Kurtz Racist Quotes

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness takes place in a world built on imperialism. Written in 1899, Conrad is living in a world still very much involved in Africa. Infect this presence did not begin to end until the early 1960s. Heart of Darkness can be viewed as a very forward thinking book. Joseph Conrad utilizes his book as a mean to send a message. He utilizes his rhetorical devices and moves in order to help him get this message across. One way Conrad portrays his message is by establishing the connection between light and dark. Additionally Conrad uses vivid description to depict the savage behavior of the natives. He makes meaning by later creating a parallel with the behaviors of the white imperialists. Conrad also utilizes imagery to describe the perceived outcome of the voyage in the eyes of the imperialists. He makes meaning by doing this as he later contrasts this showing how things are oven not as they seem. Continuing the idea that things are often not as they seem is Conrad’s diction

  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.

Filled with an enigmatic darkness, Heart of Darkness is layered with a very detailed blend of character development involving personality changes and an obvious plethora of racist ideologies. The way in which Conrad writes allows the reader to find a rather interesting and even exciting read. The story itself is filled with rich detail to provoke imagery. Symbolism and allegory can be found everywhere in the novel, focusing largely on the inherent darkness that surrounds and possibly influence us. Heart of Darkness is a classic that we should use to teach. Of course racism makes up the novel in of itself, but the imagery and detail that Conrad is able to evoke can offset the racism. The novel can be compared to that of Sherlock Holmes – both cause the reader to yearn to unravel the mysteries within them – a great piece of literature. Conrad’s work should not be completely lost or forgotten – being taught in schools could be the perfect case for its use.

ACHEBE, CHINUA. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Massachusetts Review, vol. 57, no. 1, Spring2016, pp. 14-27. EBSCOhost, scsl.idm.oclc.org/login?auth=discus&url=http://search.ebscohost.com.scsl.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=114187095&site=eds-live&scope=site.

<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

When I read Heart of Darkness, I did think it was a racist book. The story revolves around a character named Marlow who goes to work in the Congo. The labor for the company he works for comes from the slavery of the native people. The author, Joseph Conrad, depicts these people as savages, which is also very racist. Also, when he refers to them he uses a racial slur, rather than calling them black people or finding another way to state that they are not white. Throughout the book Conrad also depicts a lot of violence towards these people which I saw as unnecessary since most of the time it is not explained and does not further develop the story. These are the reasons why I think Heart of Darkness is racist.

Achebe also criticises Conrad’s lack of language for his African characters as dehumanising in its attempt to strip the characters of respectable voices by instead describing their language as “animalistic grunts” and “cries”. The few instances within the novel where an African character speaks English are described by Achebe as deliberate in their insinuation that the African people are unintelligent and illiterate. Achebe again contrasts Conrad’s use of Africa as a place of “dehumanisation” as alienating the African people rather than inspiring inhumanity in the white colonialists that have travelled there. While many readers would agree with the failed attempt at the exploration of racism, one must contend that writing about something does not necessarily remove it from criticism and as such when reading Heart of Darkness one can gather the inklings of prejudice weaved within the text by an author who is known for racist values. While the text is deserving of appreciation, as for some it is deemed a literary masterpiece, one cannot ignore the racist undertones of the novel as it is clear that Conrad has prejudices towards Africa and her people and that these feelings were intertwined into the plot. Conrad’s main characters all have some racist values ranging from blissful ignorance to downright hatred to the African people and in

In Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, he tells the story of an adventure from Europe to Africa during the 1800’s. The narrator, Marlow, tells the majority of the story and all about his adventures while traveling to the Congo River. Many critics have commented on the novella since it was published in 1899, stating that Conrad was a racist, but there are many other things also wrong with the way he writes the short story. Despite the fact that the novella was written during a time period when only upper-class white males had rights, Heart of Darkness emphasizes the differences in races and sexes. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is filled with many male characters and very few women.

Though they are seen as savages, they are actually a representation of all the cruelty in the world and Conrad is trying to pull emotion from the reader into sympathizing with the Africans and making the reader feel bad for them. Conrad is not trying to be derogatory towards the Africans. This novel was written in 1899. In this time period, this is just how the Europeans refer to the Africans. In Peter Mwikisa criticism of Heart of Darkness he explained that conrads depiction of the natives in Africa is a “delineation of the virtues that Europeans need to cultivate in order to justify extending their civilization and culture to other parts of the world.”

The novel Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, contains several implications of racism that can be further understood based on Conrad’s diction, symbolism, and background. Conrad is shown to be racist through close scrutinization of his wording. Throughout the story, Conrad uses diction that is odd and shocking for readers. Conrad’s choice of words is derogatory and condescending when he makes it seem like the people who live in the Congo are less than Europeans, as though they are not even human. Singh says “he uses words like brutal, monstrous, vengeful, implacable, inscrutable, evil, accursed, hopeless, dark, and pitiless so constantly in talking about Africa that the people of Africa begin to be tinged by the qualities that these words

Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness as a political allegory to the people of Europe to hopefully show them how foolish it is to think that their race of people is superior to another. Conrad hoped that his novella would show that the people of Africa are people and not savages, just people looking to survive in the wild and unruly expanse that is Africa. Achebe is a man of great intellect and he should have been able to see this if he were not clouded by emotion. Achebe should not logically deny Conrad’s original purpose in writing the novella for he is a man of great intelligence, yet others may simply pass it off as Achebe did by only reacting with emotion, or others may not be able to understand the work due to the complex style and excellent vocabulary of Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness is a novella that should be looked at intellectually at the college level for if it were to be examined with the smoke of emotion or through the eyes of one without the ability to comprehend the political allegory behind it, it would be interpreted and passed off as one of the most extreme and racists works of the late nineteenth century even though that title is not befitting of this novella. Heart of Darkness is not that; it is not a racist work. Conrad’s purpose was not racist and if one was to intellectually examine the novella that would be apparent and that is why it is a work that is deemed only appropriate for a college

Joseph conrad makes some remarks about black people that is very racist. An example of this is when he says “ the thought of their humanity like

In Joseph Conrad’s story “Heart of Darkness,” Marlow, the main character, can be described as racist. It can be debated whether he really is racist or not depending on how the reader interpreted the story. Because this story was written in 1899 with the setting taking place in Africa and a plot about Europeans taking over African land, the idea of discrimination and racism can be explained. While the opposite opinion can be described as learned statements and opinions that obstruct the views Marlow has once he stays in Africa after awhile. Racism is “[a] belief that one’s own racial or ethnic group is superior, or that other such groups represent a threat to one's cultural identity, racial integrity, or economic well-being; (also) a belief that the members of different racial or ethnic groups possess specific characteristics, abilities, or qualities, which can be compared and evaluated. Hence: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against people of other racial or ethnic groups (or, more widely, of other nationalities), esp. based on such beliefs.” Marlow is racist because his initial thoughts display specified characteristics of Africans, evaluated qualities

Racism was international; again, it was just a way of life. In An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Conrad was considered a racist because of his ideas of he could not image a world where he lived side by side to any other different characteristic. Even John McClure identifies Conrad’s way of thinking “to subvert racist stereotypes of subject’s people as the “often disguised social project of [his] serious colonial fiction.” (McClure, p5). Later in Cultures and Imperialism, the author furthermore tells of Conrad’s prejudice against other cultures. Which he is not wrong; he is a man who writes from a Western point of view, “all Conrad can see is a world dominated by the Atlantic West (majority race being white)… He could

Conrad uses some words and phrases that sound pretty racist as some people would say, but I believe he uses it to show what other people think. He sometimes uses a word ‘‘nigger’’ in reference to an African person which sounds really offended. However, one hundred years ago, it was a very common word people were using, so I believe this is what the author wants to show us. When reading Heart of Darkness, the opinions of J. Conrad's racism are always surface. As with the use of this word we may take the time period into consideration. It was normal to use this word and not something else actually, so J. Conrad may be dismissed as a racist now.