Achebe vs. Conrad
In a critical essay of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe accuses Conrad of being a terrible racist, and points out places in the novel where Conrad is very biased and prejudiced. Based on Achebe's points, and my reading of the book, I have to agree with him. Heart of Darkness is about Marlow, and his journey up the Congo river, to meet a famed man named Kurtz. Marlow receives a job as a boat captain with a Belgian company which specialises in trade in Africa. After arriving at the Central Station in Africa, he finds that his ship has been sunk, and waits several months for the parts needed to fix it. During this time his interest in Kurtz grows, and as he is rumoured to be ill, the delays in fixing the ship are made even more costly. Eventually Marlow does get the parts needed to repair the boat, and he and a crew of Pilgrims and Cannibals set out on the long and laborious journey up the Congo. During their journey, Marlow's ship is attacked by a tribe of natives, but only one person is killed. They finally arrive to Kurtz's camp expecting to find him dead, but instead they are greeted by a crazy Russian trader, who assures them that everything is great and that Kurtz is fine. He claims that Kurtz has made
Marlow listens to Kurtz's story, and Kurtz gives Marlow an envelope full of his personal documents, including a document telling of how to civilize the savages, with a scrawled message on the end reading "Exterminate all the brutes!" The ship again breaks down, and while it is being fixed Kurtz dies, uttering his last words "The Horror. " This statement makes the Congo seem to be hell on earth, which is a very biased interpretation. Achebe believes that Conrad has compared the River Thames to the Congo, which they are now traveling on, and in a way has said that one was good and the other bad. The primary narrator is Marlow, but behind that is another unknown narrator, and then Conrad himself, he has in a way hidden behind his characters. The Russian tells Marlow after swearing him to secrecy that Kurtz is planning an attack on the ship so as to convince the Company that he is dead. The Africans he travels with are portrayed as cannibals who have no spoken language, and are submissive to the Europeans. When this statement is made in the beginning of the novel it sets the tone for the rest of the descriptions of everything, especially the interpretations of the natives. The next morning they set off down the river. He sais that Kurtz has made himself a god to the natives, and has gone on murderous raids in search of Ivory. She asks Marlow what Kurtz's last words were, but he cant bring himself to tell her, so instead he sais his last words were her name. Achebe continues with slamming Conrad's description of the actual Africans, whom never spoke intelligible lines, and were just "limbs and rolling eyes" to him. The Russian then flees in a canoe, fearing Kurtz. Then a bunch of natives carry Kurtz out of his cabin on a stretcher, and a group of natives surround the camp.
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Acceptance Essays
