Chinua Achebe had many good points in his article, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness". The article asserts that Conrad was a racist and his novel is a racist work. Achebe states that it is so common in today's society to view Africa as a foil to Europe that the subtle racism in Conrad's novel doesn't jump out at anyone. However, throughout the book Africa and its inhabitants are portrayed as lesser or not as civilized compared to Europeans. It is very interesting how Achebe shows that Conrad is bothered when things are out of place. For example, Kurtz left Europe. He was not in his right place, so he went insane. He could not control the evil in him once he left "civilization" and he was lead into temptation. Conrad also portrayed Africans as uncivilized in their use of language in his book. Caucasians spoke very well, while natives usually only grunted, or they used English to show how uncivilized they were. This is shown when they express how they want to eat a man. I think this shows why Achebe really emphasized language in Things Fall Apart. Language is important to civilization.
Achebe shows how deep the problem of viewing Africa as lesser is in Western minds. He references a psychologist who analyzed Conrad in many ways in a book, and he failed to mention that Conrad might have been racist. This seems completely normal to people. People don't even notice that part of Heart of Darkness unless it is pointed out. Even a person who did many good things in Africa stated, "The African is indeed my brother, but my junior brother." They are commonly viewed as savage. This could show insecurities in Western minds, to have the need to make an antithesis to our civilization. This again brings up the question is it human nature to create an "other" or were we just raised that way? Overall, Achebe's essay was very well organized and made many good points.
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