Racism in the Heart of Darkness
is a very controversial subject in the sense that it is unclear to the reader
whether the racist attitude is portrayed because of the time period or because
the author is indeed racist. Using the
text of his novel, one can only infer racism through Conrad’s words, as Chinua
Achebe argued in her essay:
Africa
as a metaphysical battlefield of all recognizable humanity…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? …Certainly Conrad had a
problem with niggers. His inordinate love of that word itself should be of
interest… (Achebe)
Despite showing perplexing interest in
the book as a whole, Achebe cannot get over the intense racism she believes
Conrad permits in his novel. Conrad’s interest in the word “niggers” is indeed
intriguing, yet anyone can argue that it is simply reminiscent of the time
period. However, Achebe provides further justification for her beliefs by comparing
Conrad’s unsympathetic attitude to that of the European imperialistic mind set.
However, Achebe seems annoyed that Africa is principally seen as the setting
for a criticism of European ideals. Nevertheless, the diction and imagery in
the book reflect hints of racism, but whether or not this is Conrad’s own
manifestation of the situation in Africa becomes the guiding question behind
Achebe’s argument. Achebe is convinced that the efforts to downplay the natives
are not in retrospect to critiquing European imperialism, but they are
representative of a larger population, and thus the context of the novel is
perfect, but its premise and understanding, however, is flawed.
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