Achebe's Argument of Racism in Conrad's HOD

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.

Racism and Imperialism

The overwhelming sense of racism in Heart of Darkness is not simply emblematic of the time period, but representative of how racism was introduced into the Congo and who is responsible for introducing it. It is not one specific person, but the concept many individuals comprised when deciding the fate of the African settlements. The idea of imperialism has been thrown around the book often enough to infer it has some major influence on how the novel will inevitably turn out. True enough, the remnants and hypocrisy of imperialism stand out to Marlow during his African endeavor:  

[For instance], one evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don’t know what else, burst into a blaze…a stout man with moustaches (sic) came tearing down the river, a tin pail in hand, [he] assured me that everybody was ‘behaving splendid’…I noticed there was a hole in his pail…There was no hurry…A nigger was being beaten nearby. They said he had caused the fire in some way. (91-92)

The feeling that these events have no meaning relates to the nonsensical actions of an imperialistic state. There is this felt need to keep the enslaved captors working and at fault for everything that goes wrong. Marlow practically criticizes imperialism, yet he is in no way sympathetic of the enslaved. What Conrad is trying to focus on in these chapters, and most importantly the entire book, is the hypocrisy of imperialism. Through the use of rugged racism and unconcerned characters, Conrad mocks the premise of imperialism by using one of its greatest drawbacks to his advantage. The paradoxical use of racism as an enemy to imperialism displays both its hypocrisy and complicated understanding that Conrad discusses in depth through Marlow’s careful analysis and interpretation of themes and events.

The Chaos of Imperialism

The time period surrounding the Belgian occupation of Congo has an abundance of racism, poverty, death, and corruption. Robert Hayden, in an anecdote demonstrated by Marlow, displays these characteristics through careful observations of the chaos that is created by imperialistic policies. Shortly following Marlow’s description of his first day off the boat in Congo, his observations become reminiscent of what Robert Hayden believes to be the corruption of imperialism: “This was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die […] they were dying slowly  […] nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation” (83). According to the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885, the distribution of African lands among the European powers was granted to enforce prosperity on both states. The observations of Marlow show the exact opposite. Robert Hayden is conveying the message that imperialism is corrupt and chaotic, where the very people its principles are trying to protect are actually slowly killing them. The motif of observation coincides with the theme of imperialism as an absurdity in that it describes maltreatment and poverty of these African nations. The chaos of imperialism further validates the very hypocrisy of the concept; the observations point to the clear sense that more harm is being done than good in these African settlements.

Ghost of a Chance - Figurative Language

Blog post #4:

Ghost of a Chance

Body Paragraph linking figurative language to the meaning of the poem:

            The use of figurative language in this poem is effective in displaying how society does not allow other to speak out and act or think differently. This is shown in the beginning of the poem when the narrator sees “a man / trying to think” (1-2) and all the narrator wants to do is say, “keep off! Give him room!” (6), but one can “only watch, terrified” (7-8). The narrator, like most of society, is trapped and isolated from speaking out uniquely. These first few lines are then magnified by the use of figurative language in lines 10-15:

                        Like a fish

                        half-dead from flopping

                        and almost crawling

                        across the shingle,

                        almost breathing

                        the raw, agonizing

                        air.

The analogy of the man trying to think and the fish trapped, gasping for air, is synonymous of how our society reflects negatively upon those who try to be different. The fish represents the struggles of those who do not fit in with society, and this is displayed through the simile. The syntax of the these lines make the readers speak with short breath, feeling trapped and lonely themselves, just how the lone man trying to think critically feels suffocated by society’s menacing grip. Only the personification of the “triumphant sea” (18-19) reeling the fish back into the blind ocean reveals how our society copes with these stragglers, by silencing them and pulling them back under its tight grasp. The common man is doomed by conformity, an agent of society’s tyrannical reign over its people.