ENG 105 Blog #2

September 28, 2010

Blog #2

            In the essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,” by Chinua Achebe, Achebe critically analyzes Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Achebe evaluates the novella (as well as Conrad) as being racist and alleges that Conrad sets “Africa up as a foil to Europe” (Achebe 337). However Achebe’s claim that Heart of Darkness is a racist text meant to highlight the good in Europe is unfair and inaccurate. Furthermore, Achebe’s conclusion that the racist opinions expressed by Marlow are those of Conrad’s is based on false criteria.

            Of course, Achebe’s essay does have redeeming qualities. What makes Achebe’s essay so effective is the passion in his argument. This passion stems partly from the fact that his birth place is Nigeria. Achebe’s tone is indignant and emotionally charged. An example of his passion coming through is when he attacks Conrad’s writing as “irrational love and irrational hate jostling together” (345). Achebe’s irritation can be sensed in word choice.  Achebe also shows emotion by utilizing exclamation marks (344, 349). Such poignant diction throughout his essay indicates a strong emotional connection with the argument, and makes his argument more memorable.

            However Achebe’s passion is not sufficient to make his analysis accurate. One major flaw in Achebe’s essay is his failure to adequately evaluate Marlow’s progress towards casting off racist views of Africans and Africa. Marlow has racial prejudices that nearly all Europeans of his time had. Achebe quotes in his essay the passage in which Marlow describes the savage fireman as being like a dog in breeches, to show that Marlow looks down upon Africans (340). However Achebe leaves out that Marlow later indicates that he values the fireman more than Kurtz, a white man, when he says that he is “not entirely prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life… lost in getting to him,” the fellow being Kurtz and the life lost being the fireman (Conrad 50). Achebe also complains that Marlow never sees any Africans as “brothers”, but later Marlow realized they had “a kind of partnership,” a claim which implies equal importance (51). This example goes to show that Achebe is selective in which information he chooses to focus on and doesn’t recognize that Marlow grows by becoming less racist through out the novel.

            Further criticism can be made of Achebe, such as his failure to recognize that Conrad and Marlow are different entities. Achebe judges Conrad based on the incorrect criteria that “Heart of Darkness” is a biography or journal. However, in J. Hillis Miller’s essay “Should We Read ‘Heart of Darkness’?” he points out that Conrad’s novella is a work of literature, therefore Marlow is but a mere fictional tool who’s opinions are not of the author (Miller 465).

            Achebe wrote his criticism with passion and conviction, but that very emotion may be what blocked him from fairly evaluating the novella. Achebe’s argument is built on incomplete evaluations of many aspects of the novella, including Conrad’s message that Africans are equally as human as Europeans. These major flaws take away from the credibility of Achebe’s claims that Conrad is a racist and that this novella uses Africa as Europe’s foil.

Works Cited

Achebe Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.”
          Armstrong 336-49.

Armstrong Paul B, ed. Heart of Darkness. New York: w:w. Norton, 2005.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. New York: W.W. 
          Norton, 2005. Print.

Miller, Hillis J., “Should we Read ‘Heart of Darkness’?” Armstrong 463.