Heart of Darkness - Blog 2

    In Chinua Achebe’s “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” Achebe converses his views towards this novella. Achebe gives an overview of Heart of Darkness and the events that took place. There are points in this critical essay that are good. He is coming from a different point of view than Conrad so it makes it easier for him to understand what actually took place. There are also some bad points throughout this essay as well such as the fact that Achebe only discusses the negative things that Conrad wrote and only looks at this novella with a pessimistic opinion.

    Achebe clearly states, “in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest” (337 Achebe). Africa is doing all of the work and not getting credit for the majority of it. Achebe doesn’t agree with this. He doesn’t agree with Africa being the foil to Europe and he makes it clear in his essay.

    This book is racist no matter who is reading it. Although, depending on who is reading it may determine the level of racism you think the book actually has. Achebe and Conrad are of different ethnicity which takes a toile on the opinions you may take while reading this book.  A positive thing about this critical essay is that because Achebe is an African American he understands more clearly about the racism. I feel as if you can only truly feel the darkness if you understand where the Africans are coming from in this book.

    Some problems that Achebe has in this piece is that he only writes about what he wants you to know. He talks about all of the negative things and gives his thoughts and opinions towards Heart of Darkness, but what he doesn’t do is talk about are the positive things Conrad does. “The point of my observations should be quite clear by now, namely that Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” (343 Achebe).  Conrad and Achebe are writing from different perspectives and they are writing from different time periods. I don’t think it’s fair that Achebe criticizes Conrad so much throughout this essay because when all of this was taking place racism was viewed differently than it is now. This book seems much harsher now. With Achebe only pointing out the negative things that Conrad has done in Heart of Darkness it may sway others opinions who may want to read this novella.

    Throughout the duration of this critical essay Achebe makes it out as if he could have wrote Heart of Darkness himself, and much better than Conrad did. You can tell that Achebe cares about what he is writing about and doesn’t agree with a lot of the racist interpretations that take place in Heart of Darkness. Because he cares so much, he vents through his essay about all of the negative things Conrad did in the novella.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” Armstrong 336- 49.

Heart of Darkness - Essay 1

MacKenzie Creech

Professor Timmons

English 105

September 27, 2010

“Choice of nightmares”: Marlow’s attraction to Kurtz’s

In the novella, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, Marlow goes through various opinions of Kurtz. Marlow is so intrigued by Kurtz because of the “first-class agent” (Conrad 19) he is proclaimed to be. On the journey that Marlow is on, he describes it as “one of the dark places of the earth” (Conrad 5) because it is so dark it is becoming hard for everyone to keep their own sanity. Kurtz comes across as a man that is still sane and is very successful. He is portrayed to have not only good morals and values but also backbone, or does he?  Having backbone at this point in time was a fascinating thing to Marlow but it was also a rarity to come across in the environment he was surrounded by. Is the Company more superior compared to Kurtz? Is Kurtz capable of pursuing work for its own sake? Marlow tries to find out the mystery that Kurtz exemplifies throughout Heart of Darkness, which by being so infatuated, alludes to the truth of how Kurtz actually is and absorbed in Kurtz because he might have the answers to some of the questions he has throughout his expedition.

Kurtz is so highly thought of throughout the company. The manager of the company told Marlow, “Mr. Kurtz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the Company” (22). After hearing this from the manager, it was inspiration to Marlow. He knows how vital Kurtz is to the company and wants to do all that he can as sufficient as he can to help better the company. At this point, the feelings Marlow has towards Kurtz could almost be described as an obsession and he hasn’t even met the man yet. He is so fixated on Kurtz because he could possibly hold some of the answer to the questions Marlow might have.

Is a man capable of maintaining backbone throughout this voyage? To maintain backbone in general means you must maintain all of your regular morals and values and it takes true will power to do that. Also to maintain backbone you must maintain sanity.  To uphold sanity in an environment like the one they’re in is a difficult. If you get to where you are thinking about keeping it, you will lose it quicker than you could imagine. You must pay attention to the surface of what is going on. Reality plays a key part in keeping your sanity. You must really focus on what is right and wrong and you must also recognize the difference between right and wrong. If you look to deeply into what you are doing it could be too disturbing which could also make you lose sanity. During the majority of this journey, many things occur that make you question your morals or values. Kurtz reaches a point where he lacks restraint and no longer applies his external values. He gets carried away in his work and making sure that he is the best and fails to grasp the concept of reality. He gets seduced by the dark side.

What happens when you believe in something so steadfastly and you find it isn’t what you perceived it to be? Marlow religiously believed in Kurtz it was such a let-down once he establish who he really was and what he was truly doing as a business man. “Being a gifted creature and that of all his gifts the one that stood out…his ability to talk, his words- the gift of expression… the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness” (47). Kurtz was killing anyone who disobeyed him, he was raiding villages, and stealing ivory more than all the other agents put together. This is not the kind of man Marlow thought Kurtz was nor was it the kind of man he wanted to see him as. Kurtz was a crooked business man which let Marlow down and disappointed him very much. “There is no disguising the fact, Mr. Kurtz has done more harm than good to the Company” (61).

What makes Kurtz more intriguing rather than the company itself? Marlow is more interested in Kurtz rather than the business because he feels as if Kurtz is more brutally honest compared to the business. The company is more about practicing the unsound method. On the other side of that, “Exterminate all of the Brutes!” (50). As Kurtz says. He knows how powerful he is and how highly thought of he is. Marlow respects Kurtz more for his honesty. The company practices more of a euphemistic point of view and Marlow doesn’t appreciate it as much because the company is more so beating around the bush rather than Kurtz who is more blunt about things. Marlow is more knowledgeable about what to expect from Kurtz and could be more caught off guard by the company. The uncertainty is what makes Marlow lean more towards Kurtz.

Is Kurtz or the Company capable of pursing work for its own sake? When you first start reading this book, you read of how highly thought of the Company and Kurtz are. The Company is proclaimed to be in the leading of sales and a top notch business. Kurtz is single handily doing better than all of his competition. And from that point right there, all we know as readers is that the Company itself and Kurtz are working for the sake of working. They enjoy succeeding in sales. Little do we know what they are doing to be so highly thought of and at the top? We didn’t know how they were treating the people that worked for them or people that disobeyed them. “It was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage” (30) this is pure contradictory and this is the way we as readers comprehend the Company and Kurtz when it comes to business. They had no grasp of morals or values anymore. They had completely lost sight of that.

Kurtz may have not been the greatest man, and he may have fooled us. But from Marlow’s perception, he wasn’t that bad after all. He has the same respect he had toward him when we was first hearing about Kurtz.

Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn’t touched. I was fascinated. It was as touched. I was fascinated. It was though a veil had been rent. I saw that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: “The horror! The horror!”

He admitted to what he had done. He knew what he did was wrong and he could confess to it. He understood that some of the methods he used to get his way and to become one of the best might not have been the right thing to do but until right before he died, he never thought he was doing anything wrong. He thought everything that he was doing was okay. He saw no flaw in it.

They had completely lost sight on what the difference was between right and wrong and did not comprehend them at all. Marlow was so obsessed with Kurtz because in the end he had his backbone. He ultimately admitted that he was wrong because he came back to reality before he died. He was astonished knowing what all he did just to be better than everyone else. What he put people through. He realized he ultimately became insane during his time on the Congo River. He got carried away in being the best and lost track of truth.  “I would not have gone so far as to fight for Kurtz, but I went for him near enough to a lie,” (27) Marlow says. This was an unusual act for Marlow. He lied to Kurtz finance so he wouldn’t look like a coward. He didn’t want her knowing what kind of man he had turned in to. She wanted to make him sound honorable and caring.  

Imagine how it would be if you lost the concept of your own morals and values. Think about what state of mind you would have to be in to have lost grasp on everything you were taught to do and not to do when you were a child. It would be horrifying. It would be like living a nightmare. Doing something wrong and not recognizing that it is wrong would be terrifying if you truly think about. For instance, think about walking into a mall with the sole purpose of taking something valuable knowing that you can’t afford it. Never does is cross your mind that you might not need this object nor does it cross your mind that stealing is wrong. You have the choice of stealing or not stealing and that is where your morals and values should kick it telling you “no, stealing would be unethical.”  Morals and Values are a choice, and the Company and Kurtz chose to follow the path they took. Although it may not have been the ethical path to take, Kurtz still helped Marlow answer the questions he had when he started the journey. Marlow learned that Kurtz was more superior between Kurtz and the Company because he was more straightforward with what he was doing and didn’t use any euphemistic traits like the Company did. He realized what it truly takes to maintain backbone throughout such a horrific travel. He understands how easy it is for reality to slip away. Not only reality but also just your general morals and values as a human being can become absent. He learns that it may be difficult for Kurtz to pursue for its own sake rather than knowing you are the best and better than all of your competition.  Yes, Marlow found out who Kurtz truly was. He finds out the mystery Kurtz is exemplifying throughout the journey on the Congo.   His opinions changed multiple times but in the end, Marlow still respected Kurtz for the man he was and then man he ended up being after his death.

Works Cited

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. W.W. Norton: New York, 2005.

Heart of Darkness - Blog 1 - Prompt 6

In the novella, Heart Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, Marlow goes through various opinions of Kurtz.   He goes from one extreme to the other.  Marlow was excited about traveling through this unknown place, The Congo River, and the only way he could make this trip possible was to work for the company. The company sent him on a voyage to discover what had happened to Fresleven, a captain that had been killed in a scuffle with the natives, and to recover his remains.  Throughout this journey he finds a fascination about Kurtz.  It’s almost an obsession. Marlow was interested in Kurtz in the beginning because of the man he proclaimed to be.  A sick man says, “He was a first-class agent… he is a very remarkable person,” (pg. 19).  When Marlow hears this, it interests him.  It makes him eager to learn more about this man. He wants to meet him someday.  The sick man also tells Marlow, “Mr. Kurtz was at present in charge of a trading-post, a very important one,” (pg. 19).  Hearing this makes Marlow gain respect for Kurtz.  He doesn’t know this man, but just from hearing someone speak so highly of him really grabs his attention.

As this expedition progresses Marlow gains a different opinion of Kurtz.  He notices a greedy side of him. The Accountant told Marlow a story about Kurtz, he said, “He wanted to shoot me too one day… I had a small amount of ivory the chief of the village near my house gave me… He declared he would shoot me unless I gave the ivory and then cleared the country because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly please,” (pg. 56). Once Marlow heard this story about Kurtz and what he would do for ivory, he detected that he wasn’t as good as people claimed.  He was a greedy person and Kurtz was disappointed to find this out about the person he admires.  The last part of what the Accountant told Marlow showed how others looked at Kurtz. They looked up to him and thought of him as a God.

Marlow heard Kurtz say, “The horror!  The horror!” (pg.76). This was the last thing that Marlow said. This was Marlow’s way of admitting to all the horrible things he did just to get ahead of everyone, just to be known as “a very remarkable person,” as the sick man said, (pg. 19).  He is now realizing and the wrong he has done is beginning to regret everything he had done.

After everything is said and done, Kurtz died.  Marlow returns London to see Kurtz mother but she had passed. A year later, Marlow finds out that Kurtz had finance.  He went to pay her a visit in hopes that he could meet someone that was special to Kurtz.  When she met him she asked what his last words were.  Marlow respected Kurtz in such an abundant amount that he lied to her and said it was her name instead of admitting what kind of person he had truly been in the last years in his life.

Works Cited 

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. W.W. Norton: New York, 2005.