Albert

1
An Unchanged World

It is within our innate human nature to ostracize and segregate those who
appear to be different than the majority of society and those who appear to be
unaccustomed to what is perceived to be normal. It is an unfortunate truth that is
derived from fear, insecurity, and a lack of comfort. We fear those who are better
than us, and who we feel pose a threat to our positions and our reputations. We feel
insecure when we are castigated for being different than others, and we then begin
to believe that the harsh remarks are true. We lack comfort when we are presented
with something we are unaccustomed to and it causes us to do something we
usually would not do. This fear, insecurity, and lack of comfort drive us to eliminate
what is causing these feelings, and this usually results in discrimination of the
opposing force, whether the opposition is intentional or not. Whether it is over race,
gender, religion, or sexuality, this primitive battle among societies differences
continues to engulf our world today. Over time, many literary artists have accepted
the challenge of attempting to modernize our thoughts and perceptions of the
differences among society through the acknowledgment of these issues in their
works. Conrads animalistic interpretation of the African culture in Heart of
Darkness and Achebes image of the hostility among the Africans and the colonizing
British in Things Fall Apart display the racial gap between the progression of the
future and the stagnancy of the past.
The feeling of superiority that the white men display toward the African
natives in Heart of Darkness reveals an attitude of strong disgust and animosity that
separates the two cultures indefinitely. Conrad was before his time in writing Heart
of Darkness, given that everyone had a mutual sense of power and higher
importance over Africans. It was not necessarily true that they were all heartless
tyrants refusing to live among a different culture. But instead it was just unheard of
to think any differently. Society was raised with the idea of an unquestionable truth
that white was the dominate race and everyone else was therefore treated
differently. Or was everyone a heartless tyrant? Conrads character Kurtz is the
image of suppressing what society sees as the resistance. Through Kurtz, Conrad
depicts the African culture as uncivilized beings, and almost non-human. Kurtz sees
them as animalistic in nature through their barbaric rituals and ways of living, and
he therefore attempts to fix them. In doing so, it was Kurtz and others like him
who introduced into Africa an entirely different attitude which proved destructive
to the natives' spirituality(Bernardo). Admittedly, Kurtz entered Africa with an
understandable purpose, to enlighten them and give them knowledge that which he
saw they lacked and he possessed. The issue was that his purpose was out of
context and not applicable to the African culture. They were not the crumbling
culture of animals possessing savage-like characteristics that Kurtz picked them to
be. The Africans spirituality and ritualistic ways of doing things were mistaken for
a missing space within their being, a space that could be filled with the
enlightenment from Kurtz. In the end, Kurtz efforts to imperialize the natives led to
his further descent into darkness resulting in him ordering to Exterminate all of the
brutes! Conrad reveals a sense of irony within the outcome of Kurtz actions and
the internal effect that they have on him. As he pushes further and further into the

Albert 2
Congo attempting to halt the expansion of the dark nature among the African
culture, he descends further and further into the heart of darkness until he dies from
the very thing he becomes so immersed in fighting, the jungle.
The progressive imperialism that was spreading throughout Africa as a result
of attempts at fixing African culture began to create the monster they were
originally trying to eliminate. Before Kurtz became involved with the current status
of the African culture, the natives had been doing just fine. They may not have been
up to pace with the technological progress and advancement of the rest of the world,
but they were comfortable and content with the superstitious and ritualistic
customs of their culture. Progress is important in the world and it is ever so
necessary for prosperity and success, however it must be done when society
permits it. Forcing progression upon cultures that are far from contemporary
methods and world-views causes disrupt in society and this unaccustomed response
to the imperialism of the whites is what causes danger to arise. In 1902, there was
no doubt that there was racial discrimination among the Africans. Yet at the same
time, the world was being taken through a rapid progression of new technology as
well as ideas. However while the world was changing in one aspect, it was
remaining constant in the other. The racial superiority of the whites remained,
creating a vast gap between the progression of the future and the stagnancy of the
past. As society in prospering countries was expanding and improving
exponentially, its worldly views and attitudes towards other cultures in developing
countries remained primal and discriminatory. One may argue that the racial
acceptance between cultures will never catch up with the progression of the rest of
society. It may be that the rapid improvement in efficiency in our world far
outweighs the diminishing discrimination among differences. There is truth in that,
given that it is in our nature to discriminate and cast out those who appear different
than us. So then, maybe there is also truth in saying that whether it may increase or
decrease in size, there will forever be a racial and discriminatory gap between the
progression of the future and the stagnancy of the past.
In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe exhibits his own perspective of the
hostility between the British colonization of Africa and the African natives, and how
this tension elicits the denial of progression in an ever-so-fast moving world. When
the white missionaries first came to share the gospel and evangelize the African
village of Umuofia, the Africans were not necessarily comfortable with the new
inhabitants and beliefs. However, Mr. Brown, head missionary, was a very
understanding and patient man who recognized the fact that he must work with the
Africans as opposed to working against. He was interested in hearing about the
beliefs of the tribe just as much as he was interested in sharing his own beliefs. His
method seemed to appeal to the African tribe and he was therefore able to
evangelize some of the African people as well as begin to colonize the village. When
he died however, Reverend Smith took charge and his method of spreading the
gospel began to resemble the superior actions taken by Kurtz in Heart of Darkness.
Reverend Smith forced his teachings upon the African culture, refusing to allow any
resistance or disobedience. This sudden hostile progression forced upon the African
tribe created a distrust with the white missionaries and pushed them further away
in their efforts of evangelism and colonization. Once Okonkwo, an important

Albert 3
authoritative figure in the village, returned from exile, he saw this hostile
relationship between the whit men and his village and he proceeded to burn down
one of the churches that was built. This only separated the two cultures further and
expanded the gap of racial differences between them.
While Achebes goal was primarily to display his perspective of what was
happening through the colonization of Africa, he also intended to show what exactly
was creating this hostility and what was creating this gap between novel
progression and primal stagnancy. This English-language novel clearly reveals that
it is not the attempt to colonize a developing country that produces hostility, but
instead it is the way that which the colonization is being executed that creates racial
tension. The virtuous and compassionate paths that which Mr. Brown took to
spread his beliefs were not the cause of the contempt shown by the Africans. Mr.
Brown understood that in order to initiate progress and change among a culture
with antique traditions and beliefs, he must slowly immerse the culture into his
ideas and beliefs through mutual understanding and respect. One of the reasons
there is still a separation between the progressions of racial acceptance is because
those who are attempting to initiate the progress are doing so in a disrespectful,
narrow-minded manner. What Mr. Brown realized was that the African tribes
believed in their cultures just as much as he did in his own, so by changing his
perspective, he was able to successfully expose the African culture to that of his
own. Yet, even with people like Mr. Brown in our world today, there still lays a gap
preventing the acceptance of other cultural differences from progressing along with
the rest of the contemporary world. It could be that, regardless of how it is
administered, colonization and imperialism can never be done without creating a
separation between the two cultures. Maybe it is not possible for one culture to
modernize another, and in order to avoid hostility among societies differences,
progress can only be done at the rate and discretion of ones own individual culture.
Kiplings The White Mans Burden as well as Laboucheres The Brown
Mans Burden display the not only the tension between the two different cultures,
but also the difference in perspectives of how each race is treated by the other. In
response to the American take-over of the Philippines after the Spanish-American
War, Kipling composed a poem expressing the burden that white Americans must
face as a result of resisting countries in the path of American imperialism. To a
contemporary reader, these opinions expressed by Kipling seem sick and elitist,
while around the time it was written, Kipling accurately represented the general
opinion of the burden that other countries put on them. Kipling describes them as
new-caught, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child, revealing an animalistic
perception of brown men and how insignificant they are in society. He claims that
the reason for American imperialism is, to veil the threat of terror, or suppress and
chance of brown men causing harm or disrupt to society. This is clearly an out of
date view of brown people, however it was very prominent in American culture in
1899 and it caused much discomfort and anger among these brown people.
Labouchere, a British poet, defended the brown men out of disagreement and anger
towards Kipling by writing The Brown Mans Burden. His poem not only,
discredits the views and claims made by Kipling, but it also argues that it is really
the brown men that face the burden put on them by the white men. He states, Pile

Albert 4
on the brown man's burden to gratify your greed. Labouchere suggests that brown
men are seen as inferior to the white men as if white men are their masters. He
adds that, The brown man's loss must ever imply the white man's gain, supporting
his idea that the only purpose for American colonization was to achieve superiority
and dominance over the brown mans race, to gain control and power under the
label of colonization.
The diversity in cultural perspectives greatly contributes to the opposition of
compromise and acceptance of one anothers cultural differences. Through both
The White Mans Burden and The Brown Mans Burden, one can notice how an
opposition in opinions can change perspective as a whole, preventing the
continuation of progress. In order for progress to occur, unity must be present and
compromise must be feasible. When both parties are unwilling to cooperate and
accept one anothers differences like in the nineteenth century, the racial separation
of stagnancy and progress only expands. Unfortunately, for capital progression,
America felt the need to expand its territory, resulting in the disturbance of the
brown mans culture. In this situation, it almost seemed as if only one aspect of
society could progress while the other remained constant. Can both aspects of
society progress simultaneously with harmony without disrupting both cultures?
Sure, but it would take great maturity among ones national pride as well as ones
ability to defend their culture while still accepting that of another.
In the book, Divergent, by Veronica Roth, discrimination among factions is
created in society to revolutionize the world and progress further into the future.
The factions are created for people to live among those who are similar to them in
personality and morals. A test is given to each person to determine where he or she
belongs, however free will is still administered to allow for one to choose whichever
faction they feel they belong in. This discriminatory separation proves that it
benefits society and it seems to prosper along with the people in it. This system of
separating people based on interests seems to work until one girl realizes that the
system is created to eliminate human nature. If your thoughts and actions do not
remain consistent with the faction in which you have chosen, you will be killed. This
beauty-credited system then becomes the enemy, which needs to be stopped in
order for mankind to continue to progress on its own by human nature, rather than
the expectations of ones faction.
This novel leads one to assume that there is an exception to the idea that
discrimination is bad, given that the system of factions seems to allow society to
progress harmoniously. Although it is eventually found that the system inhibits free
will, there must be a way that discrimination could be acceptable while society
continues to progress further. With the factions as seen in Divergent, each member
of a specific faction must remain in their faction and cease to communicate between
those of other factions. Could civilization still prosper if citizens were only aloud to
interact with those who share common interests? I would like to think so. Yet
maybe it is diversity that causes us to thrive and prosper in the world we live in.
Maybe it is the differences between the characteristics and decisions of one another
that teach us new things and broaden our knowledge of the unknown world we
walk in everyday. A world full of only those just like you would cause you to go
insane, to hate those people, to hate yourself. It is not possible for a world to

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sufficiently prosper with discrimination. The economic progression may be present,
but there would still remain a lasting gap between the coexistence of each individual
and their faction in which they belong.
The blacks, the women, the minorities, the homosexuals. Whats next, the
emotional, the tall, or the skinny? Our world is corrupt and our world is disgusting,
but it is something that never seems to change and something that we unfortunately
have to live with. The oppression that individuals face day by day is heart-breaking,
to say the least. In major oppressive places, people are killed for being different
than what is perceived as normal. In places like where we live, people kill
themselves because of the hatred and brutality that they face day in and day out. It
seems almost embarrassing the fact that nothing has changed in hundreds of years.
Hundreds of years have gone by where we have been through numerous wars,
countless technological advances, and millions of people have lived and died, yet not
a thing has changed regarding discrimination. Now, maybe methods of
discrimination have changed. For example, less people are being hung for being
different, and more people are being virtually destroyed over social media. Less
people are being killed for being different, and more people are killing themselves
for being different. After looking at the progress of our country over the last few
decades, it is mind-boggling that there still exists an idea of discrimination. Or am I
wrong? Is discrimination so inevitable that it has now become our fifth humor? It
seems like it. Not a single person can honestly say they have never discriminated
against another, whether it be over race, or intelligence, or height, or beauty. Yes, it
is in our nature to judge others, as unfortunate as it is, but that does not mean we
have to discriminate. Judgment is an opinion or decision that is based on careful
thought(Merriam-Webster). However, discrimination is the practice of unfairly
treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of
people(Merriam-Webster). A judgment is a thought, no matter how virtuous one is,
it cannot be controlled. On the other hand, discrimination is an action taken upon
ones preconceived judgments. Yet discrimination is treated as if it is pat of human
nature and it is something society just has to accept. Is it juvenile to think of a
contemporary world with no discrimination among race, gender, sexuality, or
anything? Is it unrealistic to think such a thing is possible? Our world is undergoing
rapid progress in knowledge and insight, and the technological advancement at
which we grow leaves me awestruck. But the aggrandizement of the gap between
the topical progression of our world and the stagnancy of the discrimination in our
past is what prevents us from truly progressing further. Progression is general
advancement(Merriam-Webster), and without advancement among society as a
whole, I would argue that our world has not progressed one bit. Literary authors,
both ahead of their time and the present, have created an outlet for their opinions of
the dominating discrimination. This outlet has made it easy for readers to
understand and from opinions of their own regarding what discrimination has done
and is doing in society. While some authors choose to write about the effects of
discrimination for leisure, many hope to send a message to their readers. Authors
like Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, and Veronica Roth understand what
discrimination does to society and they understand that in order for our world to

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prosper, the racial and discriminatory gap between the progression of the future
and the stagnancy of the past can no longer exist and must be filled.

Albert 7
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Bernardo, Karen. "An Analysis of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"" Heart of
Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Storybites, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Boulos. "Brown Mans Burden of 1899 Was Prescient." Mondoweiss. N.p., 23 July
2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.
Halsall, Paul. "Internet History Sourcebooks." Internet History Sourcebooks. Fordham
University, Aug. 1997. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Labouchre, Henry. "HERB: Resources for Teachers | "The Brown Man's Burden""
Omeka RSS. Herb, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Merriam-Webster. "Discrimination." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 17
Apr. 2014.