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African Characters In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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This paper attempts to explore how successful Achebe is in responding to Joseph Conrad’s biased view of Africa and his wrong presentation of African characters in his novella Heart of Darkness by portraying real African characters in his novels Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. The research employs the descriptive analytical method, and in it is revealed that many critics, and African writers think that in the Heart of Darkness Africa and its people were humiliated. They were depicted as savages and given no voice throughout the novella’s events. In response Achebe shows real African characters with their positive and negative images. He shows their responsibilities as priests and priestesses, healers, educators to their children. Proverbs, folktales are used by many characters to illustrate their points, which indicate how deep rooted culture they have. Achebe is attempting to prove that Africa has a great and rich religious system, which had organized people 's way of life spiritually, socially, and politically. In addition, he wants to prove that African did not come to know about culture from Europeans but they had their own philosophy of life, and they had dignity.
Keywords: Savages, inhabitants, response, image, representation.

1. Introduction Achebe is one of the most important writers from Africa with a literary vision that has profoundly influenced the type and content of modern African English literature, thus he is considered a

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