Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad vs. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

A nation of tortured slaves with bodies so emaciated one could count the ribs, death lingering in every corner as overworked natives line the ground with their lifeless forms, a people so scarred that evil men are allowed to rule as gods. Unfortunately, the gruesome description reigns true for African tribes that fell victim to the cruelty of colonialism. Pointing out the abhorrent evils of the imperial tradition, Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness to expose the possibility of malevolence in a human being. Throughout the novella, Conrad illustrates sickening images of the horrendous effects of colonizing African tribes while incorporating themes such as a reversal of black and white imagery, the “fascination of the abomination”, and the

In "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the continent and people of Africa. He claims that Conrad propagated the "dominant image of Africa in the Western imagination" rather than portraying the continent in its true form (1793). Africans were portrayed in Conrad's novel as savages with no language other than grunts and with no "other occupations besides merging into the evil forest or materializing out of it simply to plague Marlow" (1792-3). To Conrad, the Africans were not characters in his story, but merely props. Chinua Achebe responded with a

There are millions of varying perspectives in the world on many different topics. Sometimes two different mindsets clash and disagree with one another. This is apparent in the work of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Achebe gives a personal account of African life, culture, and customs in his book. He grew up in Nigeria, solidifying the reality that his take on their culture is the most natural, the one that will hit home. Also, since Achebe grew up surrounded by the culture so it is something intimately familiar to him. On the other hand, Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness makes Africa into a wild and savage place that needs to be ‘tamed’ by the white men and their ways.

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart illustrate the different ways of presenting Africa in literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows Africa through the perspective of the colonizing Europeans, who tend to depict all the natives as savages. In response to Conrad 's stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart through the point of view of the natives to show Africans, not as primitives, but as members of a thriving society. Things Fall Apart follows Okonkwo 's life as he strives for prestige in his community. When European missionaries come to Umuofia, Okonkwo 's clan, Okonkwo tries to protect the culture that the missionaries would destroy in the name of "civilizing" the natives. However his rigid mentality and violent behavior has the opposite of its intended effect, perpetuating the stereotype of the wild African in the eyes of the European readers.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad both analyze the imperialism of Africa in the late 1890’s to mid-1900’s. Things Fall Apart focuses on the native’s perspective, painting a negative picture of the Europeans. Heart of Darkness is from the European’s point of view, and depicts the natives as “savages”. Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as a reaction novel to Heart of Darkness, as he felt that Conrad gave an inaccurate account of the African culture. Both novels recognize the main character's personal evils as well as their adversary’s. Robert Louis Stevenson said, “In all of us, two natures are at war - the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must

In Cry, the beloved country, Alan Paton tells the story of his journey across Africa, his experiences with the colonized Africa, and the destruction of the beautiful, pre-colonialism native land of Africa. Heart of Darkness also tells the story of a man and his experiences with colonialism, but a man who comes from a different time period and a very different background than Alan Paton’s Stephen Kumalo. Although, both Joseph Conrad and Alan Paton portray the colonized areas as very negative, death filled, and sinful places, it is when one analyzes the descriptions of the native lands of Africa that the authors reasons for their disapproval of colonialism are truly revealed. When comparing the writing styles of Alan Paton and Joseph Conrad,

The author of the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, asserts that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, portrays Africa as the antitheses and foil to Europe. I disagree with Achebe’s claim. As I have read Heart of Darkness, that is not the tone or mood that I sense. I see a man who wants more in life, but finds himself in the midst of a possible conspiracy. One example of this is in paragraph 2 on page 8, “I felt somehow I must get there by hook or by crook.” This quote supports my position of disagreeing with Achebe’s claim that Conrad’s novel subtly displays Africa as the antithesis and foil to Europe by explaining that Marlow was a driven man with the self-motivation to get anywhere he wanted in life. He didn’t concern himself with other

In every situation, varying perspectives and opinions will be present, as proven in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. These literary works reveal opposing viewpoints of Africa through the use of literary and stylistic devices. The natural, primitive society is portrayed using sensory detail, imagery, and diction, which in turn reveal the authors’ different attitudes. Through his use of arrogant diction and vivid imagery, Conrad establishes a superior tone, while Achebe incorporates words with peaceful connotations into his sensory detail to create a serene tone.

Chinua Achebe wrote the book, Things Fall Apart, to fight against the stereotypical image of African people lacking in culture, which is what had been assumed by many people. He accomplished his goal in many different ways throughout the book, using a variety of linguistic devices. However, the device that stood out to throughout the storyline was the interesting and creative use of symbolism. There are many differences between the culture of the Nigerian people who are represented in the book and the culture of all the other people in the world. Sadly this unique culture had been portrayed badly by many other works, included the book, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Achebe wanted to show the culture in the positive light it

Without experiencing something firsthand, the only way to gain understanding of a foreign concept is through the words of other people. Thus, without visiting Africa, personal knowledge of it is limited and a reader must make decisions on what to believe. Two books about African culture are Chinua Achebe’s historical fiction novel Things Fall Apart, and Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. After analyzing both of these texts, a reader can see how one’s perspective on a subject can be influenced based on how an author chooses to write about it. By using either realism or exaggeration, Achebe and Conrad (respectively) create two different Africas: one that brings African life closer

The stereotypes of Africans used by people throughout the whole world, influenced Chinua Achebe to write his novel Things Fall Apart in mind about ending the stereotypes used about the Africans. Things Fall Apart is about a man named Okonkwo that always struggles with himself and is known for being a strong, powerful, and a brave warrior. He fears weakness and failure more than the fear of dying and that foreshadows the consequences of his actions at the end of the novel. By writing the novel Things Falls Apart Achebe tries to make readers understand the stereotypes about Africans are simply false. Achebe addresses the stereotype through the missionaries and how they were treating the Africans.

While there are many novels written about white colonization in Africa, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart illustrates the views of the Nigerian people in Igbo. Achebe wrote the novel as a response to other books about the colonization of Africa, which were typically written by white men. Joseph Conrad, among many other authors wrote African characters as unintelligent and primitive humans who were better off after the colonization of Africa. Achebe shows the reader that the people of Igbo had a fully functioning civilization with a developed religion, language, and political system pre-colonization. They were not just a helpless, uneducated civilization waiting for someone to come and reconstruct their system, but rather an equal society with a different way of maintaining their people.

In Heart of Darkness, a novel written by Joseph Conrad, the literary characters are forced into a web of darkness and evil as they enter the heart of the African Congo. However, the Congo itself is not the true evil, but the darkness instead lies within the dimming hearts of mankind. Conrad uses the literal darkness of the African jungle as a contrast to societies "supposed" enlightenment to show how the morals of civilized man are broken down when exposed to what they claim to be "savagery." This contrast is most evident in the different settings, the changes in civilized individuals as they venture deeper into Africa, and the final collapse of white man under the darkness of the

Chinua Achebe has stated that he wrote his novel Things Fall Apart in response to Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, which appears, at face value, a piece of literature that demonstrates the horrors of imperialism. However, when compared with a novel such as Things Fall Apart, the novella’s numerous faults become glaringly obvious. It is effortless to construe why Achebe would write such a novel when Conrad’s novella did not recognize the people of Africa as people, rather casualties and never sought to understand or assist them. Achebe corrects the errors made in the Heart of Darkness by delving in his book into the lives, customs, and traditions of the natives allowing them to be seen as people. He also responds to Conrad through the way he writes and targets the book, along with how he demonstrates the ideas of the imperialist and Christians in Things Fall Apart.

Through language, writers can tell vivid stories and convey strong emotions to readers, Chinua Achebe and Joseph Conrad both use language quite effectively. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses language in regards to Africans with a very negative tone. Achebe, the author of the novel Things Fall Apart, illustrates the feel of tribal life in Nigeria during the time of African colonialism and the African culture and customs. Both Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart analyze the image of Africa and their perspectives of the African peoples during the time of colonialism.