Heart Of Darkness In Relation To Chinua Achebe's Contributions (Movie Review Sample)

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Introduction
Arts and literal works entail representations and a reflection of society, its culture and a predetermined course of phenomena that the artists try to showcase to bring relevance in future. Artists employ various stylistic approaches intended to lure the audience into believing their piece of work and its integration to the expectations of, or the realities befalling their audience. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad showcases the unexpected or uncouth scenes of Marlow’s expeditions in Africa on a job-related tour that turned to be the worst nightmares of his life. Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa, in response to Conrad’s novella, showcases an authoritative and sources-backed criticism on racism exhibited in Conrad’s book. Cedric Watt’s A Bloody Racist, in response to Achebe’s view on Conrad’s book represent a comprehensive criticisms of Achebe’s observations with regard to the Heart of Darkness and in relation to Achebe’s works. A counter-argument essay comparing different sentiments from Achebe and Conrad works on racism, imperialism and misconceptions about Africa and Europe. Homogenized by the need to unwind the truth and defend their tenets, the critics emerge from different geographical and schools of thoughts and their divergence concentrates on the critical analysis of the Hearts of Darkness. Chinua Achebe’s criticisms and observation present a holistic scrutiny of Conrad’s view on Africa more so on civilization and the purported inferiority of Africans. Imperialism and its ideologies isolated Africa and its people and the tragic hostilities subjected to Africans do not level with the perceived darkness and the racial atrocities that befell black people considering the effects of colonization upon the colonized.
Heart of Darkness as a literal piece fails to expose the evil motives behind imperialism but intertwines the whole story in an entertainment glamour filled with inferiority stunts upon Africans. For instance, Achebe observes Conrad’s equation of River Thames and River Congo as a thematic intelligence and refinement that is mocked by triumphant bestiality (Achebe 338), evident from Conrad’s observations of Marlow’s sailing expeditions. First, Conrad fails to appreciate that sailing difficulties were not only caused by the bad state of the river, but also by the inefficiencies of the steamboat. Yes, the narration carries a fiction tone, but exhibiting Africa and its people as the antithesis of Europe and civilization, unmasks Conrad’s racism and his primeval and ciphered objectives.
In essence, Watt’s criticisms to favor Conrad fails to authenticate Marlow’s appreciation of liberalism with respect to the company’s imperialist and dictatorial ideologies. At one point, Watt defends Conrad on the basis of cultural vigor stirred by Achebe’s lecture at the University of Massachusetts by arguing that he, Achebe, preaches racial intolerance by engaging Conrad on the side of enslavement rather than viewing the ‘European Mind’ as the source of deliverance (Watts 197). Secondly, and in conjunction with Watt’s criticisms, Conrad failed to substantiate the invasion of the western civilization and its impacts on the consciousness of the colonized. The book lacks literally merit based on the culture-based prejudices therein whereby, for instance, Achebe observes that Conrad’s language presentation failed to capture the permanence of literature as he had problems/issues with ‘niggers’ and barbaric ‘cannibals’ ( Achebe 346).
Failure to acknowledge appropriate choice of words when narrating a story with a significant cultural-voltage, Conrad cemented the ‘Darkness’ aspects of his views on Africans’ rudimentary living just above the animal-race full of primitive ideologies and ritualistic superstitions. Achebe’s observations on Conrad’s view of the existence of Africa were right considering the comprehension of the whole story more so the final scene which was a lie. For instance, the scene where Marlow visits Kurtz’s ‘intended one’ and lies to her about Kurtz’s final words and Kurtz forsook her for a ‘wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman’ perceived to be a ‘savage’ and ‘superb’ (Conrad 60), shows Conrad’s inconsistencies of delivering his message across a multi-racial audience.
In fact, it reveals his bias towards African women by referring to them as wild, savages and ‘apparition of a woman,’ intended to invoke racial unrest amo...