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Heart of Darkness

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An in-depth look courtesy of Chinua Achebe and Wilson Harris Chinua Achebe An Image of Africa: ... while he decries the use of the word nigger, ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Heart of Darkness


1
Heart of Darkness
  • Racist?
  • An in-depth look courtesy of Chinua Achebe and
    Wilson Harris

2
Chinua Achebe
  • An Image of Africa Racism in Conrads Heart of
    Darkness
  • an offensive and deplorable book
  • a story in which the very humanity of black
    people is called into question

3
An Introduction by Achebe
  • Achebe begins his criticism by relating two
    stories
  • The first involves meeting a man on the street
    who was unaware that Africa had literature.
  • The second involves a letter that Achebe received
    where a student professed interest in learning
    about the customs of an African tribe in Things
    Fall Apart.

4
Continued
  • This sets the stage for the main points that
    Achebe will try to make
  • The Western world is largely ignorant.
  • Africa should not exist as a foil to the Western
    world.
  • From there, Achebe begins his true criticism.
  • His ultimate point will be that Heart of Darkness
    should be recognized as a racist work.

5
A Poor Contrast
  • Achebe begins by attacking Conrads contrast of
    Africa and Europe.
  • Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa
    as the other world, the antithesis of Europe
    and therefore civilization.
  • Achebe takes issue not solely with the fact that
    Africa is presented as the opposite of Europe,
    but that it is unknowable.
  • He feels that Conrad is afraid of the lurking
    hint of kinship, noting that Conrad fears Africa
    as a distant place still consumed with the
    savagery that Europe conquered.

6
Continued
  • Achebe finds fault with Conrad for purveying
    comforting myths, arguing that he played into
    the Western worlds stereotyping of Africa.
  • Throughout the piece, and in comments made
    elsewhere, Achebe will repeatedly call Conrad
    seductive, and accuse him of being sly.

7
Limbs and Rolling Eyes
  • Achebes next point, after establishing Conrads
    prejudice for the country, is to establish his
    prejudice for the people.
  • He once again maintains that the Western world
    enjoys the work because it plays into
    stereotypes.
  • What thrilled you was just the thought of their
    humanity- like yoursUgly.

8
Continued
  • Achebe claims that Conrad held views that
    dehumanize Africans.
  • Essentially, he believes that Conrad felt that
    the Africans primarily spent their time engaging
    in savage behavior, and that Conrad saw this as
    romantic.

9
Continued
  • Further, he accuses Conrad of encouraging
    Africans to be in their place, which includes
    performing activities like
  • Paddling boats
  • Singing
  • Shouting
  • He feels that Conrad does not like Africans
    acting in a European manner, citing a passage
    where a native is operating the boiler on the
    steamer, ending with the quote he ought to
    have been clapping his hands and stamping his
    feet on the bank.
  • Achebe also mentions Kurtzs mistress, bringing
    up that she is a contrast to Kurtzs fiancée
    (i.e. Europe), an example of Africas mystery and
    primal nature, and a native in her place.

10
The Gift of Gab
  • Another point of Achebes is that Conrad rarely
    deigns to make the Africans in any way
    intelligent, citing particularly their lack of
    speech.
  • He notes that they do not speak even amongst
    themselves.
  • The idea that Africans are inherently less the
    Europeans bothers Achebe immensely.

11
Chain of Command
  • Achebe starts his next section by noting that
    Conrad has attempted to create a barrier between
    himself and the characters.
  • Conrad as related through Marlow as related
    through unnamed narrator
  • It is implied in his essay that Achebe feels
    Marlow is unquestioningly racist.

12
Continued
  • Though Achebe acknowledges that Conrad and his
    mouthpieces pity the Africans, he makes it a
    point to say that they dont consider them
    equals.
  • He notes the scene where the helmsman dies
  • And the intimate profundity of that look he gave
    me when he received his hurt remains this day in
    my memory- like a claim of distant kinship
    affirmed in a supreme moment.
  • Achebe feels that the bolded text insinuates that
    not only were the Africans not brothers to the
    white men, but that they didnt even have much
    more than a claim to the distinction.

13
And the Truth Comes Out
  • At this point, Achebe calls Conrad a racist for
    the first time.
  • He then acknowledges that Conrad is critical of
    the Europeans, and proceeds to note that it can
    be construed that Africa is merely the setting
    for the disintegration of Kurtzs mind.
  • However, this angers him perhaps more than
    anything.
  • Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse
    arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of
    props for the break-up of one petty European
    mind?
  • Achebe, notes, though, that this is not the
    point, and argues that the real issue is that the
    book celebrates the dehumanization of Africa

14
Continued
  • In another concession, Achebe also acknowledges
    the time period that Conrad lived in.
  • However, he proceeds to discuss Conrads use of
    the word nigger.
  • Certainly Conrad had a problem with niggers.
    His inordinate love of that word itself should be
    of interest to psychoanalysts.
  • Achebe also discusses the amount of times the
    word black comes up.

15
Meanwhile, in Africa
  • At this point, Achebe argues his case for why
    Conrad was wrong
  • He mentions in particular that Africa, during
    Marlows time, was an area of great interest to
    artists.
  • According to Achebe, it was African art that
    inspired cubism, and led to the reinvigorating of
    European art.
  • Achebe blames Conrads xenophobia for covering
    this true Africa, and instead presenting the
    skewed perception of most Europeans.

16
Concluding Remarks
  • Achebe sums up his point by explaining that
    Conrads Africa is to Europe what the famous
    portrait was to Dorian Gray a place to cast
    moral and cultural deformities, so Europe could
    progress untarnished.
  • Keep away from Africa, or else! Mr. Kurtz of
    Heart of Darkness should have heeded that warning
    and the prowling horror in his heart would have
    kept its place, chained to its lair.
  • He finally states that racism toward Africa is
    inherent to the West even today, and that
    optimism is difficult, given that it is an almost
    knee-jerk reaction.

17
Wilson Harris
  • The Frontier on Which Heart of Darkness Stands
  • A Rebuttal, with some help from Messrs. Skoff and
    Henderson

18
The Other Side of the Coin
  • Harris begins his rebuttal by agreeing with
    Achebe that the West has a history of racism.
  • However, he follows this up by noting that the
    West is seeking to rid itself of this guilt.
  • As a whole, Harris essay will, for the most
    part, conclude that Achebe missed the point.

19
Continued
  • Harrison argues that Achebe has largely
    misinterpreted Conrads work due to his lumping
    in of Conrad with the rest of Europe.
  • According to him, most of Heart of Darkness can
    be read as racist, and it was made this way on
    purpose.

20
Say What?
  • To greatly summarize Harris piece (which is
    largely written in complex and difficult to
    understand phrasing), Heart of Darkness is a
    parody.
  • Everything that the characters say and think,
    from the Europeans colonial attitude, to
    Marlows condescending sympathies, are
    intentional.
  • He notes that the descriptions of the Africans
    themselves, a major sticking point of Achebes,
    is a part of this as well.

21
Continued
  • Harris goes so far as to say that Conrad does his
    job too well, and that as a result, he can appear
    racist.
  • He implies that Achebe is unable to comprehend
    the depth of what Conrad had written.
  • In response to some of Achebes criticisms on
    adjective use, Harris implies that the adjectives
    went beyond simple description, and were more
    about metaphysical properties.

22
Our Take
  • Harris, while making a few good points, is
    largely ineffectual do to his overly complicated
    writing style, and his focus on the poetic
    nature of Achebe.
  • Much of the essay involves how Conrad was able to
    create almost a new form of novel
  • In our opinion, there are four simple reasons why
    Achebe was wrong.

23
Reason 1 Willful Misinterpretation (i.e. Bias)
  • As critics tend to go, Achebe is notorious for
    adding meaning to things that dont necessarily
    have the meaning he implies.
  • Achebe thought that Curious George was racist.
  • He is overly critical of any literature written
    about Africa that was not written by an African.
  • In line with his fight for equality, Achebe seems
    to have something of a chip on his shoulder
    regarding Western literature.

24
Reason 2 Misguided Rage
  • A particularly large part of Achebes anger seems
    to be directed toward Conrads descriptive terms
    for black people, nigger being the most
    offensive.
  • Though he acknowledges the time that the book was
    written, he still seems to insist that the use of
    the word makes Conrad a racist.
  • This anger spills over into the rest of his
    article, making what should have been a defense
    of Africa more of an attack on Conrad.
  • Note that he does not defend the black race as a
    whole while he decries the use of the word
    nigger, he does so mainly to prove his claim that
    Conrad is a racist.
  • The rest of the piece is about why Africa is not
    a place of darkness, not why blacks are lesser
    than whites.

25
Reason 3 Missing the Point
  • What Harris gets right above all else is that
    Achebe missed the point.
  • For an obvious example, return to the description
    of the native running the boiler.
  • Achebe saw racism we see Conrad lamenting that a
    man has been snatched from his normal lifestyle
    and forced to run a steamship.
  • Many of Conrads adjectives are metaphorical, all
    relating back to the central point.
  • When the book is called Heart of Darkness, and is
    about mans lapse into primal instinct, expect
    black to be used as a descriptive word a lot,
    and for characters to engage in wild activity
  • Next to Huck Finn, Conrads novel is one of the
    most obvious cases for fair treatment of
    Africans.
  • Nowhere in the book does Marlow, Conrads
    mouthpiece, disparage blacks with overt racism.
  • In some ways, the book implies that Marlow came
    in with ideas already in his head, and over time
    learned that Africans were just like everyone
    else.
  • In the end, the book isnt really even about
    Africa, or colonialism.
  • As the title implies, it is about mans ability
    to lapse into darkness.
  • To show this, the characters needed a place to
    go, and where better than the last unexplored
    part of the world?

26
Reason 4 Not Stating the Right Thing
  • Had Achebe complained that Conrad misinterpreted
    Africa, and nothing else, he might have a point.
  • However, he calls Conrad racist.
  • His original point, about ignorance, is far more
    understandable.
  • In the end, his real anger is with Africa being
    compared unfavorably (debatable) with Europe.

27
In Conclusion
  • While we see Achebes point, we feel that he
    should have stuck to lamenting about the
    typecasting of Africa in Western literature.
  • To even the most casual observer, Heart of
    Darkness is obviously not racist.

28
Any Questions?
  • If so, go ahead and ask us.
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