ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -In his famous critique, “An Image of Africa”, Chinua Achebe takes a strong stand against Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He claims that Conrad was a racist and that a novella which so depersonalizes a potion of the human race should not be considered a great work of art (Achebe 176).

Detailed explanation-2: -"The language of description of the people in Heart of Darkness is inappropriate, ” says Achebe. “I realized how terribly terribly wrong it was to portray my people-any people-from that attitude."

Detailed explanation-3: -Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness as a first-person narrative. Marlow, the protagonist, tells his own story from his own perspective. Thus, the reader experiences the story from Marlow’s point of view.

Detailed explanation-4: -Conrad’s famous novella is based on a real journey the author took up the Congo in 1890, during King Leopold II of Belgium’s horrific rule. It is a fantastic, imaginative journey to find a man named Kurtz who has lost his mind in the African jungle.

Detailed explanation-5: -Conrad’s story powerfully illustrated the special inefficiency and cruelty of such exploitation. As in his other colonial novels, Conrad went on to imply a further judgment against all types of imperialism, even England’s, because of their complicity, belligerence, and arrogant disruption of indigenous cultures.