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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page research paper/essay that discusses essays by Chinua Achebe and C.P. Sarvan. Achebe argues that Conrad was racist and Sarvan defends Conrad. The writer evaluates both arguments and then argues that Achebe has the stronger argument, substantiating this position by examining Conrad’s text. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khachsar.rtf
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repudiation of European imperialism. Achebe argues that while this is true, it is nevertheless equally true that Conrad was a racist. He writes that Joseph Conrad was "a thoroughgoing racist"
(Achebe paragraph 37). Furthermore, he states that the failure of Western criticism to address this fact indicates the continuation of a Western mindset that is still impervious to the deeper
implications of racism. In response to Achebe, C.P. Sarvan wrote a defense of Conrad and his masterpiece. In this essay, he argues that Marlow, Conrads principal narrative voice in the
novel, is not synonymous with the views of Conrad himself and that Conrads novel is a masterly "attack on death-dealing imperialist motives and the truths they obscure" (Sarvan 282).
Examination of Conrads novel shows that there is validity to both points of view. Sarvan is correct in that Conrads narrative does represent a scathing indictment of imperialism. However, this
does not negate the fact that it is presented from a viewpoint that values European cultural values and mores over those of any nineteenth century African society. In other
words, just as nineteenth century abolitionists argued against the institution of slavery because it corrupted the character of the slaveholder, Conrads principal focus is on the degeneration of a European,
Kurtz, as one of the main indictments against imperialism. As this suggests, while granted that there is a much to praise in Conrads novel, examination of this work shows that
Achebe makes the stronger argument and his perspective enlightens how Western society still tends to dismiss societies that are not technologically advanced as somehow in a different category from the
so-called "civilized" cultures. Early on in the novel, Conrad makes the point that the people of the British Isles were once "primitive." He speculates on what might have been
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