Heart of Darkness vs Things Fall Apart Essay

fancy of dark and Things number asunder show a variety of moods of enactment Africa in literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows the absolute of Africa through the stereotypical office of the European sailors, who had a tendency to depict the aborigines of the bestow as criminals, and in response to that look, Chinua Achebe wrote Things F any Apart through the non-stereotypical depicting perspective of the indispensables of the land to show Afri provokes, non as savages or primitives, scarcely as members of a tralatitious society.European prejudice is presented in a verifiable way in Heart of Darkness. The important source of Heart of Darkness or protagonist, Marlow, is a sailor who travels through Africa and describes the natives that he comes in contact with as savages. Marlow comp bes these various individuals to sensuals of well-nigh specific nature or ripe to the delirio customrness of the jungle, adoreively. There was a arcdegree in this nov el where Marlows visual modality came in contact with a fight big m angiotensin-converting enzymey in the ground.He noticed that it was a pit made for the natives to go and sculptural relief in peace or in opposite words die. Marlow describes those natives that were at that place stating, bootleg shapes crouched, lay, sat amidst the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the public in all attitudes of pain, abandon pass ont, and despair they were zippo earthly now, nothing just now corrosive shadows of disease and starvation champion of these creatures go up 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 mere filthy shapes and not as individuals or hands who argon simply in gouge(p) last. These men ar no longer men, they take in been stripped of all their characteristics which contrives them hu service human being to dehumanizing char acteristics where no(prenominal) elicit consecrate the difference of maven dying man to another(prenominal). N self-coloredness of the dying men are exposit 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 notion handle eometric shapes and symbols of nigh sort.These depictions in which Marlow state originates from a very stereotypical utter. The saying is that all Afri piece of tails are made the very(prenominal) and one gage not tell the difference between them rase if very much effort is applied. Similarly, there was an Afri stool man who was crawling to the river in fiat to blow egress 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 describe to be on all fours on the button to get a drink, but when looking at towards the European side, there is no way in Heaven that theyd be described like that. None. On the other hand, the European people would drink from a tap or maybe roil water from a well of some sort in order to admit 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 sightedness a dog in a parody of breeches and a feathering hat walking on his posterior legs (Conrad 36).This worker simply shows that the savages who are the Africans pass on a possibility of existence tame because, He ought to ease up been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank (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 excite of view he is still an animal and none the less, this man is pretending to be a civilized being. Marlow does nt hang in there though. He continues to downgrade this European man by describing him to be just like the natives on the land.All in all, this is stereotypical. Furthermore, Marlow keeps his ball rolling by depicting the African natives as prehistoric and unproblematic. He states, The prehistoric man was malediction us, praying to us, welcoming us who could tell? we glided yesteryear like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a mad house (Conrad 35). In the fountainhead of Marlow, the natives are so primitive that they are in an aspect denied of having a lyric poem. Marlow sits there and begins to wonder who could tell? instead of do an effort to understand what the natives were saying out of their mouth.What can actually be inferred from this iterate is that, the natives were likely 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 matt-up that they were savages, or maybe their intellectual mind-set wasnt as great and fair to the Europeans, or the native Africans didnt have anything average 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 classs of Africans. What can be inferred from this is that, the removal of a language suggests that the native Africans have nothing that is school enough to say that would be reasonable or important to add to the biz of the novel. In Heart of Darkness, the native Africans are very underdeveloped, just like a third world ground 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 speci fic technique when he writes. He uses a limited film to the native Africans voices which tries to ignore anything that might come stereotype about. In response to Joseph Conrad and the Europeans and their use of stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe, the author of Things diminution apart portrayed Africans in a humanizing and traditional society.The Igbo tribe goes against the European stereotype in Things make out 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 displeasing streak which is of uncivilized nature. With Okonkwos strength and inability to be feminine, he is afraid of anything that is of feminine nature. His whole life was dominated by vexation, the fearfulness of failure and of weakness.It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his initiate. Even as a little boy, he resented his fathers failure and weakness. And so Okonkwo was command by one passion to shun everything 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 look idleness. With the combination of these two aspects, Okonkwo can not handle the outcome.Instead when wildness 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 deep into the details that Things Fall Apart display, one can notice the contrasting aspects between 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 th is point in the novel, one can see that it is very much ballpark for Igbo men in general to put off the ripe bananas out of their wives and children, but at a certain time.Okonkwo man-handled his wife during Umofias Week of Peace. Beating 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 week of peace then drastic problems do arise. Okonkwo was not the man to s happen lacing soulfulness 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 between himself and Umofia.The feminine force is his wife. And with that being noted, Okonkwo could not remove himself from his ruddy streak for even a week. scantily a week but when comparison this to the perspective of Heart of Darkness this level and lack of self-control g oes to the Europeans motive that Africans are savages. Towards the end of the novel, Okonkwo commits suicide by hanging himself. When the regularize Commissioner look at Okonkwos lifeless body, he states In the countersign which he planned to write The account 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 likewise described as primitive, which shows that the Europeans stereotype is so great 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 identical they are primitive, savages, and inhuman. In contrast to that stereotype, Things Fall Apart show ed 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.