Things Fall Apart, And The Heart Of Darkness

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart both take place in the imperialist era. Authors Joseph Conrad and Chinua Achebe, respectively, created main characters that came from different continents, but experienced similar cultural clashes. Although Marlow and Okonkwo have different lifestyles, they are both led to question their identities and make life-defining decisions.

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

This ending adds more obscurity to the work as a whole and goes right along with how Conrad wrote the novel in its entirety. This is how he shaped his characters as well. Vague descriptions and details make the readers think and try to process things on their own instead of the narrator telling them. That is why this ending and novel as a whole is one of the hardest to understand and

The emotional agony that Conrad experienced following the death of his brother almost led to his end. The conflict inside of Conrad is only the beginning of his suffering. The emotions that engulf one's mind can swallow them up and eat them from the inside out. They demand to be felt, but the management of the emotional conflict has been just as important. For example, when the Jannett family is together to take family photos, including the grandparents, the disconnect between Conrad and his mother are clearly visible to the naked eye. After being asked to take a picture with her son, Beth hesitates, violently insisting a different photo to be taken in order to avoid accepting and showing the increasing disconnect between her and her son. Siting and watching, Conrad struggles internally to decode the intentions of the scene depicted in front of him before he burst into an outrage. Initially, Conrad practiced silence in the form of withdrawal. Thus, he situated himself in the isolated window chair. The actions of his mother spoke to him in the sense that she hated him, wishing to have nothing to do with him. The silence remained silent until he burst with rage, projecting the instructions of his father for the camera to be given to his emotionally silent mother. Conrad rested on the assumptions he formed based not only on his mother’s current action, but passed actions as well, to reveal what he

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.

Probably the biggest example of how the book is based on Conrad's own travels is the fact that the stories' villain, Mr. Kurtz, is clearly inspired by a number of real people. These include George Antoine Klein, Major Edmund Barttelot, and Captain Leon Rom, who probably is the real-life basis for Kurtz's most important signal, a collection of African heads around his house. Heart of Darkness is given a completely new spin because of Hochschild's interpretation.      Hochschild has a tendency to be too descriptive. There are some parts in the book

“Until the lions have their own historian, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” This quote can be applied to many different situations throughout history, but in the context of the novel, Things Fall Apart, the quote refers to renowned Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, recounting the story of the Ibo people and their oppression. Achebe assumes the role of the lions’ historian by exhibiting the richness of the Ibo culture and showing its destruction by the colonialism of the late nineteenth century.

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.

In both texts, there are individuals showcasing major facets motivated by greed, obsessed with the stimulus that is presented in either century. In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the character

He states that “It is clearly not part of Conrad’s purpose to confer language on the rudimentary souls of Africa.” [pg. 4] Instead of speech they are represented with sounds (i.e. grunting). My first critique was that of the blacks’ lack of speech, where Conrad presents speech on the motorboat. Interestingly enough, Achebe analyzes these points as, at first, being “acts of generosity from Conrad.” [pg.5] But, later states their purpose as showing the Europeans their “unspeakable craving” [pg.5] or cannibalism. I do however disagree with this viewpoint. Though initially the speech of the cannibals can be viewed as “some of his best assaults,” [pg.5] the actions of the cannibals speak louder than their words. The cannibals’ restraint towards eating humans in the novel shows them in a positive light.

It is not the differentness that worries Conrad but the lurking hint of kinship, of common

Today's society contains stories that model the ideal life that each individual lives each day. Stories may shape our mind in creative and positive ways that may enlighten the road towards the future. They have been examples for us to survive by and thrive on for decades: in the past, and now, continuing in the future. People around the world have been told stories that may have influenced their lives in a unique way. Children long to be enlightened by stories that fill their young and fruitful minds, allowing thoughts and new ideas to be instilled. Throughout the worlds' cultures and literature, stories have influenced the actions and morals of man with their underlying

Achebe’s first allegation is that Conrad, and Western society in general, develops Africa “as a foil to Europe” in order to draw attention to

In Heart of Darkness, the reader is given the a first person account of the horrors of imperialism bolstered by Conrad’s own experience travelling up the Congo River. Patrick Brantlinger, a professor from Indiana University, defends Conrad noting that, “much of the ‘horror’ either depicted or suggested in Heart of Darkness… exposed Leopold 's bloody system between the time of his return to England and the composition of the novella in 1898-99.” Even Achebe at concedes in his essay, “An Image of

Therefore, Caryl Phillips goes beyond what may seem as racist comments in Heart of Darkness and focuses on the encounter of the white colonizer with the natives in Africa. He believes that the book is only “an expounder of human experiences” when being confronted to a new environment. That is why he refutes Achebe’s claims and maintains his point of view. His two works; “Heartland” and “Out of Africa” are the best examples to explain how he manages to defend Conrad’s