Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, is about Marlow, a European going to the Congo to work for an ivory company to find one man, Kurtz; he has been out of sight for a while when the reader first hears about him. This book expresses views on both imperialism and racism. Although there is not a lot of substance to the book does not mean it is not worth anything. Heart of Darkness shows the reader events and facts about the Congo one should know to really understand it. Shows how bad the Africans were treated, how the British came in took over life to control the Africans. I think Heart of Darkness is pro-imperialist and very racist, both Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost, and Achebe, author of an Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, support those opinions in one way or another. Imperialism, by
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Racism is a group of individuals, or an entire race, and thinking they are lesser. I believe racism is demonstrated in Heart of Darkness to a degree that author thinks it is okay to be racist. Conrad was a white man during a time when whites thought they were superior to the Africans. Conrad writes the Africans having more animal features than human features. When we hear the Africans speak ninety percent of the time they are not speaking words, they are using animal-like sounds. But when they do speak it is not many words. Hochschild says, “it’s portrayal of black characters, who say no more than a few words. In fact, they don’t speak at all; they grunt; they chant; they produce a “drone of weird incantations” and “a wild and passionate uproar”; they spout “strings of amazing words that resembled no sound of human language…like the presences of some satanic litany.” (Hochschild 146). The author also uses the N word to describe the Africans, which is wrong. I cannot think of anything more racist than using the N word on a human being who deserves more than degrading
Racism is a group of individuals, or an entire race, and thinking they are lesser. I believe racism is demonstrated in Heart of Darkness to a degree that author thinks it is okay to be racist. Conrad was a white man during a time when whites thought they were superior to the Africans. Conrad writes the Africans having more animal features than human features. When we hear the Africans speak ninety percent of the time they are not speaking words, they are using animal-like sounds. But when they do speak it is not many words. Hochschild says, “it’s portrayal of black characters, who say no more than a few words. In fact, they don’t speak at all; they grunt; they chant; they produce a “drone of weird incantations” and “a wild and passionate uproar”; they spout “strings of amazing words that resembled no sound of human language…like the presences of some satanic litany.” (Hochschild 146). The author also uses the N word to describe the Africans, which is wrong. I cannot think of anything more racist than using the N word on a human being who deserves more than degrading