Heart of Darkness #3

Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad’s blatant racism in Heart of Darkness, and he further criticizes Western readers for glossing over and excusing it. The question is not whether or not Conrad’s descriptions of Africa and its people in Heart of Darkness are racist; they are undoubtedly so. What must be considered is whether this prevailing racist undertone is deliberate, and if so, what purpose it serves. Marlow describes how “the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman” (108). The convoluted nature of this sentence causes the reader to pause. Marlow uses a double negative in his exploration of the Africans’ potential humanity, referring to the possibility of the Africans “not being inhuman.” He does not call them human; they are simply “not inhuman.” This shows that Marlow, despite his glimpses of remorse for the treatment of the African people, still does not see these people as his equals. Present-day Marlow is making this observation about their humanity, so the reader cannot even excuse this opinion as merely a phase in his journey to understanding human equality. Marlow embodies the racist attitude of those who have begun to recognize the treatment of Africans as inhumane, yet do not recognize their own attitudes as racist. They consider themselves empathetic and enlightened because they recognize the suffering of these ‘lower people.’ From here, the reader must consider Conrad’s own perspective and intent. Achebe believes that the parallels between Conrad and Marlow demonstrate that the author shares the opinions of his protagonist. On the contrary, Conrad has purposely distanced himself from Marlow, inserting multiple layers of narrative insulation between himself and his characters. Marlow is grappling with the concept of equality, and the syntactical breaks seem to represent the cracks in his preconceptions. The passage in which Marlow describes the African people on pages 108-109 is full of dashes in which Marlow inserts thoughts from the present and tries to justify that the Africans are similar to early humans. Marlow chooses to think of the Africans as humans, but inferior humans. Conrad wants the reader to come at least to this realization. During his time period, this idea of African humanity alone may have been difficult for some people to accept. However, he could perhaps also be attempting to get the reader to recognize further equality. By removing himself from Marlow’s struggles with the idea of shared humanity, Conrad almost looks down at Marlow through the eyes of someone who has overcome that particular struggle and continued on. Perhaps Conrad stopped at this point and considered Africans to be an earlier form of humans, or perhaps he understood that these people were his equals. Depending on whether or not later evidence in the book supports a deeper equality, even if it is not recognized by Marlow, the reader may be able to discern Conrad’s own position on racial equality.