Achebe An Image of Africa Summary Personal experiences: man did not believe that Africa has a history, high-school

ol students believed African customs to be barbaric or odd Kids, due to lack of age, were unaware how New York too is full of odd superstitions Adult was simply ignorant due to a lack of factual information Is there something more than just these two reasons, however? o The desire one might indeed say the need in Western psychology to set up Africa as a foil to Europe, a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar in comparison with which Europes own state of spiritual grave will be manifest (p. 2) Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) The magnitude of his literary style is such that it becomes constantly and seriously evaluated by scholars and academics Book projects Africa as the other world, the antithesis (direct opposite) or Europe and therefore modern civilization as well. The book describes the atmosphere of Africa as either a haunted silence or a mad frenzy o Quotes for both available on page 4 What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity like yours the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. (Conrad, p 105-106) Conrad does not bestow language on the rudimentary souls of Africa, most times the cannibals only exchanged brute grunts. The only time language was conferred upon them was when cannibalism gets the better of them (Conrad, 148) to try and help the Europeans understand the true desire in their hearts and when announcing the death of their leader, Kurtz (Conrad 153) because what better or more appropriate finis could be written to the horror story of that wayward child of civilization who wilfully had given his soul to this powers of darkness and taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land than the proclamation of his physical death by the forces he had joined? (page 7) Marlow relates to us not just as a witness of truth but as someone who holds those advanced and human views appropriate to the English liberal tradition which required all Englishmen of decency to be deeply shocked by the atrocities in Bulgaria or the Congo of King Leopold of the Belgians or whatever. (page 7) with related quote on page 8 from (Conrad p 82) Conrad was conservative with his liberalism however. He would not use the worth brother, no matter how relevant in context it may be; the farthest he would go was kinship Achebe believes that not matter how artistic the work is, a piece of literature that positions people against people cannot be called a work of art

 Bernard C Meyer, M.D. followed every imaginable lead to try and explain Conrad and went so far as to even discuss the significance of his hair and haircutting however, not one mention was given to his attitude towards black people or his anti-Semitism It is not a requirement for a book of fiction to please people about whom it is written, however it is not okay for a book to parade prejudices and vulgarity in such a misrepresented bold manner the very humanity of black people is questioned and morals in that case are absolute. The West needs to look at Africa not with a smoky, blurred vision but simply as a continent of people with ambitions, and talents in enterprise, life and society.