Essay on Another Heart of Darkness

One of the most reoccuring themes in the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is the theme of race, more specifically, racism by the European and American characters towards the African characters. Critics of the book condemn Conrad as being racist, while others claim that it is just representative of the time period and that how Conrad depicted certain characters and groups within the novel was not uncommon during the time period that the book was written. Published in 1899, at that time it was not unusual for white people to have racist views towards people of other races. Whether or not Conrad was aware that some of the statements made in the book were racist and whether or not he actually intended for race to play as such a large

In the article "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist views toward the natives of Africa. After one reads Achebe’s critique, it is clear that Conrad wanted the novella to be perceived as a racist text. Conrad depicts the uncivilized treatment of nonwhites during the period of colonization without condemning such actions. After analyzing Achebe’s famous work and Conrad’s novella I have come to agree with Achebe; Conrad “was a thoroughgoing racist.” (Achebe) Heart of Darkness portrays this position clearly. Throughout the novella, Conrad describes and represents the Africans and Africa itself in a racist way. According to Chinua Achebe, the harsh behavior of English people towards the natives, the lack of equality felt by the English towards the Africans, and the word choices of the English to and about the savages reveal Conrad's racist position in the work.

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

Achebe also criticises Conrad’s lack of language for his African characters as dehumanising in its attempt to strip the characters of respectable voices by instead describing their language as “animalistic grunts” and “cries”. The few instances within the novel where an African character speaks English are described by Achebe as deliberate in their insinuation that the African people are unintelligent and illiterate. Achebe again contrasts Conrad’s use of Africa as a place of “dehumanisation” as alienating the African people rather than inspiring inhumanity in the white colonialists that have travelled there. While many readers would agree with the failed attempt at the exploration of racism, one must contend that writing about something does not necessarily remove it from criticism and as such when reading Heart of Darkness one can gather the inklings of prejudice weaved within the text by an author who is known for racist values. While the text is deserving of appreciation, as for some it is deemed a literary masterpiece, one cannot ignore the racist undertones of the novel as it is clear that Conrad has prejudices towards Africa and her people and that these feelings were intertwined into the plot. Conrad’s main characters all have some racist values ranging from blissful ignorance to downright hatred to the African people and in

In the essay An image of Africa: Racism in heart of darkness by Chinua Achebe he also argues that Conrad is a racist by pointing out parts of Heart of Darkness. On the last page of his essay Achebe writes “ Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation but was strangely unaware of the racism on which it sharpened its iron tooth.” I find this quote to coincide with the argument of my essay, this is an interesting thought because there is no doubt in my mind that conrad is racist but maybe he is painfully unaware of his own

Throughout literature, there are journeys that characters must take to progress from being naive to withhold great wisdom. However, in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the characters progressed from civilized men to inhumane animals. The novel explains the journey of a sailor from London to the heart of Africa to began colonizing. As that people refuse to acknowledge the truth of humanity because “civilized” men unravel their sanity and unites with their insidious self.

Joseph Conrad’s usage of racism throughout Heart of Darkness appears to be an anti-transcendentalists commentary on the harsh reality of the human race -- the notion that there is evil in everyone.

“‘The darkness of destructive selfishness’” is a common theme throughout twentieth century British literature (Thomas). A great deal of literary works contain tenants, such as selfishness, which are supported throughout the stories. These tenants, or themes, can be supported various different ways depending on the literary techniques used by the author. Numerous times the literary techniques common in twentieth century British literature were used to develop the commonly used theme of inherent selfishness. Inherent selfishness simply means that there is a deep-rooted greed and is common in this writing due to the high rates of colonization that were taking place throughout the world during this time period. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph

Throughout Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the issue of racism is extremely evident. There are many themes in this book and I believe that racism is one of them. You can tell that whites are to be superiors and the blacks are to be inferiors through every aspect of the reading. The Africans are viewed negatively in every way.

During Joseph Conrad’s lifetime, little trouble was made over his 1899 novel Heart of Darkness. The tale is about sailor Charles Marlow’s time as captain of an ivory-hauling steamboat on the Congo River. The novel, fixed in Conrad’s own experiences as a sailor on the Congo, vividly shows the horrors of Belgian colonial rule and the mistreatment of Africa. Many aspects of the book are nothing short of brilliant. However, in the last hundred years there has been a lot of negative feedback against Conrad’s famed novel. These negative attacks were directed toward the seemingly racist nature of Conrad’s narrative. In 1975, author Chinua Achebe analyzed Conrad’s portrayal of Africans in the book and accused Conrad of racism. However,

Many critics today find it easy to label historical novels and other pieces of literature as products of discrimination. They often think that the novels written one to two centuries ago explicitly discriminate minorities, women, and people espousing radical views on society. One critic that accused a twentieth century novel of discrimination was Chinua Achebe. In his essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’, Achebe describes Conrad as being racist towards Africans and argues that European civilization was essentially below that of the African natives. The author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, explores the colonization of Africa by the Europeans and argues that imperializing Africa will incur more collateral damage towards both the Africans and the Europeans than what was originally expected. Based on a through

Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, effectively exposed the racism that was common during his lifetime. Through the harsh behavior and word choice of the characters and narrator, Conrad displays the uncivilized treatment of nonwhites that occurred during the period of colonization. Edward Garnett, an English writer and critic, summarized the plot of Heart of Darkness as being “an impression… of the civilizing methods of a certain great European Trading Company face to face with the “nigger” (145 Heart of darkness backgrounds and Criticisms). Conrad use of harsh language and terrifying situations, which were based off of his own experiences, capture the audience’s attention and helps them see the cruelty of the European

Chinua Achebe, a well known writer, once gave a lecture at the University of Massachusetts about Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, entitled "An image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Throughout his essay, Achebe notes how Conrad used Africa as a background only, and how he "set Africa up as a foil to Europe," (Achebe, p.251) while he also "projects the image of Africa as the ‘other

Chinua Achebe creates a strong argument against Joseph Conrad, attempting to point out the racism innate within Conrad's "Heart of Darkness. In Achebe's essay, he explicitly said, "Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist" (343). Achebe depicts the narration, and setting of "Heart of Darkness" to further prove his point. But, he falls short in one aspect of his argument, when he decides to declassify "Heart of Darkness" as a great work of art.

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has been criticized as a novel filled with blatant racism, because of its dehumanization of the Africans through name calling and portrayal of them as inhuman. I agree that the terms and wording of this novel are racist and very inappropriate for today’s world to use, but we have to remind ourselves of the time period in which this was written. Conrad’s use of racist remarks like “savages” and the “N” word to label the Africans in the story reflect the beliefs and thoughts of Britain at that time. The lifestyles of the natives were seen as unsophisticated and alien to more refined middle and upper classes of eastern civilizations. It was a different world that what they were used to. Conrad, himself, seemed to have had issues with people of color. His focus and slight obsession with the “black” skin of the natives can be seems in lines like “A black figure stood up, strode on long black legs, waving long black arms....” White people, in those times and still today, see themselves as the superior race to all races. It is just an attitude that has existed throughout history; though it has lessened within the past half century. Even though something holds values that modern societies deem wrong and unforgivable doesn’t mean it is not a great piece of art.