Racial Comments in Joseph Conrad´s Heart of Darkness

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Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness has been the cause of racial arguments debating whether it should be read nowadays. The way Conrad describes African Americans troubles several critics, Achebe in particular. Achebe disagrees with Conrad’s novel so much because in it Conrad dehumanizes African and Achebe won’t let anyone lower his humanity.
Within the first few pages of his article Achebe compares Conrad as being, “no more a great artist than another who may be called a priest who reads the mass backwards or a physician who poisons his patients” (Achebe 9). This phrase shows how much he disagrees with Conrad. Despite the fact that Conrad lived in a time where Africans didn’t have the best image; Achebe believes that there is no excuse to write about Africa the way he did. I agree with Achebe it’s not exceptional and doesn’t justify his racist remarks.
Achebe takes offense to Conrad’s novel and labels him a racist. In particular when Conrad describes Africans in an appalling way; meanwhile, whites are these great humans. “A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti f...

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