Blog Assignment #2

Brooke Wilcox

Professor Timmons

English 105                       

September 28, 2010

                                     Achebe’s Views on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

In Chinua Achebe’s essay titled An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Achebe states his main point as “The need in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe.” (337) This in other words means that Africa acting as a foil would be the place where everything bad happened, which is shown to highlight the opposing side, Europe.

            Some of the stronger points in Achebe’s work was the fact that he had a lot of credibility for what he was suggesting. He suggested that Africa was set as the “other” place in the novella, and the Africans inhabiting it were un-humanlike.

“The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world.” (344)

            Another strong concept in Achebe’s work was that he used biographical facts of racism, which were both compelling and damaging to Conrad.

“It was certainly not his fault that he lived his life at a time when the reputation of the black man was at a particularly low level.” (344)

The weaknesses in Achebe’s essay brought forward a very intriguing question; Is it justifiable to level such complaints and accusations towards a piece of literature that was written so long ago?

“Its exploration of the minds of the European characters is often penetrating and full of insight. But all has been more than fully discussed in the last fifty years. His obvious racism has, however, not been addressed. And it is high time it was!” (344)

            It is obvious that times have changed, and racism has come and gone a long way. It may be true that when this novella was written, speaking of Africans in a “racist” way was fine. However, in today’s society, one cannot not read a piece of literature like this without having the thoughts that Conrad was racist.

            Another weakness in Achebe’s work is that he does not adequately address counter-examples because he only focuses on the fact that Conrad is racist.

“The point of my observations should be quite clear by now, namely that Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist.” (343)

            In conclusion, Achebe’s essay gave examples of some good, interesting points in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but also showed that not all good essays are perfect. Through the essay’s strengths and weaknesses the reader was able to understand Achebe’s main point and relate to it as well.

Works Cited:

Achebe, Chinua, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.’ Armstrong, 336-349

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