Joseph Conrad Critical Review

Dear Chiunua Achebe,

I have read through your critical review of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” and I feel that you make some very interesting observations and whilst I agree with you on certain points that you have touched on, I would have to disagree with you on others. As an African American I imagine that you are very sensitive and observant to any kind of racism. Racism has been and continues to be a constant problem and should be confronted wherever it rears its ugly head, but it must also be kept in context to where it is found and never denied or hidden.
You start off in your review with the example of two people that you meet by chance, the first of which you use as an example of what is in your opinion a lack of belief of

So Conrad’s obsession, (as you call it) in the book with the colour of peoples skin: “long black legs” and “long black arms” and the manager’s helper putting his “insolent black head in the doorway” has to be taken in consideration with the fact of the historical context in which he lived. In fact at that time he would probably have been unable to present the story in anything other than an imperialistic point of view, as in fact would any other author writing about Africa from that same period. However it does give us the opportunity through Marlow’s thoughts and observations in the novel to see how the Europeans dominated certain parts of Africa for their own use and advancement and should also be taken as a historical insight into those times of what was considered to be both normal and

Not only that but Conrad is literally just describing what the character Marlow is seeing and thinking. Some artistic licence should always be allowed in a novel. It would be a shame if political correctness inhibited an author from telling his story exactly as he envisages it. Also, in just the same way as you have accused Conrad of blatant racism in your critical review written seventy five years later, how many current day books and therefore consequently their authors will be accused in the future of racism or incorrectness when certain current forms of behaviour and terms become considered inappropriate or downright offensive in the years to come? It is very easy with hindsight to judge and condemn people who incidentally are no longer around to defend themselves, based on current day correctness.
To summarise I feel that it would be both inaccurate and senseless to try to ban in anyway Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, as it is historically representative of imperialistic times and ways of thinking in those times. Books are also an interesting representation of the mentality of the time that the books were written, clearly showing us common prejudices and conditioning. Conrad cannot and must not be considered any more racist than any other of his fellow countrymen, and taking sentences out of context to demonstrate that Conrad was “a