Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart: Narrative Research Paper

Symbolism, foreshadowing, irony, and metaphors are literary devices used by the writer to enthrall readers, and it is different from literary style and diction. Style relate to the actual words and sentences constructed by the author, while the devices are derived from the content of the passage. “Things Fall Apart” is the most famous and a rare modern influential African novel in English to make history and inspire people of different backgrounds, even after 50 years of its publication in 1958. In the same vein, Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness,” written in 1899, is about the struggle of two civilized Europeans, Marlow and Kurtz, after they ventured in to the ‘darkness’ of uncivilized Africa,’ and their realization of inherent cruelty of human mind, which is capable of “anything,” to attain their goal.. Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is written in complex poetic style, whereas Achebe used very simplistic prose in “Things Fall Apart” to portray his African characters. Though Achebe was much critical about the attitude of Conrad in portraying Africans in ‘Heart of Darkness’, as a classic writer Conrad’s novella successfully stimulates and excites the mind of his readers even today. However, a critical analysis of the books “Heart of Darkness” and “Things Fall Apart” will be helpful in understanding how the colonial narrative influenced Conrad and Achebe.

Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” possibly the greatest short novel in English, asks troublesome questions on human aggression, disturbs preconceptions and hypocrisy of white on black, and possibly force the reader to ponder deeper into his self and human behavior. Heart of darkness “reproduces dominant turn of the twentieth century values, discourses and prejudices, in order to expose and tackle colonialist motives and justifications.” (Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness). Conrad used poetic language to paint images in our minds, and the metaphors to animate these images and allow them to breath. Conrad’s choice of words and word combinations, his poetic tone and sophisticated style, and smooth transitions craft a sensual experience, and it is an excellent example for his ability to manipulate the abstract language to attain his goal. “The basic narrative structure of Heart of Darkness is a frame-tale with inset stories, an experiment with ‘oblique narration’, a tale within a tale.” (Conrad, p.xxv).

“Heart of Darkness” is about what a man’s heart become after they leave civilization, and is much more than a story about colonialism in the Congo. The characteristic of darkness is the inability to see and conceptually it fits with the title of Conrad’s book “The Heart of Darkness.” But, as a description of human condition, failing to see a human being means failing to understand that individual. In reality, Conrad implies that the colonizers were unable to equate them with the natives and admit them as humans. The colonizers were blinded not in the eye, but in their heart, apt to his choice for the title “Heart of Darkness”. The theme of darkness hiding beneath the veneer of culture and civilized European society has been greatly focused in the novella, through the characterization of Kurtz, an unscrupulous ivory trader in the Congo. Conrad used darkness to quantify mankind and human beings, who are blinded by their greed and lust, such that they turn a blind eye to the sufferings and turmoil of their fellow human beings and the poor and impoverished inhabitants of this ‘Dark Continent.’

Colonization of Africa was termed as an effort to enlighten the “uncivilized” and bring them up with western civilization. (Conrad, 135). Considered as dark-primitive society, with little or no individual identity, the advanced society of Europe took it as a moral responsibility to civilize Africans. In its true spirit this act of brother-hood and camaraderie definitely enlighten the people of black continent and may help in human emancipation of natives. But, in actuality it was to plunder the natural wealth, particularly ivory, and convert the native blacks into slaves of white masters. Conrad suggests that greed and material gain is the real motive behind the colonization and all the gimmick of brining light to Africa was a cover up to this cohort action. “While it addresses the timeless struggle of man’s self-deception and inner conflicts, influenced by Conrad’s own sense of isolation from his past, the story of Marlow’s journey into the Congo also exposes the clashes, exploitation and barbarity between European and African societies during 19^th Century colonial expansion.” (Joseph Conrad).

Conrad has sprinkled a liberal doze of derogatory, outdated and offensive terminology, so much so, that the reader would not be wrong in terming him a racist, at least in as much as this book is concerned. In many instances in the book, he has fundamentally undermined the very essence of humanity and peaceful co-existence, and has chosen to term the African natives as ‘savages’, ‘niggers’ and ‘cannibals.’ This use of Conrad’s language in a major portion of the book acutely disturbs or even haunts the readers, and does little to exalt the unbiased view of the writer in the reader’s perspective. But, in Conrad’s defense, it may be said that, at the time of setting of the novel, ‘nigger’ was not always considered a derogatory term and much of the setting was contiguous with the subjugation of natives, as has been the major part of colonist setting. However, in the final lap of the novella it may be seen that Conrad has a message to send across the colonizing fraternity through “Heart of Darkness” that Africans are also human beings, and deserve fair and equal treatment, rather than equating them with animals.

Achebe was chiefly offended by Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness,” once declaring it a “novel which…depersonalize a portion of the human race,” reducing a great culture to a handful of threats and grunts. He wanted to tell the readers that his people (people of Africa) do not respond to situations by unintelligible grunts, they would speak and he required that speech to be written down through “Things Fall Apart.” Language is also the part of the genius of “Things Fall Apart” as the earlier novels about Africa were written in a typical Africanized prose that seemed to mimic the way a Nigerian would speak English. Achebe solved this problem by drawing on different levels of English, from slang to the most precise 20^th century realism.

Achebe believes Africans had their own history, their own celebrities, and reputations, and writing the novel “Things Fall Apart” was an act of atonement’ for the ‘abandonment of traditional culture’. Achebe tries not only to inform the outside world about the Ibo cultural traditions of Africa, but to remind his own people of their past and to assert that it had contained much value, contrary to European perception that Africa, the dark continent, has no history or culture worth considering. Most striking feature of “Things Fall Apart” is to create a complex and sympathetic portrait of a traditional village culture in Africa and resenting Africa as a stereotype “primitive land” as Conrad calls it. The language of the novel is simple, has a brilliant and innovative stroke, and the characters use an elevated diction that is meant to convey the sense of Ibo speech.

The opening sentence of the novel, “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond,” is simple, declarative, and at the same time revolutionary. The story is set around the turn of the 20^th century, and the main character ‘Okonkwo,’ a wrestling protagonist, is a man who embodies a culture in decline from the virtues and limitations. He is committed to the codes of battle and confrontation, the act that led to his greatness, but tragically helpless before the modern power and persuasion of the missionaries. Hence, because of change in values, Okonkwo became soft like a woman. There was complete transformation in social and cultural values. Thus, Achebe presents a changed scenario in his native land with missionary work from the Western world through his novel “Things Fall Apart”.

Achebe viewed Conrad as a racist, intoxicated with colonial narrative, as he shows inordinate love to the word ‘nigger’ that is used frequently in Heart of Darkness and wanted to change the image of Africa through his novel, and he turned out to be a success. Though, Conrad dehumanizes all the characters in general and Africa in particular in the novel, it does not celebrate the dehumanizing of a portion of human race, but points out the hypocrisy of European attitudes towards Africa. Achebe’s novel is a triumph of contradictions: a memorial for a tribal culture by an author whose father was a convert to Christianity; a history-making book about a man whom history left behind; a document of a preliterate people written in the finest contemporary prose. Achebe’s story of a Nigerian tribesman’s downfall before the advance of colonial power stands as the new beginning of indigenous African fiction, an early and enduring portrayal of a culture that had been seen only through the aristocratic stare of Western eyes.

Works cited

Conrad, Joseph. “Hampson, Robert. (Ed).” Heart of Darkness with the Congo Diary. London: Penguin. 1995.

Joseph Conrad: Biography and Works. The Literature Network. 2000-2008. Web.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: An Essay on the “Othering” of Africa with Reference to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. bbc.co.uk. 2002. Web.