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Heart of Darkness

Decent Essays

1. Does Conrad really "otherize," or impose racist ideology upon, the Africans in Heart of Darkness, or does Achebe merely see Conrad from the point of view of an African? Is it merely a matter of view point, or does there exist greater underlying meaning in the definition of racism?
<br>2. How does Achebe's personal history and the context in which he wrote "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" reflect the manner in which he views Conrad's idea of racism in the novel?
<br>3. Taking into account Achebe's assumptions and analysis of racism in Heart of Darkness, how does this change Conrad's novel as a literary work, if it does at all?
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<br>The literal heart of darkness in Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness does …show more content…

Instead, "the real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world." (12). Questioning whether a novel which "celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art" (12), Achebe responds by doubting Conrad's talents as a writer.
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<br>Achebe accounts for Conrad's racism against black Africans because of his personal history-- "there remains still in Conrad's attitude a residue of antipathy to black people which his peculiar psychology alone can explain. His own account of his first encounter with a black man is very revealing:
<br><blockquote>A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my [Conrad's] conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards.
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<br>Certainly Conrad had a problem with niggers." (13)</blockquote>
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<br>Thus, Achebe clearly sees Heart of Darkness as a racist text, one "which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered untold agonies and atrocities in the past and continues to do so in many ways and many places today. [He is] talking about a story in which the very humanity of black people is called into question" (15) However, Achebe partly does save the reputation of Conrad when he concedes that "Conrad

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