Heart Of Darkness Dehumanization

619 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of the book "heart of darkness

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

Show More
Related

  • Heart Of Darkness

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 world,' the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilizations" (Achebe, p.252). By his own interpretations of the text, Achebe shows that Conrad eliminates "The African as a human factor," thereby "reducing Africa to the role of props" (Achebe, p.257).

    Read More

  • The Dispensable Nigger in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    Conrad’s character Marlow describes the natives as having “a wild vitality” and their “faces like grotesque masks.”  These remarks demonstrate his fear and reinforces the distinction between himself and the natives.

    Read More

  • Author Bias in Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness

    1025 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Colonialism and Imperialism - The White Male and the Other in Heart of Darkness

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    While many characters are critiqued or criticized by Conrad for their exploitation of Africa and it's inhabitants, they remain the dominant and superior race, both according to Conrad, and his primary narrator Charlie Marlow. The African characters are not only constructed as "other", but also as inferior and to an extent subhuman. This is evident through their lack of language or voice throughout the text. Africans are denied language, and are instead granted "grunting" noises and a "violent babble of mouth sounds" relegating them to an inferior status.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Contradicts Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Heart of Darkness

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Savagery in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marlow, the main character in Heart of Darkness, often recognizes the Europeans' dehumanization of the Africans.  As Marlow approaches the company offices at the Outer Station he sees "a scene of inhabited devastation" (Conrad 24).  He catches sight of a chain gang of half starved, animal-like Africans.  Trying to rationalize the situation, Marlow tells himself that these Africans are criminals, and somehow deserve their ...

    Read More

  • The Significant Role of Women in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    1985 Words  | 4 Pages

    Achebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. New York: Wylie Agency, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • The Conquest in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

    476 Words  | 1 Pages

    “ 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.

    Read More

  • In Defense Of Heart Of Darkness

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    "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.

    Read More

  • Racism in Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    Constantly throughout the novel, Joseph Conrad was describing Africans by using words bearing a negative connotation. For example, he describes “Kurtz’s African mistress as “savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent.” (5; part 3). The term savage is frequently used when describing Africans in the novella. Conrad used Kurtz’s mistress to contrast with the European girl who loved Kurtz. He also used her to show that Africans who knew their place would receive “better” treatment from their masters. Achebe clams that Conrad uses a different tone in attitude when referring two these women, whereas the diction he uses when discussing Africans consists of nothing but racism. The word “savage” as well as many other racist words are constantly used...

    Read More

  • Depiction of Africa in Heart of Darkness

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • An Image of Africa

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    An Image of Africa Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]. 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.

    Read More

  • Images of Africa in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart

    2235 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Racism in Heart of Darkness

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    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 to devaluate people’s color as savages. This use of language disturbs many readers who read this book. Although Conrad uses racist language in this book, it doesn’t mean that he is really racist. When we look at the language, we are just looking at the very surface of the story.

    Read More

More about Heart Of Darkness Dehumanization

Open Document