It is commonly argued that ‘Heart of Darkness’ is nothing more than a racial tirade from a misinformed Englishman. Although Conrad is not misinformed and has no intention of fronting a racist point of view, when the treatment of Africans in the text is closely examined, the theme of racism is presented so deliberately all other themes merely fade into the background. Conrad’s evocation of the African environment and population preaches racial intolerance and creates a stark contrast between the life of Europeans and Africans. The constant slandering of the African population as “niggers” and “cannibals” and “savages” and the referral to the continent as an immense “Heart of Darkness” are the base examples of this racial intolerance. But despite …show more content…
This projection ultimately dehumanizes the continent and population together. Conrad also protests against this dehumanization through his description of the paddlers, with “their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like masks…”, but then leads on to dehumanize them through his description of the population as a group of niggers and cannibals. The observation of the chain gang yields and example of this dehumanization; the Africans are no longer given a personality and seem almost inhumane as they pass by. An extended metaphor is used to stir up an inhumane image of the workers: “They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets of earth on their heads…I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs like knots in a rope, each had an iron collar…” The parody that Marlow makes of the fireman is a continuation of the dehumanization of the Africans. After his observation of the dancing Africans, Conrad zeroes in on a particular individual and through his description; he manages to dehumanize “the savage that is the fireman”. Derogatory language is employed to displace this fireman and make him become a parody within himself. “He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on its hind
The mind is a wonderful thing. It allows us to think on three very different levels. One we choose to express, one we don’t choose to express, and one we do not even know exists. All these stages of thinking are clouded over in Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness. Three menacing forces occur that completely take over the white man to act inappropriately. They accuse others of acting savage, when they violently act against people of other cultures. They conform to specific beliefs, and push aside their subconscious thoughts. These men also have an abundance of ignorance that makes them feel false superiority. The Heart of Darkness reaches into the minds of readers, to prove that all of civilization is surrounded by an abundance of forces that can fog our mind, and darken our hearts.
Three Works Cited The story is about a man named Marlow, who is hired by The Company, which is a shipping company located in England. Although Marlow had sailed before, he had never sailed to Africa. The people who operated The Company (those located in England) are so far removed from reality, that they have no concept of the devastation caused in order to ship vast loads of ivory. The Company is a perfect example of how these profit driven industries obtain their wealth – through the blatant disregard of the environment and their fellow man.
The Heart of Darkness, a complex text was written by Joseph Conrad around the 19th century, when Europeans were colonizing Africa for wealth and power and were attempting to spread their culture and religion in Africa. It was also a period in which women were not allowed to participate in worldly affairs. Therefore, the text deals with issues such as racism, European imperialism, and misogyny. This essay will look at the different themes in the novel and argue whether or not The Heart of Darkness is a work of art.
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.
Conrad begins his novel by confirming the stereotypical view of Africans, but then turning the public’s perception of them upside down. As Marlow travels down to the Congo in the French steamer, he sees a band of Africans rowing a boat along the shore of Africa. The men sang, shouted, and moved with a “wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast” (11). Marlow watches these men with comfort, confirming his own beliefs and the European’s beliefs that Africans were savage and strong. Afterwards, Marlow arrives at the Congo and sees six black men trudging like starved prisoners; “they were dying slowly… nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation” (14). The chain gang also supports the preconceptions of an African. Before Marlow leaves for the Congo, he visits his aunt who praises him as a worker who will help the poor, starving savages of Africa. The image of the blacks, who were all connected together with a ch...
In the present era of decolonization, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents one of fictions strongest accounts of British imperialism. Conrad’s attitude towards imperialism and race has been the subject of much literary and historical debate. Many literary critics view Conrad as accepting blindly the arrogant attitude of the white male European and condemn Conrad to be a racist and imperialists. The other side vehemently defends Conrad, perceiving the novel to be an attack on imperialism and the colonial experience. Understanding the two viewpoints side by side provides a unique understanding that leads to a commonality that both share; the novel simply presents a criticism of colonialists in Africa. The novel merely portrays a fictional account of British imperialism in the African jungle, where fiction offers maximum entertainment it lacks in focus. The novel is not a critique of European colonialism and imperialism, but rather a presentation of colonialism and the theme of darkness throughout the novel sheds a negative light on the selfishness of humanity and the system that was taking advantage of the native peoples. In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad presents a criticism of British imperial colonization not for the purpose of taking sides, but with aims of bettering the system that was in place during Conrad’s experience in the African Congo. Conrad uses the character of Marlow and his original justification of imperialism so long as it was efficient and unselfish that was later transformed when the reality of colonialism displayed the selfishness of man, to show that colonialism throughout history displaces the needs of the mother country over the colonized peoples and is thus always selfish.
In recent years, the debate over the merits versus the racial shortcomings of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has raged hot. Many, notably David Denby and Chinua Achebe, have come down on one side or another of the issue. I contend, with the help of the written opinions of Denby and Achebe, that Heart of Darkness, while racist in its views, is nonetheless a valuable and commendable work of art.
Achebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. New York: Wylie Agency, 2006. Print.
"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.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is one of the most widely recognized and acclaimed novellas written. But with fame and recognition comes controversy, which is clearly demonstrated by the broad interpretations of the book. Many people believe Heart of Darkness is racist, while others believe the book is perfectly civil. Chinua Achebe, one of Africa's most renowned novelists, strongly believes that the book is dehumanizing and racist; I agree with him, to a certain extent. Three of the most prominent ways that Achebe discusses Conrad’s racism is by the way the African people are portrayed, the African culture, and the comparison of Europe to Africa.
In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Achebe takes notes the ways that Conrad degrades Africans by reducing their religious practices to misconception, belittling their complex geography to just a single mass of jungle, telling them to remain in their place, and taking away their capability of speaking. Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the people of Africa. Achebe also sensibly labels these stereotypes and shows that Africa is in fact a rich land full of intelligent people who are, in fact, very human.
“ The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” (Conrad 65) So stated Marlow as though this was his justification for ravaging the Congo in his search for ivory. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness shows the disparity between the European ideal of civilization and the reality of it as is evidenced by the domination, torture, exploitation and dehumanization of the African population. Heart of Darkness is indicative of the evil and greed in humanity as personified by Kurtz and Marlow.
Heart of Darkness is a story in which racism presents itself so deliberately that, for many, the dilemma of race must be tackled before anything else in the book may be dealt with. Conrad used derogatory, outdated and offensive terminology for devaluation of people’s color as savages. This use of language disturbs many readers who read this book.
Achebe argues that the racist observed in the Heart of Darkness is expressed due to the western psychology or as Achebe states “desire,” this being to show Africa as an antithesis to Europe. He first states Conrad as “one of the great stylists of modern fiction.” [pg.1] He praises Conrad’s talents in writing but believes Conrad’s obvious racism has not been addressed. He later describes in more detail that Conrad’s “methods amount to no more than a steady, ponderous, fake-ritualistic repetition of two antithetical sentences.”
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman. Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as "so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness" (Conrad 94), as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life, but he also manages to depict Africans as though they are not worthy of the respect commonly due to the white man. At one point the main character, Marlow, describes one of the paths he follows: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement" (48). Conrad's description of Africa and Africans served to misinform the Western world, and went uncontested for many years.