Comparative Study on Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart delineate contrasting views of Africa in
literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad portrays Africa through the perspective of the
colonizing Europeans, who tend to depict all the natives as savages. In response to Conrad’s
stereotypical depiction of Africans, Achebe Chinua wrote Things Fall Apart through the
point of view of the natives to show Africans, not as primitives, but as members of a thriving
society. When European missionaries invade Umuofia, Okonkwo tries to preserve the culture
that the missionaries would destroy in the name of civilizing the natives. However his austere
mentality and violent behaviour has the adverse effect, perpetuating the stereotype of the wild
African in the eyes of the Europeans.

Achebe in his essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness states
“Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world’, the antithesis of Europe
and therefore of civilization.” Indeed, racial prejudice is clearly evident when Marlow
describes the natives as, “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against
the trunks, clinging to the earth…in all attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair…they
were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation…One of these
creatures rose to his hands and knees and went off on all fours towards the river to drink.”
(Conrad 17) Marlow’s description of Africans as “Black shapes”, “black shadows”, and
“creatures” is closer to that of an animal without any human characteristic and is degrading.
Marlow further belittles the natives as prehistoric and simple. “The prehistoric man was
cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us- who could tell?” (35) Marlow considers the natives
to be so primitive that he denies them language, “who could tell?” instead of trying to
understand the meaning. Through most of the novel the natives are portrayed as being who
are incapable of sensible speech: “In place of speech they made ‘a violent babble of uncouth
sounds.’” (Achebe, An Image of Africa 341) The omission of the language of the natives
suggests that they were not considered sophisticated enough by the Europeans to use
Standard English. Peter Childs in his Introduction to Heart of Darkness points out that in the
novella “there is an implicit assumption throughout the narrative that Europeans and their
culture are of more human importance and psychological interest than Africans and theirs.”

Like the Africans, Marlow gives a very grim and dark picture of the African
continent. He says the banks of the Congo River are “rotting into mud, whose waters,
thickened into slime, invaded by the contorted mangroves that seemed to writhe at us in the
extremity of an impotent despair.” (Conrad 14). The description of the river as “rotting”
coincides with the description of the natives as “black shadows of disease”. Marlow creates
the stereotypical image of Africa as being in a constantly wild and deplorable state. Robert
Hampson rightfully says in his essay Heart of Darkness and “The Speech that Cannot be
Silenced” that European writing denies adequate representation of African culture and history
and Heart of Darkness does nothing to remedy this. He argues however, that Heart of
Darkness does not offer a representation of Africa but rather a “representation of
representations” of Africa. He also criticizes Achebe who fails to notice Conrad’s strategic
separation between himself and the narrator. Conrad does not present an account of Africa.
He depicts Marlow’s attempt to understand and represent that experience. Hampson justifies
his argument by stating that Marlow’s consciousness operates according to contemporary
codes. Marlow’s perceptions are no doubt racist but only because those conventions were
racist.

In response to the European’s stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe

wrote Things Fall Apart which portrays Africans in a structured and civilized society.
Through the novel, he shows that Africa is not a silent, dark and incomprehensible continent
the Europeans made it out to be. Using Nigerian vocabulary, proverbs and stories, he conveys
the fact that the language is too complex to be translated. The use of native African language
is a sign of his rebellion against the European colonizers. Unlike other writers who sought to
revitalize the native African culture through resistance of English language, Achebe uses
English, the language of the colonizer, to “write back” to the colonizer.

Achebe breaks the European stereotyping of Africa as a cultureless and uncivilized

nation by giving elaborate and detailed descriptions of the Umuofian customs and tradition
along with their own justice system which existed prior to the arrival of the colonizer. Even
the structure of the novel reflects the author’s intent in marginalizing the colonizer. The novel
is divided into three parts. The first part is longest, the second is slightly shorter, and the third
is the shortest. Since the novel primarily focuses on the Umuofia tribe, with the arrival of the
colonizers, its focus gradually shifts from the flourishing native culture to the ultimate
destruction of the tribal system.

While the novel succeeds in shattering the stereotypes, to a certain extent it supports
the European’s view of Africans as violent and savage. Okonkwo strictly adheres to
masculine values and suppresses his feminine side because he considers it unmanly to
demonstrate love and affection. The fact that Okonkwo is punished for beating his wife
during Umuofia’s Week of Peace: “Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody
half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess… It was unheard of to beat somebody
during the sacred week” (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 19) suggests that the practice of beating
wives and children was fairly common in Umuofia but extreme violence was not tolerated
which is why Okonkwo is exiled when he accidentally shoots a man. From the European
perspective, this lack of self-control is one of the qualities that makes someone savage.
Another instance is when Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna despite being warned not to. Though
Ikemefuna considered Okonkwo to be a father figure, Okonkwo is forced by his own
masculinity to deliver the fatal blow because he is “afraid of being thought weak” (38).

Okonkwo’s image is what comes across the strongest to the Europeans. The District
Commissioner plans to write a book on Okonkwo titled The Pacification of the Primitive
Tribes of the Lower Niger (117). The very title reveals the District Commissioner’s prejudice
against the native Africans. The publication of this book will reinforce the stereotypical
image of Africans. The Europeans are never exposed to the Igbo culture that defies such
stereotypes. They are only confronted with the brutal side of Okonkwo’s personality. While
Conrad’s novella emphasizes the already existing stereotypes, Achebe’s novel goes against
the former with utmost conviction but with a flawed protagonist.

Bibliography

1. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 2012. Print.
2. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2011. Print.
3. Gilbert, Moore. Postcolonial Criticism. Essex: Longman Group, 1998. Print.
4. Merz, Julia. Stereotypes in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart.lehigh.edu.
Edward H. Williams. 2010. Web. 6 March 2013. <http://Isaw.lib.lehigh.edu /index.
php/williams/article/view/28/37>.
5. Ramone, Jenni. Postcolonial Theories.New Delhi: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print.