ENGL 3333 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Chinua Achebe
14 Sep 2016
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Response to an image of africa: racism in conrad"s heart of darkness" . Achebe rightly interprets of conrad"s heart of darkness as a racist piece of literature: the portrayal of the natives reveals a racial prejudice that is unacceptable by today"s standards. Heart of darkness contains racist language and stereotypical portrayals of africa, and achebe is justified in saying that conrad"s story should be recognized as a racist work; however, it should also be discussed in the context of its time. I saw heart of darkness as an ironic portrayal of colonialism, and there were points in the story that revealed a consciousness of the injustice and hypocrisy inherent in the system: A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file toiling up the path [ ] but these men by no stretch of the imagination could be called enemies.
