Heart of Darkness vs. Things Fall Apart
Nse Nsekhe
AP English Essay
04/19/2013
Heart of Darkness vs. Things Fall Apart “Heart of Darkness” and “Things Fall Apart” show a variety of ways of depicting Africa in literature. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad shows the continent of Africa through the stereotypical perspective of the European sailors, who had a tendency to depict the natives of the land as savages, and in response to that matter, Chinua Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart” through the non-stereotypical depicting perspective of the natives of the land to show Africans, not as savages or primitives, but as members of a traditional society. European prejudice is presented in a verifiable way in “Heart of Darkness”. The main character of “Heart of Darkness” or protagonist, Marlow, is a sailor who travels through Africa and describes the natives that he comes in contact with as savages. Marlow compares these different individuals to animals of some specific nature or just to the wilderness of the jungle, respectively. There was a point in this novel where Marlow’s vision came in contact with a pit in the ground. He noticed that it was a pit made for the natives to go and rest in peace or in other words die. Marlow describes those natives that were there stating, “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth in all attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation One of these creatures rose to his hands and knees and went off on all fours towards the river to drink” (Conrad 17). This descriptive portrayal shows the natives as “shadows” and nothing more than mere “black shapes” and not as individuals or men who are simply just dying. These men are no longer men, they have been stripped of all their characteristics which makes them human to dehumanizing characteristics where none can tell the difference of one dying man to another. None of the dying men are
AP English Essay
04/19/2013
Heart of Darkness vs. Things Fall Apart “Heart of Darkness” and “Things Fall Apart” show a variety of ways of depicting Africa in literature. In “Heart of Darkness”, Joseph Conrad shows the continent of Africa through the stereotypical perspective of the European sailors, who had a tendency to depict the natives of the land as savages, and in response to that matter, Chinua Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart” through the non-stereotypical depicting perspective of the natives of the land to show Africans, not as savages or primitives, but as members of a traditional society. European prejudice is presented in a verifiable way in “Heart of Darkness”. The main character of “Heart of Darkness” or protagonist, Marlow, is a sailor who travels through Africa and describes the natives that he comes in contact with as savages. Marlow compares these different individuals to animals of some specific nature or just to the wilderness of the jungle, respectively. There was a point in this novel where Marlow’s vision came in contact with a pit in the ground. He noticed that it was a pit made for the natives to go and rest in peace or in other words die. Marlow describes those natives that were there stating, “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth in all attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation One of these creatures rose to his hands and knees and went off on all fours towards the river to drink” (Conrad 17). This descriptive portrayal shows the natives as “shadows” and nothing more than mere “black shapes” and not as individuals or men who are simply just dying. These men are no longer men, they have been stripped of all their characteristics which makes them human to dehumanizing characteristics where none can tell the difference of one dying man to another. None of the dying men are