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.