Is Chinua Achebe Correct in Asserting That Heart of Darkness Is Essentially a Racist Novel Essay Example for Free

Is Chinua Achebe position in Asserting That Heart of Darkness Is Essentially a Racist Novel EssayChinua Achebes expresses his view on Heart of Darkness as an essentially racial novel and he is objurgate in saying this. His essay focuses mainly on the portrayal of the Congo as an other cosmea in which Conrad describes it to be an antithesis of Europe and the European standards and overall of civilisation as a whole. The racism presented by Conrad in the novel is evident through his manipulation of position and dehumanisation of the native Africans as discussed in Achebes essay. Joseph Conrad manipulates the perspective of the reader and the attitude they have towards the natives and Europeans alike through the bestowal of human verbalism to Europeans and the withholding of it from the Africans, as Achebe explains. When comparing the description of the two women, the African womanhood and European woman, the reader is adapted to depict a subtle yet definite oddment in t he way each womans expression is characterised. The African woman, who is seen to be as a mistress to Mr Kurtz, is illustrated as a truly mysterious figure with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose qualification her character unidentifiable.Whereas the European woman is talked about more clearly and the reader can easily recognise her character because she is condition emotions and feeling, she had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering. In Conrad characterising each woman in such varied ways, the reader feels as though the European woman is more relatable as opposed to the native woman who is not expressed with feelings. This lack of human expression in the description of the African woman, as commented on by Achebe, created a noticeable barrier between the complexity of natives and Europeans.For the most part, the natives are not condition any parley alone instead their speech is replaced with a violent babble of uncouth sounds. Achebe however, r efers to two significant parts of the novel when native Africans are keep backn English dialogue. These are when the cannibals request the manhood to eat, catch im. Give im to us. . As well as the famous announcement, Mistah Kurtzhe dead. When first read, the reader thinks of these as high points for the natives because they appear to be at the same level as the Europeans in damage of getting dialogue ithin the novel. Chinua Achebe opposes this by stating that in reality they constitute some of his best assaults as these examples of dialogue in fact degrade the natives. This changes the readers perspective into assume that through the use of grunts and garbled speech they are inferior and inarticulate in comparison to the phrase employ by the Europeans. This difference in amount and quality of dialogue between the Africans and colonising Europeans contributes to making Heart of Darkness an essentially a racist novel.The novel reveals the Africans beingness reduced to metaphori cal expanse of dangerous and dark jungle of animals into which the European colonists venture. Chinua Achebe is correct in criticising Heart of Darkness as a racist novel, this is seen particularly through Conrads dehumanisation of the Congolese natives. Throughout the novel Conrads descriptions of the natives are used to create the idea of uncivilised, tike being whom cannot be of the same standards as the Europeans. Conrads most effective way of dehumanising the African slew is through his use of imagery, a whirl of black limbs, as mass of hands.This does not give the impression that these are human beings but instead that they are just parts of humans, therefore making them seem incomplete and inferior in comparison the way Europeans are described. This imagery is also eventful when Conrad describes native workers as decaying machinery, this creates the image that the Congolese are not valued as humans, as Europeans are, but rather as disposable articles who can easily be repl aced after they have done their work. The language choices in which Conrad has made also have a great impact on the way the natives are perceived.By using phrases such as the beaten nigger groaned somewhere, the Congolese natives are referred to in a very uncivilised manner. A way in which no European would ever be described leads the reader to believe that the Africans are in fact inferior to the Europeans, making them less of a human. These descriptions make it evident that Conrads writing involving the natives made them appear beast-like and savage therefore dehumanising them in a way that can only be seen as racist.Although these racial depictions may not be used to knowingly dehumanise and objectify the Congolese people, Chinua Achebe rightly criticises Heart of Darkness as a racist novel. The constant comparison between the two cultures, African and European, are simply explained as one being civilised whereas the other is portrayed as savage. The unavoidable reality that Conr ads descriptions of the natives were accurate expressions of the European perspective justifies Achebes assertion that Heart of Darkness is essentially a racist novel.