NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Colonialism in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart Within Joseph Conrad's classic novel Heart of Darkness the representation of indigenous Africans their society and culture can be construed as deplorably racist, yet can also be seen as a portrayal of European values of the era and an attack on colonization. This paper examines and Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness and Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart from the perspective of colonial issues and discusses how it can be interpreted. The theme of colonialism is one of the central themes in both novels. In Things Fall Apart colonialism is revealed as harmful from the point of view of culture phenomenon. The colonial rule brought some positive values of the western civilization, but it also brought much more factors which eliminated the traditional African culture. One of the main topics of Achebe's novel is to reveal the real aims of the colonial intruders to reshape the cultural, spiritual and tradition environment of the Africans.
China Achebe's main focus in his writings was to tell about the African experience, but in a completely different way previous authors wrote. The works of Achebe painted a picture of how life changed for Africans due to the impact of European culture on African society, and described the struggles of his people to free themselves from European influences. Many critics saw China Achebe as a visionary, while others saw him as a voice for the Nigerian culture, giving him the reputation as the father of the African novel in English. When England sent colonizers and missionaries to Africa, it had great affect on African tribal life and traditional foundations of the society. Achebe became slightly interested in British culture, and began reading English writings; only to be disgusted with the message British authors were trying to get across.
Of course, the attack on the developing imperial system in Africa is everywhere present in the Heart of Darkness by Conrad. There is the corruption of the Trading Society, the forced labor and the grove of death, the depopulation of the countryside, the indiscriminate murder of the natives, the senseless firing into the bush, the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, the Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs, corrupt administrators, and Kurtz himself. Attending to Heart of Darkness portrayal of imperialist practices is primary to studying the novel in context, yet to read Heart of Darkness as a purely anti-colonial text leaves out the recent debate over Conrad's complicity in colonialist assumptions and philosophy. Bringing these more difficult matters into great consideration suggests ambiguities and equivocations not only in Conrad but in attitudes we may hold as well. At times, defenders of Conrad reveal more about the institutionalization of Conrad as an object of study than about nineteenth- or twentieth-century colonialism or racial philosophy. Underlying some responses to Achebe appears to be the anxiety that if Conrad's writing is indeed racist, Heart of Darkness would somehow be less worthy of analysis and the Conrad scholar would be therefore reduced in stature.
The intellectual complexity and artistic sophistication of the novel, and particularly its evident attack on colonialism, make understanding possible racism in the work all the more urgent. With the advent of the white man there was a loss of native values such as communal harmony, placing society above self, respect for the aged, and reverence for achievers, which resulted in the absence of self analysis and a stable code of ethics in the society of pre-Independent Nigeria. Being unhappy with that kind of situation Achebe decided to answer back by writing his own novels. Writers idea is to propagandize the historical and traditional values of his nation to these new generations. One of the most famous novels of China Achebe that deals with colonization and its effects on the society is Things Fall Apart.
Basically, Things Fall Apart is the story about the conflict of the two different worlds and cultures. Achebe portrays the disrupting effect an externally imposed power system (the British) has on an internally imposed power system (African tradition and customs). Achebe's characters have both good and bad traits, which are equally exposed and explored in the novel. Achebe's point is that the native people were in some way susceptible to assimilation by Western culture because they could not reconcile the internal discord within their own culture. However, Achebe never blames the colonizers directly. In his struggle for own people, China Achebe appeared to many as calm and idealistic.
For instance, Achebe peacefully talked about equality for blacks and whites. Achebe urged blacks to win their rightful place in society by gaining self-respect, high moral standards, hard work and leadership, that is, in his opinion, innate to the true African soul. In his work, the writer especially wanted to teach impressionable black youth that they are born unique and should be proud of their nationality. The historical roots of Achebe's motherland go very deep into the history of worlds development. In the Heart of Darkness, the darkness of the land, of colonialism, and of Kurtz's soul combine to form an important message: Despite the grandeur of civilization, evil and inhumanity rest surely beneath its surface. Even with all the illusions present within civilization, humankind must at least acknowledge its inner darkness, so as to stay away from it.
Perhaps Kurtz realizes his own darkness when it is too late, evident by his dying words, "The horror! The horror!" Black and white imagery is common throughout many works of literature. White is usually related to purity and cleanliness, while black is seen to be dirty and dark in nature. In his novel Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad reverses the age-old images of black and white to add descriptive as well as deeper spiritual meaning to his novel. Through these images readers are taken on a journey of the soul where we must all look inward in ourselves and question our own morals. Sometimes we may not like what we find.
In the Heart of Darkness, the choice of words and the typical situations of invaders or ivory traders exploitation and the incidental atrocities on the natives set the tone for racism. Readers of the book are appalled by the typification of the natives and start to believe that Joseph Conrad must be a racist to extol the white pilgrims and their superior cities with their well educated names that live in pristine buildings and the levels of science that is shared by medical people by legacy. The natives are portrayed as not trainable or at the most trainable only at a minimal level, to do menial tasks only. The trackers are shown to be in control of multiple natives at a minimal effort. Nevertheless, as someone who is being often referred to as the father of modern Black literature and black genius, Achebe should have known the simple fact that history is not a fairy tale. It has always been a constant struggle between nations and races for the place under the sun.
In the Things Fall Apart China Achebe showed how the reality of change influence various characters. The story has several themes including colonialism with the struggle between change and tradition. Achebe hints at the chaos that arises when a traditional system collapses. The conflict of the novel, vested in Okokwo, derives from the series of crushing blows which are levelled at traditional values by an alien and more powerful culture causing, in the end, the traditional society to fall apart.
China Achebe he has been able to illuminate two emotionally irreconcilable facets of modern African life: the humiliations visited on Africans by colonialism, and the utter moral worthlessness of what replaced colonial rule. White people constitute 6 % of worlds population. By the year of 2050 this number will shrink to 2 %. Yet, even Black people in Africa now recall the time of European colonization as the best period in history of their nations, because back then, trains used to arrive on schedule, Medicare was provided equally to all and there were no mass rapes taking place, as it happens in South Africa nowadays. Therefore, the notion of white mans burden is not just an imperialist excuse for continuous exploitation of Native people, throughout the world.
The colonial trade enabled Western civilization to progress rapidly, but it was also benefiting the people all over the world. Even now, when we talk about civilization, we refer to Western cultural and scientific achievements, because there are simply no others. The ultimate goal of people like Achebe is to reverse the progress. However, it is doubtful of whether biological evolution can be subjected to wishful thinking. High optimism engendered by the breathtaking achievements of Western science and industry is giving way to doubt and even confusion. There is just the possibility that Western man may begin to look seriously at the achievements of other people says Achebe, although, he does not specify such achievements.
The reason is very simple and can be argued, but they only exist in his imagination. Achebe clearly sees Heart of Darkness as a racist text, one "which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered untold agonies and atrocities in the past and continues to do so in many ways and many places today. It is quite understandable why Achebe does not like Conrad's novel. This is because that it does not contain the notions of diversity or equality. In fact, Heart of Darkness shows the artificial nature of politically correct terminology.
Achebe considers Conrad's masterpiece as being socially dangerous, because it threatens the very principles, upon which the politically correct version of history is being based. Achebe's view on colonialism in Things Fall Apart is opposite to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Still Heart of Darkness promotes the idea of progress, intelligence and it also shows that the moral principles, which are based on Christian dogma, do not correspond to the objective reality. However, for Achebe opposes Conrad's novel, even though that it belongs to the classics of European literature of 19 th century. Nevertheless, Achebe succeeded to create a comprehensive picture of a traditional village culture of Africa. On one hand the author tries to attract attention of the entire world to the riches of the African traditional culture and on the other hand he is appealing to his native people to remind them on the uniqueness of their culture.
The colonization of Africa by a white man apart from direct loses brought to Africa white culture which suppressed the traditional culture and religion and this is the most humble effect of the colonization. Bibliography: China Achebe, Things Fall Apart, 1958 Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, 1899
Free research essays on topics related to: things fall, heart of darkness, china achebe, black and white, joseph conrad
Research essay sample on Heart Of Darkness Black And White
