Chinua Achebe Article Response

I want to start off by saying that I understand where my fellow Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, is coming from in his article. Personally I believe that Joseph Conrad misconstrued the strength of African people by writing them out to be weak. I agree that "Heart of Darkness" projects the image of Africa as the other world..." and as an outskirt. Conrad basically separates Africa from the rest of world simply because it was yet to discovered and explored. I get that it is a another continent, however I feel that writing it out as a place of "darkness" is discriminatory and inappropriate. The entire novella is primarily from the perspective of two white men that come from a life style that displays European imperialism; which I think makes them completely unreliable in giving any type of insight on the Congo as a colony and its inhabitants. Africa was only characterized as a place of "darkness" because it was new and came with unheard of trials and tribulations that a white man has never encountered before. Conrad used Marlow's compassion and optimism to draw the reader into believing that white people are somewhat innocent and kind at heart. "Yes we are taking over your home but it is for a purpose; we do not mean to oppress you". That is why Marlow is supposed to represent the heart and positivity in the novella and the darkness resembles Africans. When I think of darkness, I associate it with evil and negativity. And when a person goes to visit Africa for the first time, I can say based off of my trip that it is not a mysterious, evil or dangerous place that one should fear or beware of. Another point that I would like to touch upon is the mockery Joseph Conrad makes of the African dialect. Chinua Achebe writes in his article that the Africans in Heart of Darkness “made a quick violent babble of uncouth sounds” and “exchanged short grunting phrases”. I believe it is fair to say that Conrad wrote Africans out to be illiterate and clearly uneducated. Now I can understand where the lack of education may come from since it is a third world country and in the novella undiscovered land, however from my experience as an African myself, we take a lot of pride in the language we speak whether it be proper English or cultural slang. Making grunting noises and awkward sounds reminds me a of a monkey. So is Conrad saying that the African people he confronted spoke like animals? That to me is considered an insult and a form of arrogance on his part to even write about. Coming from a white European man who is writing about his first time going to Africa, he has more to offer than any African immigrant. White people have money, power, education and dominance whereas immigrants, in fact African immigrants are working from the ground up with no luxury or advantage. Marlow’s observation are not only an example of Conrad’s African experience, but the misinterpretation of Africa’s dignity.

Wuthering Heights

I am going to take this opportunity to write another proposal for my Wuthering Heights essay. I already know this is cliche but the grass seriously is not greener on the other side of the fence. That is the only theme other than love that I can actually relate to in this book. Based on the setting of Wuthering Heights (as a property) and Thrushcross Grange, Emily Brontë sees the world in two different ways: the simple polar opposites of day and night. It is simple because you wake up in the morning, see that the sun is shining through your window and your heart melts with peace. What a nice way to start your day right? Good weather clear blue sky and fresh roses blossoming from the your neighbors garden. That is the feeling of daytime. During the day you are awake, you are on your feet and you are happy. However, Emily Brontë has revealed through the existence of Wuthering Heights that she believes in opposites. It makes sense to have nighttime. It gets dark outside and things get quiet. In fact, a lot of bad things happen in the dark. Sorry to be gruesome, but people get kidnapped in the dark. Now I am not saying these things do not happen during the day. However, night has been given this image of danger and secrecy. The night represents the bad while the day represents the good; some people just do not know that. I guess Emily Brontë sees that there is some favoritism going on in the world. People prefer to look at the good instead of the bad, which is okay in order to live a positive life. But Wuthering Heights explains that you cannot have the good without the bad; it should not be ignored.