Portrayal of Black in Heart of Darkness
In Conrad¡¦s novel Heart of Darkness, he incorporates the Congo, the journey into one¡¦s inner soul, the native Africans, and the corruption in man as a result of colonization. In addition to these, Chinua Achebe, in ¡§An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad¡¦s Heart of Darkness,¡¨ accuses Conrad of racism as the essential ¡§heart of darkness¡¨. However, after my reading of the story, I found no racist element in Heart of Darkness. ... There are two main types of black portrayed in the story; the first is the ordinary savages with ¡§a wild vitality¡¨, the second are the natives that suffer from white men¡¦s invasion. ... Marlow has no sense of fellowship with the other white men on the French steamer, (¡§my isolation amongst all these men with whom I had no point of contact¡¨), instead, he calls the paddling natives ¡§black fellows¡¨. ... Another example of portrayal of natives is ¡§the savage who was fireman¡¨ (p. ... 34-36, the blacks are described in a dehumanized way, the choice of words all suggest the natives as being the objects, like ¡§black shapes¡¨, ¡§black shadows¡¨, ¡§nothing earthly¡¨. ... Lastly I would like to point out that the term ¡§nigger¡¨ does not have any implication of racism, I refer and agree with Candace Bradley¡¦s opinion that Conrad only used that term when describing a negative action performed towards a black by another person.