, if not accepted by progressives of the time, are not meant as attacks directed at the natives. It should be obvious that Conrad is on their side -- or is this "undermined by the mindlessness of its context and the pretty explicit
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.