In paragraph 37, Achebe explains "The point of my observations should be quite clear by now, namely that Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist." Thank you, Mr. Achebe. I still do not understand how this book apparantly awoke the conscious of the West and alerted them to the "rape of the Congo" when the author/narrator/second narrator/whoever is telling the story, who knows, tells the story with the Africans in a demeaning fashion.
While the overall flow of Heart of Darkness will bother me if I ever read this book again (don't count on it), I am very appreciative of the way Achebe explained several things, in particular the idea of Africa being an antithesis of Europe. In paragraph 14, he sums up the meaning of Heart of Darkness with a quote from the book: "What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity -- like yours... Ugly." It is the fact that humanity, though seperated by rivers, continents, man-made buildings or forests, is all still humanity in the end, that all the "inhuman" things another culture does is something any other culture is capable of because we are all humans.
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." - Kenya newspaper article
::edit:: I apologize if there are any layout problems when viewing my entry... I am not a fan of blogspot.
2 comments:
I liked the essay too, thought it was also a bit confusing to me (not as much as Heart). I think the point of that humanity thing dealt with even though savagery is ugly, but so is civilization, the buildings, the smoke the crowds.
For someone who is not a fan of Blogspot it seems to me you are doing a wonderful job!
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