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Transcript of 1 Chris Nye Sherryll Mleynek ENG 300 March 15,
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Chris Nye
Sherryll Mleynek
ENG 300March 15, 2009
Conrad the Victim
It is the readers own criticism that constitutes the reality of the book. The
novelis not to be viewed as the mere reflection of a social reality, for its true form will
only be revealed when the world it present has, like all images, been refracted andconverted by the mind of the reader (Wolfgang Iser, The Implied Reader, 113).
In the quote above, Wolfgang Iser presents the novel as an image, as if the work
of fiction is simply a picture of whatever the author writes. In the same breath, Iser says
that the reality of the book (or image) is based upon the reaction of the reader. In other
words, the author is not enough.
Joseph Conrads classic novella Heart of Darkness is one of the most widely
criticized books; its reality does not need to be justified. While plenty have read the book,
it seems to me as though nearly everyone has constructed an opinion concerning the book
itself, its characters and setting. In my own reading of Conrads classic, I feel as though I
have a very unique reaction to it and wish to respond to some of the scholarly notes.
Chinua Achebe offers perhaps the most famous response to Heart of Darkness, calling
the author a thoroughgoing racist (Conrad, 343). Taking a slightly lesser stance on the
novel is J. Hillis Miller in Should We Read Heart of Darkness? Miller suggests we
read it as a powerful exemplary revelation of the ideology of capitalist imperialism,
including its racism (Conrad, 474). It is my claim in response to these critics and
others, that Conrad must not be blamed or criticized for his racism but must be set into
the context in which he wrote. In understanding this context, Conrads novella should be
widely read and discussed in classrooms all over the world.
It is first of great importance to discuss Conrads racism, which seemingly
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permeates his story and his critics papers. Achebe presents very challenging points in his
essay, and in fact sets up cogent remarks, however, I believe he is missing a large piece to
the puzzle that is Conrad and Heart of Darkness. Conrad was a racist, but it is my
argument that we should not be surprised nor should we as critics ascribe blame to
Conrad because he was enslaved to an unenlightened worldview.
Chinua Achebes essay opens with a very valid point: there lies, in this current
age, a problem with the Western minds understanding of African history, traditions, and
values. Far too often do we treat Africa as wildly unique and somewhat native, when in
all actuality our culture holds traditions, histories, and values as strong as Africa.
However, as Achebe digs deeper into Heart of Darkness, he begins to open a
psychoanalytic reading of not just the novella, but all that Conrad writes. Achebe paints
Conrad as not just a racist, but an unrelenting, obsessed, and tormented man (Conrad
345). It is at this point in the essay where I feel Achebe has forgotten the reality and
power of worldview.
Conrad was born in the middle 1800s and was orphaned by the age of eleven. He
was raised in a somewhat cautious, Polish upbringing that made him wait out some of his
childhood dreams. Achebe capitalizes on Conrads childhood, pulling a quote from his
early years of his first encounter with a black man (Conrad, 344). Admittedly,
Conrads language is very awful and by our standards today, unarguably racist: A certain
enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious,
unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days (Conrad
344). However, I do not see a place for blame solely on Conrad for this. I see Conrad as a
young man enslaved to his worldview. Every human being has a worldview that has been
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constructed by his or her own personal upbringing and Conrad is no exception. Gene M.
Moore writes, works can be read as products or signs of the various influences that
contributed to the shaping oflife and literary careerinfluence can be negative or
positive (Cambridge, 224). It is unfair for the reader or the critic to attribute identities to
the author that never existed in his worldview. Conrad constructed his literary
masterpiece under the influence of 19th Century Polish culture, which was not as
progressively enlightened as Achebes 20th century Western worldview.
Since his teenage years, it was Conrads passion to travel to Africa and be a man
of the sea. In his famous trip of 1889 where he captained a steamboat to the Congo Free
State, he collected most of his material for Heart of Darkness. This would be the first
time Conrad would see any native culture. He had no access to the Internet or
photographs as one does now. The simple concept of a man painting his face and
screaming in a new dialect would be alien to the young Conrad he was shocked. The
tales of his journey are simply reports from his worldview, not judgments.
The reader, above anything else, must understand the worldview in which Conrad
had whilst he sat on that boat. More importantly than the political situations of the time, it
needs to be noted that things such as civil rights as they exist today, were at the most in
the infantile stages of the Western human thought development. The phrases attributed to
Marlow are horrifically racist by our current standards, but it is unfair and outlandish to
ascribe our worldview on Conrads somewhat unenlightened worldview.
It is clear that much of Conrads words are somewhat prophetic, and because of
this often critics believe that he should be ahead of his worldview in other areas of
thought as well. It is true that Conrads commentary of Western imperialism is surprising
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considering his worldview. Obviously on his journey and through his life, he saw clear
evidences of the darkness in imperialism. His political mind was advanced, but perhaps it
is too much to assume that his social and humanitarian mind was as advanced. It would
have been fantastic if he had achieved enlightenment outside of his racist worldview, but
the fact is he did not. Conrads language should not be surprising, for it was normal
dialect for a white man in the late 19th century.
It must be made clear that I do not intend to justify this language in our current
culture. If Conrad were to have written this as a current American or European, he should
be labeled a racist, but I feel as though the blame thrust upon him individually is out of
place. The focus of Achebe and others should be upon the civilization and society he was
brought up in, not Conrad as a person. There is no secret that the history of Western
thought is one of pain and embarrassment from the justification of slavery, to the
treatment of the Native Americans, all the way to the treatment of black men in the south
during the 1950s westerners do not have a pretty past. It must be recognized that we
have surviving literature of some value that exists from that embarrassing time period.
Joseph Conrad is a victim of this awful time period. He wrote far before the equality of
the native black man was either recognized or even talked about. The reader and the critic
must separate the man from the society. For if we blame Conrad alone, we are forgetting
the blame of the millions of others who never put pen to paper.
Beyond this, speaking of Conrads racial disposition is besides the point of his
great literary achievements in Heart of Darkness. Because people have forgotten his
worldview that he fell victim to, critics have stopped focusing on his form, style, and
even content, and more closely focused on the implied psychoanalytic reading. Moore
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would agree saying, As an authors works achieve significance as token of cultural
literacy, they inevitably become caricatured or distorted, and are readily available as
points of reference in arguments that go far beyond merely literary issues (Cambridge,
225). Since Heart of Darkness is such a literary accomplishment, and because of
Conrads enlightened view of imperialism, readers have unfairly attributed
psychoanalytic critiques to his work which simply do not belong there in the first place.
To answer Millers accurate and fair question, Should we read Heart of
Darkness?, the answer is absolutely yes. We must read it, but with the context of
Conrads retarded worldview, understanding the society he came from and the culture he
was influenced heavily by. Should we teach our children to speak and write like Conrad?
Absolutely not, they must know the grounds from which we have risen. It is essential not
to single out Conrad as a racist, but to understand him as a small piece of a larger racist
culture. I believe that with this understanding, we can value the literary brilliance of
Conrad without becoming hung up in psychoanalytic criticisms of a man who was by all
social circumstances at the time, quite regular.
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Works Cited
Cambridge companion to Joseph Conrad. Cambridge [England]:
Cambridge UP,
1996.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness: an authoritative text,
backgrounds and contexts, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.