Heart of Darkness vs Things Fall Apart Essay Example for Free

disembodied spirit of Darkness vs Things betide Apart Es offerHeart of Darkness and Things F all Apart show a variety of ways of depicting Africa in literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows the continent of Africa by means of the sterile perspective of the European sailors, who had a tendency to depict the indispensables of the land as tikes, and in response to that matter, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart through the non-stereotypical depicting perspective of the natives of the land to show Afri female genital organs, non as savages or primitives, merely as members of a handed-down society. European prejudice is presented in a verifiable way in Heart of Darkness. The of import character of Heart of Darkness or assistant, Marlow, is a sailor who travels through Africa and describes the natives that he comes in get across with as savages. Marlow compares these different individualists to animals of some circumstantial nature or on the button to the wilderness of the jungle, respectively. There was a point in this novel where Marlows vision came in contact with a pit in the ground.He noticed that it was a pit made for the natives to go and lay in peace or in other words die. Marlow describes those natives that were there stating, Black shapes crouched, lay, sat amid the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth in all attitudes of pain, abandonwork forcet, and despair they were nothing earthly presently, nothing but lightlessness shadows of disease and starvation One of these creatures rose to his hands and knees and went off on all fours towards the river to drink (Conrad 17).This descriptive portrayal shows the natives as shadows and nothing more than than mere black shapes and not as individuals or men who are simply however anxious(p). These men are no longer men, they countenance been stripped of all their characteristics which makes them human to dehumanizing characteristics where n angiotensin con verting enzyme can tell the difference of one dying man to another. None of the dying men are described by oneself, which makes it difficult for the reader to see where one man ends to where the individual begins. This creates an effect where these individuals look like eometric shapes and symbols of some sort.These depictions in which Marlow stated originates from a actually stereotypical horizon. The saying is that all Africans are made the like and one can not tell the difference amongst them even if much effort is applied. Similarly, there was an African man who was crawling to the river in bless to stub unwrap his thirst. The way he was crawling in general is very dehumanizing. To make the matter worse and more dramatic, he crawled on his hands and knees which is animal-like and very degrading.The man is described to be on all fours just to get a drink, but when looking towards the European side, there is no way in nirvana that theyd be described like that. None. On th e other hand, the European people would drink from a tap or maybe boil water from a well of some sort in order to have a refreshing drink. The natives are compared to animals of the wild when Marlow begins describing one of the workers on the ship. Marlow states, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind legs (Conrad 36).This worker simply shows that the savages who are the Africans have a possibility of being tamed because, He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the marge (Conrad 37). One can see that this man has been stripped of being a human being. He is now an animal, a dog, maybe, who is being trained to do some type of trick. From Marlows point of view he is palliate an animal and none the less, this man is pretending to be a civilized being. Marlow doesnt dot there though. He continues to downgrade this European man by describing him to be just like the natives on the land.All i n all, this is stereotypical. Furthermore, Marlow keeps his ball rolling by depicting the African natives as prehistoric and childly. He states, The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us who could tell? we glided past like phantoms, wonder and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a mad house (Conrad 35). In the mind of Marlow, the natives are so primitive that they are in an aspect denied of having a language. Marlow sits there and begins to wonder who could tell? instead of making an effort to understand what the natives were saying out of their mouth.What can actually be inferred from this name is that, the natives were belike jumping up and down like a bunch of kindergarten students at recess or something similar to that. One cant really be sure, but in all Marlow didnt even try to grasp what the native Africans were saying probably because he felt that they were savages, or maybe their intellectual mindset wasnt as g reat and ordinary to the Europeans, or the native Africans didnt have anything reasonable to say.Joseph Conrad with respect and similarity to Marlow, may have chosen to not include a specific language probably because he was influenced by the European stereotypes of Africans. What can be inferred from this is that, the removal of a language suggests that the native Africans have nothing that is sophisticated enough to say that would be reasonable or important to add to the plot of the novel. In Heart of Darkness, the native Africans are very underdeveloped, just like a third world country would be, in order to have a control of language.Though, there are moments in which there is language which supports the native savage (Africans) at which this is the time a reader might even hear an African speak. Joseph Conrad uses a specific technique when he writes. He uses a limited exposure to the native Africans voices which tries to ignore anything that might remove stereotype well-nigh. In response to Joseph Conrad and the Europeans and their use of stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall apart represent Africans in a humanizing and traditional society.The Igbo tribe goes against the European stereotype in Things Fall Apart. The main character or protagonist Okonkwo does not agree nor does he disagree with the European belief that is shown in the novel. He is described in the novel to be, a man of action, a man of war (Achebe 8). Okonkwo is a very honorable man in the Umofia village, even though he has a very displease streak which is of violent nature. With Okonkwos strength and inability to be feminine, he is afraid of anything that is of feminine nature. His on the whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to match his father. Even as a little boy, he resented his fathers failure and weakness. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion to hate e verything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness (Achebe 10). What can be inferred from this quote is that, this is probably why Okonkwo was always in need of something that was filled with action but he still didnt fashion idleness. With the combination of these two aspects, Okonkwo can not handle the outcome.Instead when strength is applied to this equation, Okonkwo is as good as can be. With this being said, this further supports the European stereotype as savage-like. When looking deeply into the details that Things Fall Apart display, one can notice the contrasting aspects amid Umofia and Okonkwo. Okonkwo doesnt have any respect for his wives. As an Igbo man, Okonkwo man-handles his wives and children without holding back. Noticing the tone at this point in the novel, one can see that it is very much common for Igbo men in general to scold the ripe bananas out of their wives and children, but at a certain time.Okonkwo man -handled his wife during Umofias Week of Peace. debacle your wives and children in order for them to have respect for you is one thing, but when one disobeys the traditional setting of the clans hebdomad of peace then drastic problems do arise. Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess. It was unheard-of to beat somebody during the sacred week (Achebe 19). Since Okonkwo felt as if he was the man on top of all and that he could do as it pleased him so, problems arose amongst himself and Umofia.The feminine force is his wife. And with that being noted, Okonkwo could not remove himself from his violent streak for even a week. retributive a week but when comparing this to the perspective of Heart of Darkness this form and lack of continence goes to the Europeans motive that Africans are savages. Towards the end of the novel, Okonkwo commits suicide by hanging himself. When the District Commissioner look at Okonkwos lifeless bod y, he states In the book which he planned to write The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading.He had already chosen the title of the book, after much idea The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger (Achebe 117). What can be inferred from the title of the book is that the District Commissioner is prejudiced about the native Africans. In Heart of Darkness, Africans are also described as primitive, which shows that the Europeans stereotype is so vast that it is able to be used in two very separate and different works.All in all, in Heart of Darkness the Europeans notions was that all Africans are the same they are primitive, savages, and inhuman. In contrast to that stereotype, Things Fall Apart showed a traditional society, where the members are not inhuman. Unsatisfactorily, Okonkwo who is the protagonist of Things Fall Apart was not an effective representation of a civilized individual of a traditional society . But, he was an exceptional member of the society. And even though the stereotype of Africans has not been destroyed, it empowers the European beliefs.