In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, Chinua Achebe says that “it is the desire¬—one might indeed say the need—in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe” (337). Indeed it is wise for Achebe to make this claim while discussing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a short novel that presents the relationship between Europe and Africa as an entirely one-sided narrative which denies the African people their right to personage. For a majority of the novel, Marlow’s narration of a story goes so above and beyond telling one narrative, that it works toward preventing the African people from developing a voice of their own. Edward Said, in Culture and Imperialism, provides perhaps the most efficient explanation as to how the narrative that Marlow tells in the novel works against the African people: As one critic has suggested, nations themselves are narrations. The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the main connections between them. (xiii) Marlow possesses the power to narrate, and therefore the power to block the African people from possessing their own voice. Achebe is right in saying that Marlow’s depiction of Africa “projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization” (338). However, beyond preventing a narrative from happen through the telling his own, Marlow performs a narrative that works toward creating a separation between “us”, the Europeans, and “them”, the Africans (xiii). His narrative, for the benefit of European identity, denies the African people any voice at all in the affairs between the two continents. Therefore, Marl... ... middle of paper ... ...tz has been aligned with by his confrontation of the darkness, the same savagery that ultimately consumes him, finds it’s only voice in his last words: “The horror! The horror!”, but regardless, Marlow cannot allow them to become a part of the final narrative. He knows better than to allow the voice of a savage, which Kurtz became through becoming so engulfed in the darkness, have a voice in his narrative. Once again, the narrative denies the Africans, even in the voice of a European man, ever from having a voice in a narrative that primarily takes place on their territory. Marlow, as a man of Europe, appears to make the decision as to whether or not tell the intended Kurtz last words, but he knows that he could not since they would be a voice of the Congo. In conclusion, Marlow’s narrative is the narrative of the European city which exploits the African colony.
As Marlow travels farther and farther into the Congo, he finds that the hypocrisy of his fellow Europeans is far greater than he first imagined. His fellow white men butcher elephants and Africans in order to get their precious ivory, which gives them all a massive economic boost. They justify their corrupt actions as moral by dehumanizing the Africans that they kill and claim that they are merely primitive versions of white people. There is no compassion or sense of regret in the imperialists, despite their preaching of Christianity's teachings. In fact, money and power is placed at such a higher priority than morals, that "You would think they were praying to it" (Conrad 89) as if it was a god. The Europeans describe what they do as a form of "trade," and that their treatment of native Africans is part of a benevolent project of "civilization," but the truth is that they take what they want through extreme cruelty, oppr...
The first narrator and Marlow supply contradicting beliefs on the colonization of Africa. The first narrator believed that it was England's duty to save Africa from their own savage ways, like the Romans did to England many year before. When the Romans first went to England it was a vast and wilderness to them, as Africa was to England. He thought that colonialism would assist the African people to find a purpose and aid the country to prosper, as England
The Intended asks Marlow to repeat Kurtz’s last words because she wants “something to live with” (71). Marlow hesitates, realizing that Mr. Kurtz’s actual last words would crush his fiancée. Then, Marlow finally understands that, while he can despise evil and ungodliness, he can also understand why men are evil and ungodly; he understands Mr. Kurtz’s intentions and chooses to respond to the Intended by lying, “The last word he pronounced was—your name” (71). Conrad reveals the goodness in men that society would not expect to be good. Even today, people are racist and prejudice, seeing evil in people that are not necessarily evil. However, it is important to see the goodness in the people that society deems evil, like the Africans in Heart of Darkness, in order to achieve a greater understanding of the world and oneself.
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 Kevin Gaines’ book, American Africans in Ghana, Gaines combines both African and African American history together unlike others have done in the past. Gaines’ book gives his audience insight on the relationship that many prominent African Americans in the Mid-nineteenth century had with Africa. Gaines tackles many issues that were prevalent during this time period, for instance, he tackles race, class, citizenship, independence and freedom. Gaines does this to change the narrative that existed about Africa. Many Black Nationalist, had romanticized Africa to be this place that once had thriving empires but lost everything due to colonization, and westernized blacks needed to go to Africa to help liberate it. Gaines dispels these myths, and
...arkness is coming to an end, Kurtz and Marlow are heading back to civilization in England from the Congo. Kurtz is in rough shape. He is mentally and physically exhausted, slowly dying on the boat. Once it is understood that he is going to die, he cries out “The horror! The horror!” The horror that Kurtz is referring to is everything that he has witnessed and done with his life while he was in the Congo. These two words repeated sum up his experiences that we see from Marlow’s perspective. Kurtz’s demise was a product of everything that he had done in the Congo with the company. In the end, all of his hard work was not even worth it. He died and left all of his fortune in the Congo, where he had no one to leave it all to. Kurtz’s reflections on the way he lived his life are essentially all being brought back to him in his final moments as he yells out “the horror!”
The story Marlow shares with the other men, is a story of reflection. It is a mirror, like most experiences are. Experiences in our lives that teach us and reveal something in our lives that had to be fixed. In this case Marlow (or Conrad) uses Africa as the mirror into the hearts of early Europeans that wished to colonize and only help profit the "less unfortunate". What was it exactly that this unchartered land had in store for Marlow?
At the time, the Europeans often referred to Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’. This is the main setting of Marlow’s story and his destination is the Congo, which is the heart of Africa. An image of darkness is used to portray this whole setting. As Marlow begins to narrate, one of the first descriptions of Africa that he gives is of the dark shores. This gives the passengers of the Nellie, as well as the reader, their initial image of the Dark Continent.
"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.
In the book Heart of Darkness, a sailor named Marlow describes his past journey thought the Congo during the Industrial Era, focusing especially on how the natives were treated by the Europeans. Joseph Conrad portrays Marlow’s first experience as dreadful and appalling through dismal diction and detail, and syntax. This demonstrates how people will often turn away from their respectable intentions to malevolent morals.
Towards the end of the story, right before Kurtz dies, Marlow looks at Kurtz, and says “I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair.” (P.118), and then Kurtz screams, “The horror, the horror.” (P.118) and he dies. He is referring to what he sees inside himself. This is just what Marlow was afraid he was becoming, he looked deep inside himself, and saw Kurtz.
The story starts out with a man re-telling the story of Charles Marlow and his trip to Africa. Africa at the time is a place where many European countries staked out land and riches while trying
Although numerous critics (including Johanna M. Smith, Peter Hyland, Herbert Klein, and Garrett Stewart) have drawn attention to how Marlow's lie to the Intended informs the whole preceding text and how that culminating scene with the Intended is connected to Marlow's initial impression of Brussels as a whited sepulchre (how appropriate in light of Belgian King Leopold II's hypocritical defense of his private company's rapacious exploitation of the ludicrously- named Congo Free State!), few have until recently focussed on how the lie affects the reader's reaction to Marlow as the protagonist and narrator of Conrad's Congo tale.
In Europe, where people follow rules and regulations, these men are nothing, but in the jungle they are able to shine.However in the article, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” Chinua Achebe describes the novella, “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, as being racist.He supports this idea with examples from the text and with criticisms of the imagery used throughout the work. Achebe claims that by portraying Africa as “the other world and the antithesis of Europe,” Conrad is seeking to project Africa as the opposite of Europe and therefore,
At the beginning of the novel, Marlow is traveling the jungle and the many scenes of life can be seen. Africa has seems to be taken over by many travelers which makes one wonder what is there ulterior motive? Africa is a third world country, which makes it easy for someone to come in and talk on their soapbox. It is very easy to tell that these men are not the biggest fans of colored people, so it is plausible that they have come to instill a sense of imperialism. As Marlow passes through the waters of the Congo it is easily visible the trouble of the natives. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth half coming out, half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” (20) Show that the holding of these colonies has started. The soldiers have come in and taken the inhabitants and are destroying them and taking from them the one thing they deserve over everything, life. The imperialists seem to not care about the Africans and are just there for their land.