How the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Was Received in the Literature World

Moreover, Chinua Achebe condemned both the novella and the author. The essay will go further to discover what has influenced the critics and the basis of their standpoints to debate on Conrad’s Heart Darkness. The essay will also explain the reasons behind Achebe’s strong feeling against Conrad. After all Achebe’s aim is to fight for the reformation of the African identity which had failed during the colonial period. Lastly, the essay will give a conclusion on the writer’s stand against Chinua’s criticism on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Therefore, Marlow was forced to return to England without him (Conrad 69). Consequently, on returning to Europe, Marlow was disappointed with both the company and Europe generally. Hence, jeopardize Kurtz career and he refused to give Kurtz papers.

However, he decided to visit Kurtz’s fiancée so that he could hand over some letters from Kurtz. When Kurtz’s fiancée asks about Kurtz last words, he lied to her that he mentioned her name. For this reason, it is clear that identity is an essential aspect to Achebe. Therefore, he wants to move beyond the issues by creating a strong African identity. Furthermore, Achebe has a desire to change the western psychology view that Africa is Europe’s thwart. Achebe always asks himself questions and wonder how a white man view an African. Hence, he believed that it was his responsibility as a writer to create an African identity (Achebe 170). It is also not ideal to blame the Europeans for the present adversities.

What should be done instead is to focus on the colonialism events as a source of histories before independence that would be senseless to inhibit. Furthermore, the human beings are living in a global setting where hatred among the races can result to more harm than identity. Moreover, Conrad expresses a strong ridicule of imperialism by referring to the colonialists as conquerors. This is because they are used to grabbing whatever they want by force the same way violent murderers could do. In addition, the narrative by Conrad in the novella is bound to a particular place and time. Further, Conrad allows his readers in the twenty-first century to see an Africa that has obtained independence and no longer consists of a number of European colonies.

The novella is also an essential time-document exhibit that was viewed to be common and right during that time. Consequently, the speech from Kurtz is continually inconsistent, this enables a reader to comprehend that every aspect presented in the novella might not always be what it appears to be. Therefore, Achebe’s claim that the readers have to believe everything the characters present as the truth doesn’t have a solid ground. At one point the darkness could refer to Africa and at other aspects, it could refer to Europe. Consequently, it is important that anyone reading the novella Heart of Darkness in the twenty-first century, has to understand in the context of history. It follows that Achebe was vastly influenced by the time-period when he was writing his criticism against Conrad.