Reflection of Chinua Achebe Article

The article by Chinua Achebe argues of the main issue that is racism. Claiming that Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness is a racist novel, Achebe provides a strong argument with valid points to support this statement. While there is evidence toward Conrad having a racist novel, Achebe tells his own side of the story which exemplifies a bias reaction.

In Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, there are different displays of what Achebe would mark as being racist. Conrad refers back to the African Americans as barbaric and savage people. Just the title alone, Heart of Darkness, is enough to insult the culture. Darkness oftentimes symbolizes evil or bad things. Darkness could also mean that one is clueless like the expression "in the dark."

While Conrad's assumptions seem completely racial, it isn't entirely his fault. Conrad knows only one side of the story, his own. The way that Conrad was raised might have been how his outlook on this situation. I think Achebe does this the same way in his novel. I'm not sure if it's so much racism as it is ethnocentrism. I believe that both parties feel that their race is superior to the other. In our socratic we discussed that sometimes when a person displays their pride in religion it oftentimes can seem like they're forcing it onto others.

While Achebe provides key points to make a good argument, I think both novels can't really be considered "racist," being only based on one side of a story.