Summary of Articles Heart of Darkness Essay Example for Free

Summary of Articles Heart of Darkness Essay Summary 5 Authoritative Articles â€Å"Racism in Heart of Darkness† Chinua Achebes article  An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness' was basically written about the racism Achebe encountered in â€Å"Heart of Darkness†. Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the continent and people of Africa. Achebe claims that Conrad spread the image that people imagined rather than portraying Africa in its true form. Africans were shown in â€Å"Heart of Darkness† as savages with no way to speak other than grunting. To Conrad, the Africans were not real characters in his story, but were backgrounds or props. Chinua Achebe responded with his own novel, â€Å"Things Fall Apart†: it was a contrast to Heart of Darkness and comparable works by other European writers. In â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, Achebe tells the story of Okonkwo, an Ibo man who is actually represented as a functioning person. Africans are represented as actual individuals with intelligence and a language, not just one massive conglomerate of dumb thoughtless natives. Their customs are not regarded as crazy and foreign, but as normal everyday life no different than the assortment of Western customs. And the land itself is described as a mix of towns and farms, not a foreign dangerous land. In basically every way, â€Å"Things Fall Apart† challenges typecasts set forward in Heart of Darkness. Overall it is a useful article that contains a good amount of information and I would recommend it to other students. Suzanne Fields wrote an article on the racism in â€Å"Heart of Darkness† she actually defended Conrad. She thought that although, he wrote about racist things he presented in the way that was the norm at the time. She stated that it wasn’t racist because that was how people perceived them not because he had anything against them racially. Suzanne felt that his observations can’t be called racist because that was only how he saw it. It was informative and I would tell other students to read the article because it shows Conrad’s book in a different light than most people do. It was a reputable article written on â€Å"Real Clear Politics† by an actual writer. When Dr. John Laflin wrote an article about the argument that the â€Å"Heart of Darkness† was racist he originally felt it seemed racist, but upon further analysis it isn’t actually racist. He thought when first reading seeing the ord ner and the way he described them as creatures made it seem racist. When he more closely examined the work he noticed that he actually referred to his own people as creatures which showed that all people has animalistic tendencies. He also noted that Conrad did in fact give the natives human qualities. Dr, Laflin showed both sides of the argument on the racism in â€Å"Heart of Darkness† and he made it an easy to read informative work. It definitely was a great article and a good resource. On British/UK fiction Jackie Patrick wrote an article about all aspects of â€Å"Heart of Darkness†. She mentions racism and says it wouldn’t be politically correct in today’s culture, but in Conrad’s time period it was normal and therefore not racist. She says although he alienates the natives from the whites he doesn’t consider them a different species and doesn’t actually see them as animals. She states that in today’s culture that the writing he put forth wouldn’t be acceptable, but in his time period the word ner was historically correct. Although the article was about all aspects of â€Å"Heart of Darkness† she still shows her take on the racism in â€Å"Heart of Darkness†. It was a useful article and was on a reputable site with an easy to use set up. Dr. Leon Litvack compared Achebe’s article on â€Å"Heart of Darkness† to Cederic Watt’s response to the reading. Cederic believed Achebe didn’t read deep enough in to the text and was naive in his understanding of the novel. While Achebe was completely up in arms about the racism portrayed in â€Å"Heart of Darkness† saying that the natives were shown as animals, Watts vehemently fought against those views saying that Conrad gave the natives human qualities. They showed restraint when faced with cannibalism and Kurtz did not show the same self-control. Watts contradicts everything that Achebe wrote and says that Achebe took things out of context and didn’t understand the novel. This article showed two completely different views and compared them giving good information from both sides of the arguments. It would be a good article for students to read because it basically has two articles in one and it compares them.