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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page essay that discusses racism within Joseph Conrad’s 1903 novel Heart of Darkness, which is generally acknowledged as a literary classic due to the insight that Conrad provides into the human psyche. In many ways, Conrad foreshadowed the atrocities committed in the twentieth century by offering an explanation for Kurtz’s descent into barbarity. This aspect of the novel is undisputed by scholarship. However, there is debate concerning whether or not Conrad’s text is racist in the manner in which Conrad makes this point. Citing Chinua Achebe, the writer discusses this debate, siding with Achebe. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khconar3.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
psyche. But while scholarship supports this evaluation of the novel as true, there is also debate as to whether or not, in following this theme, Conrad does so from
a racist perspective. The following examination of Heart of Darkness shows that while Conrad conveys considerable insight into human behavior and how societal forces are constructs that keep a more
primitive nature at bay, his overall prospective on Africa and the way that it is used in the novel is racist. This position does not discount the consensus of
critical opinion, which is that this is a classic and landmark novel. In many ways, Conrad foreshadowed the atrocities committed in the twentieth century by offering an explanation for Kurtzs
descent into barbarity. As this suggests, Conrads novel "reflects unpleasant truths, horrible truths, that so-called civilized people do not like to acknowledge" (Mitchell 20). Marlow, who provides the narrative voice
for much of the novel, is prompted by Kurtzs experience to consider the true nature of humanity and the darkness that lurks under a civilized veneer (Thompson 27).
This aspect of the novel is undisputed by scholarship. However, there is debate concerning whether or not Conrads text is racist in the manner in which Conrad makes this point.
African author Chinua Achebe argues that the extended metaphor that Conrad uses to relate his principal theme is founded on the viewing the entirety of African society as symbolic of
the dark recesses of the subconscious, i.e., primitive, uncontrolled and something to be overcome and dominated in the same manner that primitivism was subsumed and suppressed in England by the
Romans. Conrad imaginatively describes this ancient time, reminding his readers that "...darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the feelings of a (Roman) commander...Imagine him here-the end of the world...going up the
...