Summary Of Racism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

A single story can be dangerous for the simple fact that we miss the whole story. The one-sided view on life can lead to stereotypes and judgement of others. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is an example of this single story. This Polish-British writer is claimed to be a great author, with Heart of Darkness being his most popular work. In this novel he speaks through his main character Marlow about white settlers colonizing Africa, harming, exploiting and, portraying the natives in many inhumane ways.

Throughout the novel, we see Conrad gives us idea about how deceiving one could be. For example when Marlow talks about the map unfamiliar Africa and where unknown part are drawn which turns out white on the map of Africa. Africa appears to be dark through exploitation, colonization and exploration of the rest of the continents. Conrad even uses the idea of light and dark to gives us more idea of the inner status of some of the specific character. In the novel ‘Heart of Darkness’ Mr. Kurtz who is an Caucasian man, who has white skin, but who has the darkest and most corrupt soul in the novel.

John Howard Griffin dives, head first into the subjects of prejudice, diversity, and racism; in his novel Black Like Me. During his transformation from a white man to a black man, he see’s the injustices thrown upon African Americans. Not because of the way they act, but because of the way they look. The novel Black Like Me brings about a realization of the hypocrisy of White Americans and opens the eyes to the readers, whether they want to accept it as truth or not.

The Invisible Man Difficulty in finding one’s true identity is a displeasing reality that is quite common in society. In the novel, Invisible Man, the author Ralph Ellison develops the narrators conflict; a search for his identity, while conveying both invisibility and blindness. The author utilizes the theme of invisibility and the symbol, blindness, as it relates to the narrator’s conflict with the racist time period the novel is set in. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was written shortly after America’s triumph in World War II.

Mark Twain’s main argument of racism and slavery is apparent in the citation, being the crowd is discriminating and treating Jim harshly solely based on his color and without knowing, or taking consideration any information the Doctor is about to exclaim about the righteous act Jim did in order to save Tom Sawyer’s life. Not to mention, Twain’s argument of racism is evident in the Doctor’s exclamation, being he stated to not treat Jim any more harshly than you're “obliged” to, thus reveals, the natural racism and tendency to discriminate against African Americans based on their race during the time period in the novel. Furthermore, Twain’s argument of slavery and racism is apparent in the Doctor’s perception toward Jim by stating although he

Those who feel the novel encourages racism say that because of the stereotypes used when featuring Jim, how Huck and Tom treated Jim, and how often the N-word is brought up Twain had hoped to encourage racism. However there is still strong evidence that proves why that might be a misunderstanding. If twain was intending to encourage racism then why would he make Him seem so much of a better person than the duke, king, and Huck's father. Also when Twain illustrates the black and white symbolism he portrayed Him as white man and Huck's father, who is a white man, as dark and scary. Then throughout the story as a reader you feel empathy for Jim he begins to become one of the favorite characters in the novel.

The racism that was so normalized among Conrad and his peers has since placed his novel under attack by Chinua Achebe, who claimed that “Art is not intended to put people down. If so, the art would ultimately discredit itself” and that if it pulled out and dehumanized such a large portion of the human race, it could truly not be considered a work of art (Phillips). Yet, the racism embedded in the novel played a much larger part than merely being racism. Both Conrad and Marlow are clearly racist, but Conrad knows that the superiority held by the Europeans was wrong, and he uses Marlow to view that and to show that there is a possibility for it to change. He knows that although he could see no alternative, it was possible just as he saw with Imperialism.

Instead, he hides behind “satire” in order to excuse his depiction of the slavery experience and blames his characters for his inability to truly reveal the slavery experience. Regardless of Mark Twain’s intent in writing the novel, Adventures of Huckleberry

The mere idea about removing this word from “Huckleberry Fin” is preposterous. By removing the word nigger, we are removing the whole meaning of the book. We are removing the reason and the effect Mark Twain was trying to laminate. He was trying to teach people the history behind this offensive word and how powerful a single word can be. As stated in the article, “In Defense of a Loaded Word,” the author said, “’Nigger is border, the signpost that reminds us that the old crimes don’t disappear.”

2. Comparison in Terms of Purpose 2.1. Achebe: To Denounce Heart of Darkness Chinua Achebe redefined our way of reading Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Indeed, while focusing on the description of Africa and its people, the Nigerian writer laid serious charges against the book for its racist stereotypes and highlighted the colonizer’s oppression of the natives.

Walker’s statement on the bottom of page 69 and the top of 70,”what now masquerades as World History is largely fictitious.” raises a serious topic that causes extremely heated debates. Agreeing with the statement, I understand that Walker wants the truth of Africa and its people to be heard and believed. European historians seized and intentionally manipulated history in order to create the idea of them being the founding fathers of the African civilization. When Europeans first began their journeys to Africa they were completely baffled in the discovering of something they were intimidated by. Africa was not a place that was meaningless and worthless, but instead to their surprise it was a place that was rich in culture.

In the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, societies boundaries and expectations are pushed to their limits not only by the actions of the main character, Huck, but in Twain’s controversial writing style. Though the book is often claimed to be offensive, it was actually a parody of the times. Mark Twain was ridiculing the racist tendencies of mid-1800s society and their views of the poor/lower classes. Through reading “Huck Finn”, it is apparent Twain is challenging the reader to rethink society’s rules. To start with, Huck was highly against racism, despite his adoptive family owning slaves and his father being immensely hateful toward them.

Ikemefuna, Okonkwo’s stepson, is chosen by the Oracle who orders Okonkwo and a few other men to “‘...take him outside Umuofia as the custom and kill him there’” (Achebe 57). Ending lives, especially those not at fault, is inhumane to most because of how morality is emphasized in many other societies, and looked down on in the eyes of outsiders of that society. While Achebe wanted to correct negative stereotypes of Africans, he also has the goal of presenting “the true colors of Africa” in a particular scene, especially their beliefs in the community. Moreover, the author exemplified another uncivilized act performed in the village of Umuofia, which was a merciless death of a young woman.

America’s discovery and the formation of Triangular Trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas drove many new advancements in technology and economics. For example, inflation caused the capitalism’s popularity to rise, new goods were discovered, and European empires thrived. As the Europeans discovered, the Americas contained many resources such as silver, gold, spices, and other valuable goods that were sold to make a surplus of profit. Later on, such resources were farmed using African American slave labor. Quote A exemplifies the benefits for many upper class Europeans and American slave owners.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a gripping tale that follows the main character, Charlie Marlow, on his journey through Africa. Not only does Marlow go on a physical journey, but a mental one as well. Throughout the story we see him change as a person, and the other characters of the novel largely affect how he changes. One of the characters of Conrad’s story is known as the Harlequin. Although the Harlequin seems to play a minor role in the plot, he does affect Marlow’s journey.