Chinua Achebe on 'Heart of Darkness'

   At first sight these instances might be mistaken for unexpected acts of generosity from Conrad. In reality they constitute some of his best assaults. In the case of the cannibals the incomprehensible grunts that had thus far served them for speech suddenly proved inadequate for Conrad's purpose of letting the European glimpse the unspeakable craving in their hearts. Weighing the necessity for consistency in the portrayal of the dumb brutes against the sensational advantages of securing their conviction by clear, unambiguous evidence issuing out of their own mouth Conrad chose the latter. As for the announcement of Mr Kurtz's death by the "insolent black head in the doorway" what better or more appropriate finis could be written to the horror story of that wayward child of civilization who willingly had given his soul to the powers of darkness... than the proclamation of his physical death by the forces he had joined?

   This passage was taken from Chinua Achebe's essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'". I found this paragraph especially intriguing. If it had not been obvious before this point, it was made apparent in this passage that Achebe is quite offended with Conrad's description of the African natives, and thus uses some very strong language here especially. He purposely exaggerates Conrad's descriptions to get his point across that Conrad was as racist as he was brilliant. Achebe imitates some of Conrad's style throughout his essay, putting a large emphasis on the 'dark' and 'gloomy' wordage and ideas.
   At times it seems Achebe is looking a little too deeply into Conrad's writing, as here, and yet by revealing Conrad's incredible bias, he almost does Conrad a service, but inadvertently highlighting Conrad's exquisite skill and genius in writing. It's almost ironic, since Achebe's goal is to expose Conrad's work as racist enough to be censored, but at the same time showing that it is worthy of ranking "among the half dozen greatest short novels in the English language". The whole essay is masterfully crafted, an elegant evisceration of the ridiculous racism and literary brilliance and success of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'.