Prejudice and Racism in Heart of Darkness? Essay -- HOD Joseph Conrad

feeling of Darkness Racist or non? Many critics, including Chinua Achebe in his essay An Image of Africa Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness, have made the claim that Joseph Conrads novel Heart of Darkness, despite the insights which it offers into the human condition, ought to be removed from the canon of Western literature. This claim is found on the supposition that the novel is racial, more so than other novels of its time. plot of ground it can be read in this way, it is possible to look beneath the surface and create an interpretation of Conrads novel that does not require the supposition of extreme racism on the part of Conrad. Furthermore, we must keep in mind that Conrad was a product of a rather racist plosive consonant in history, and it seems unfair to penalize him for not being able to outmatch his contemporaries in this respect. This novel, it seems, must be read in a symbolic manner. Objects and characters are not so simple as they seem. Achebe tells us Qui te simply it is the desire... in Western psychology to set Africa up as a oppose to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europes own tell of spiritual grace will be manifest (251-252). If Africa is a foil to Europe, as stated here, then perhaps Conrad only uses the continent of Africa symbolically, without postulate to its people - as Achebe himself states, descriptions of Africans as anything more than vague limbs in the tail are few and far between in the novel. The opposition between light and darkness in the novel, far from being Conrads own, is traditional in Western literature. Conrad simply uses the most familiar of symbols for the dichotomy between trusty and evil to enhance his novels psycho... .... One might also argue that charm Marlow is racist, Conrad is not - something like the scenario in another famous river novel, Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However, I scorn this claim - Marlow does the vast majority of the speaking in this novel, and so the reader identifies him as the novels narrative voice even though there is, rigorously speaking, a frame story outside of this. Finally, even if Conrad was more racist than other authors of his time, why is this so significant? The novel is still priceless as an object of art, for the psychological insights it offers both into the human condition at large and into the motivations of European imperialism and colonization. A novel such as this should not be removed from the canon on the simple basis of its nauseous potential. All great literature must have at least(prenominal) the potential to offend.