Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad Racist Quotes

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

The influence on the Native American people during the 19th century when white settlers began to develop into the West was completely overwhelming. The plains Indians had been hunters inhabiting the large amount of land needed to withstand them. By the mid-1800s the Indians were outnumbered by white settlers. There were a recorded 10 million Native people, once the Frontier was established, and closed, there were only 400,000 confirmed remaining. These remaining people were confined to the cruelty of reservations and coercions, legally, socially and economically, the last of which was likely hardest felt and most important aspect.

Racism is a relative term. While many people argue that Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, contains the theme of racism, they tend to ignore the fact that this novel was written around the turn of the century. During this time period it was accepted practice to think of a black man as savage because that was how the popular culture viewed the African American race. If someone called a black man "savage" today, that someone would be considered a racist. Of course, this turn of the century view of blacks is inexcusable but it was the accepted norm of the time. The problem is that modern critics tend to apply modern thinking to all novels, including those written in a specific time period with

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” [pg.1] 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]

Hawkins agrees with Achebe that Heart of Darkness dehumanizes not only the citizens but also Africa itself. Achebe also argues that Conrad himself is a bloody racist, but Hawkins argues that Conrad just writes what Marlow experienced. Hawkins argues that Conrad had limited knowledge about what happened in Africa that he came across as a racist. It is also said that Conrad lived in a time when racism was so common that the word did not exist. Hawkins argues that Conrad could not have been a bloody racist because he has named Africans in “An Outpost of Progress”.

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 civilization."(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)

Achebe comments on Conrad’s work as a hidden product of racism because criticisms for Heart of Darkness

Society has begun to recognize the unreality of the current drinking laws, and how it has a negative effect on college students as well as teenagers. In protest of these drinking laws, a movement known as the Amethyst Initiative was created to push for a lower drinking age. This organization consists of 136 colleges that have signed up to show support for their cause. These are people who work first hand with college students whose lives consist of underage drinking. They all agree that the age should be lowered as all it does is put the students at risk.

He uses derogatory and offensive remarks that devalue people of color and make them out to be savages. Chinua Achebe, a well-known writer, talked 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 "set Africa up as a foil to Europe,"(Achebe) while he also "projects the image of Africa as “the other world”. Africa is said to be a “prehistoric” world. Conrad described this land as non-advanced and inferior to the western countries.

  Conrad has been accused of racism because of the way he portrays the natives in his novel, Heart of Darkness. It has been argued that the natives cannot be an essential part of Heart of Darkness due to the manner in which they are depicted.  However, a careful reading reveals that the story would be incomplete without the natives. Marlow develops a relationship with one of the natives - perhaps the first time in his life that Marlow creates a bond with someone outside of his own race.

Cruelty in Heart of Darkness In Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, many motifs were mentioned in the story. Savagery, meaning an act of cruelty, was one of the most important motifs that were exemplified multiple times throughout the novel. As Marlow, the main character of the story, traveled along the Congo River to find Kurtz, he encountered many forms of savagery. In the beginning of the novel while Marlow was taking a break on the Nellie with other crew members, he described how the Romans felt when they were in his position on the river.

Society wields the power to influence people’s ideas and personal beliefs by choosing a version of history. In Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, Marlow consoles Kurtz’s Intended by telling her that “the last word he pronounced was your name” to create an improved version of Kurtz so that his legacy can live with good memories, further demonstrating how the manipulation of one’s beliefs is easier than expected (Conrad 101). Sometimes it is necessary to spare one’s emotions, but manipulation of one's last words and writings forever alters how history presents Kurtz. The same philosophy also applies to Natasha Tretheway’s poem collection, Native Guard. In Tretheway’s history classes, she learned about the lives of slaves. In “Southern History” Tretheway’s history book presents the slaves as “happy...The slaves were clothed, fed and better off under a master’s care” when in reality this “happiness” could be no further from the truth (Tretheway 38). Slaves lived awful lives for their owners treated them as property. Yes, the book is not wrong when it states that they were “clothed” and “fed,” but their clothes were often rags, and the amount of food presented to the slaves was barely enough to survive (Tretheway 38). The school history textbooks present an alternate truth to society to give those they enslaved a cleaner legacy. In her poem “Scenes From A Documentary History of Mississippi” Trethewey portrays the alteration of history yet again. In King Cotton, 1997, a

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.

In “An Image of Africa”, Chinua Achebe comes to the bold conclusion that Joseph Conrad “was a bloody racist” (788), with his discussion centering primarily on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as a racist text. Achebe’s reasoning for this branding rests on the claims that Conrad depicts Africa as “a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar in comparison with which Europe 's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest” (783), that Africans in Heart of Darkness are dehumanized through both the characterization of individual Africans and the Congo as a setting, and finally that Marlow is no more than a mouthpiece for Conrad’s personal views on race and imperialism. However, Achebe makes critical oversights and contradictions in the development of each of these argumentative pillars, which prove fatal to the validity of his overarching contention. This should not be construed, though, as a yes-or-no assessment of whether Conrad was a racist outside of what his written work suggests—Achebe himself has “neither the desire nor, indeed, the competence to do so with the tools of the social and biological sciences” (783)—but as an assessment of claims specific to Heart of Darkness and their implications for Conrad’s views and attitudes.

It has been said that although Conrad may not have been 'the greatest novelist, he was certainly the greatest artist every to write a novel';. I feel that this is an apt description of Conrad's writing style in Heart of Darkness (1902), as he paints many verbal pictures by using expressive words and many figurative descriptions of places and people. An extensive use of words relating to colour, is evident throughout the novella. The idea of darkness (and light) is emphasized from the title of the novella, and continues to play an important role throughout in the story .