Achebe
After reading these two essays on racism in this novel, I did realize that racism was very present. However it is present only in strong under tones and is rarely blatantly exposed to the reader. Throughout his essay, Achebe talks of how Conrad used Africa as a background or setting only, and how he "set Africa up as a foil to Europe,"(Achebe, p.251). I interpreted this idea of Africa and Africans as more of an opportunity and less of a place or people when, Achebe says "The African as a human factor," (Achebe, p.257) Achebe does a wonderful job of revealing all the hidden racist characteristics of the novel, some that people might have never picked up during a casual read. He finds specific examples from the text, and points out that there is a lack of certain characteristics among the characters. Achebe then compares the descriptions of the "Intended" and the native woman. Explaining that the native mistress "fulfills a structural requirement of the story: a savage counterpart to the refined European woman,"(Achebe, p.255). This lack of human characteristics is what Achebe says contributes to the large amount of racism within Conrad's book. If we look at it like this, I learnt in religion that human expression is one of few th
C.P. Sarvan attempts to comabt Achebe's opinion of the differences between the two women. C.P. Sarvan said that Conrad viewed the native woman as a "gorgeous, proud, superb, magnificent, terrific, and fierce."(Sarvan, p. 284) This to me is where it gets very confusing, because now these to essay writers have made me believe that the mistress had human expression but at the same time does not. However I am comforted when I consider that Conrad maybe was not as racist as Achebe make him out to be and intends both views of the woman, pleasing various types of readers. Since no one can ever really know what Conrad's actual meanings were for these two women considering they were so similar because they both had the attention of Kurtz, but so different in their character. Both Sarvan and Achebe each write about what they think to be the right thing. It seems to me that Achebe was looking for racism in this short novel, and that Sarvan was so appauled by Achebe's accusations looked for ways to defend Conrad. What I do believe is that during the time that this novel was written, Conrad lived in a society where African people were not considered equal, to man, they were even considered sub-human. Thinking over this subject more I have come to the conclusion that Sarvan cannot really be angry or hold a grudge against Conrad. If you look at the time that Conrad lived in it was almost "politic
Some common words found in the essay are:
Achebe African, Sarvan Conrad, Heart Darkness, Europeans Africans, Sarvan Achebe, CP Sarvan, Conrad Conrad, Belief Conrad, , Conrad Africa, heart darkness, cp sarvan, human expression, conrad lived, native woman, own opinion, racism novel, racism found, conrad racist,
Approximate Word count = 938
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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