Chinua Achebe and Lionel Trilling have very opposing views about Heart of Darkness. Achebe sees the text as written by a racist that does not deserve to have the novella in the canon while Trilling praises the writing and believes Heart of Darkness is worthy of being in the canon. Although in Heart of Darkness there are blatantly racist comments and tendencies that Achebe points out, I feel like Trilling’s essay best represents my experience when reading the novella. As I read Heart of Darkness I noticed the racism and was rather upset and appalled, but did not feel that it was the focus of the novella.
Achebe makes his opinion clear. He does “not doubt Conrad’s great talents” but emphasizes that Conrad was a “thoroughgoing racist”(Achebe …show more content…
I understand Achebe’s point of view. Heart of Darkness is racist, but I think that was not supposed to be the focus. Conrad could have chosen any group of people to be the “savages” in his novella and the story and its influence would not have changed; only the group of people the racism was toward would have differed (Conrad 11). Possibly if Achebe had not been so hostile with his attacks and explained more in depth other aspects of the story I would have sided with him, but because his perspective is extreme I side more with Trilling’s perspective. Trilling’s interpretation is more like my reading experience. I acknowledge the racism, but focused on the story, character development, and the parallels between the English ideals and the story. As for being in the canon, I believe Heart of Darkness does belong in the canon because it was an influential piece at the time and represented English ideals even if those ideals were offensive to other people. The canon should be a true representation of humans. I believe the canon should be more encompassing and contain all aspects of human life, society, and
Achebe makes his opinion clear. He does “not doubt Conrad’s great talents” but emphasizes that Conrad was a “thoroughgoing racist”(Achebe …show more content…
I understand Achebe’s point of view. Heart of Darkness is racist, but I think that was not supposed to be the focus. Conrad could have chosen any group of people to be the “savages” in his novella and the story and its influence would not have changed; only the group of people the racism was toward would have differed (Conrad 11). Possibly if Achebe had not been so hostile with his attacks and explained more in depth other aspects of the story I would have sided with him, but because his perspective is extreme I side more with Trilling’s perspective. Trilling’s interpretation is more like my reading experience. I acknowledge the racism, but focused on the story, character development, and the parallels between the English ideals and the story. As for being in the canon, I believe Heart of Darkness does belong in the canon because it was an influential piece at the time and represented English ideals even if those ideals were offensive to other people. The canon should be a true representation of humans. I believe the canon should be more encompassing and contain all aspects of human life, society, and