Joseph Conrad is known as one of the greatest authors of all time. Based on his not knowing English until he was in his twenties, definitely impresses many because of his fantastic and eloquent writing style. His novel Heart of Darkness was extremely successful based on this type of style he has. Though many adored the novel and ranked it as one of the best pieces of literature, others often disagreed and labeled Conrad a racist. Chinua Achebe responded to this piece with being incredibly angered and offended on how racist the story really was, and enraged that it was labeled as such a masterpiece.
On February 18th, 1975, the great African writer Chinua Achebe presented a Chancellor’s Lecture at the University of Massachusetts, entitled ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.’ This lecture opened my eyes and helped me view Heart of Darkness in a different way, and gave me perspective on why some think it is a racist novel and others believe it to be a literary masterpiece. The novella is filled with imagery, symbolisms, and allusions as well as an extremely complex and intertwined theme and meaning that reveal darkness and savagery. Many critics view this as being very incredible and prestigious, while Achebe feels differently. The African writer voiced his opinion on how he believed Conrad was, "a thoroughgoing racist" for depicting Africa as "the other world". Conrad saying that “We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that worse the aspect of an unknown planet... The prehistoric man was curing us… wondering and secretly appalled as sane men would be…” he is portraying through Marlow that the Congo as a place that is completely separate from the world as if it were something that had never been touched and was undeveloped. The people were described as prehistoric as well meaning that they were like the land that they resided on, separate from mankind. Conrad often makes differences between the natives and the Europeans through talking about the Europeans as gods and put together, while the natives are uncivilized and savage. Conrad is praising the Europeans in this novel and treating the Congolese like animals.
Though, Marlow could be seen as the equivalent to Joseph Conrad, and his personal trip to the Congo, where he had always wanted to go. The perspective he uses within the novel could just highlight the Europeans actions, and how they are incredibly savage and had a dark side come out of them. Even if Marlow is the fictional embodiment of Conrad, then I agree with Achebe with that he was a racist. Because the actions taken by Marlow were very derogatory, and Conrad depicted it without sugar coating any of it. Though, during that time, and it is shown with the other Europeans in the novel, that new things and ideas were seen as obscure, and many white men felt superior to others, so it could be seen as a cultural norm. Though, I do agree that this is not an excuse to be racist, but the time period proves that there really was no new ideas that told the men to break free of these norms and take responsibility for their actions and what they said to these people.
Overall, I agree with Achebe that Conrad is a racist. Though, I do not believe that his work should be discredited because of the time period he was in. The work is very eye opening and the actions could have been non-censored to prove their savagery and unpleasant behavior as well.
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