'Comparison of Conrad’s and Achebe’s Presentation of Africans\r'

'Conrad’s perfume of lousiness and Achebe’s Things F solely A get out off the ground, twain(prenominal) take set out in the heart of Africa and center slightly the intellect of colonialism held by the European powers in 19th century. The discordences between the two novels ar ironic anyy as appargonnt as â€Å"b lose” and â€Å" colour”. As we lay out to think nigh why Conrad and Achebe project used so various t anes on such a similar subject, we spirit like we argon solving a mystery plot.\r\nWhile variation spirit of Darkness we feel as if we be led through a neer ending, ignominious, damp, gloomy and stinky corridor and the novel ends in an atmosphere which is darker, gloomier and filled with hostile muckle or whitethornbe creatures. After reading Achebe’s Things egest obscure, immediately our minds turn to a nearby region in Africa, to Umuofia, and we begin to think whether Nigeria is on the comparable real as Congo, a nd if these dark creatures perfect(a) at the boat from the riverbank, are truly related to Obierika, or crimson to the neer smiling Okonkwo, who are in our minds portion palm-wine and breaking kola earnds.\r\nConrad’s and Achebe’s different approach to the themes of â€Å"voice of Afri rouses”, â€Å" insertion of colonisers” and the â€Å"effects of colonialism” distinguish the two whole kit and caboodle from each other. The voice and mien of Afri goats differ entirely the way in two flora because Conrad is looking through the perspective of the colonizer and Achebe, from that of the colonized. As stated in the introduction, Conrad has been stargaze of realiseing the â€Å"dark continent” since childhood and has managed to go to Congo with the ambition to look atk it.\r\nMarlow, provided like Conrad, has al guidances had the stakes in maps and he decides to go to this voyage after seeing Congo’s map on a patron ise window. As Marlow says when he is telling his story, â€Å"It had ceased to be a blank space of beauteous mystery- a flannel patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had pass a place of darkness,” (p 22) we can receive that the mysterious land he was expecting to see didn’t end up be enjoyable and frightened him. We know that when\r\nConrad first of all travelled to Congo, he was actually shock with what he saw; entirely although he was surprised and horrified, he thought all the savage acts of white men as a part of reality and a necessity to keep this colony functioning. The way he refers to natives as â€Å"black things”, â€Å"criminals” or â€Å"unhappy savages” with no indication of pain in the neck in his feelings set up ups that, as a â€Å" cultured” European who is a alien to this spick-and-span land, he convinces himself very easily to the idea that the Africans should be treated as â€Å"savages”.\r\n When he sees a young African reclining against a tree with sunken eyes, waiting for his death, it is non his condition that strikes him the most that he is to a greater extent interested in where he might have found the white thread tied around his neck. alike when he admits to himself that the accountant had â€Å"verily elegant something difficult” (p 37) by teaching a native woman to do the topographic point tasks, we once again record that he doesn’t see them as of his equal and in some sense conceive them as unenlightened beings with no intellect.\r\n scour if Conrad, as a writer who has gravel a citizen of Great Britain, one of the drawing card countries of colonialism, regards all the atrocities in Congo as dark memories, he does not patron the African voice to be perceive and does not provide both jeopardy for an African to express himself properly, except a native’s words, â€Å"Mistah Kurtz, he unwarranted! ” (p 112) On the other hand, Achebe is no stranger to this land. He is in particular one of the dark mysterious figures, watching Marlows boat, glide up the river. Naturally he has a very different story to tell.\r\nIn Heart of Darkness, we are given a surreal view just about the Africans. On the contrary, Achebes success, is presenting them as for better-looking beings, with names, no different in characters and in feelings than other raft living in any part of the ground. Although their customs might sometimes be inexplicable to us, such as the prophet ordering Ikemefuna to be killed for no ground and villagers meeting his order, they simmer d hold carry the aforesaid(prenominal) feelings any person would. After Ikemefuna’s death, Okonkwo who has loved him like his avouch child, cannot insight anything for two days because of his sorrow.\r\nSimilarly, after Okonkwo is exiled from the clan, Okonkwo’s friends destroy Okonkwo’s barn and army hut as part of a customs duty with no hatred in their hearts. still later on Obierika, Okonkwo’s topper friend who was among those people, questions his friend’s punishment. regular(a) though the Africans presented in Things Fall away identify themselves with their culture and have to follow the conventionalitys set by their ancestors, they always show the reactions expected from any person. These people share the same concerns, affections and flaws as every â€Å" gentlemans gentleman being” whereas Conrad, chooses to present them as uncivil creatures or rather dark threats.\r\nAs the boat sails on the river in Heart of Darkness, we are reminded of Jules Vernes Journey to the Center of the earthly concern where in similar dark surroundings, the scientists gamble extinct creatures whereas in Things Fall Apart, we get a chance to observe the horn of plenty of the Ibo culture and look at Africans from an mark point of view. The comparison of how the colonizers are presented in two no vels portrays invitely the recurring resistivity between â€Å"civilization and wilderness”. This time, Conrad, openly dis act upons the sinister intentions of the colonizers, their greed more(prenominal) openly than Achebe.\r\nWhen the reader is told about how experienced agentive role Kurtz is in collecting bead, how cruelly the Africans are used as labor furiousness and are forced to work until they locomote exhausted, wear out and starve to death, it is seen that the supposed â€Å"civilizing” mission of the colonizers is actually destroying the Africans. We clear clearly that the colonizers are after wealth, which in situation does not belong to them. Moreover, in both works, on that point is the irony about the colonizers, who are supposed to be representing â€Å"civilization” but instead acting way more primitively than the colonized Africans who are considered as â€Å"savages”.\r\nIn Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz who is admired and ev en worshipped by the Europeans, is collecting the heads of the natives and playacting very brutal actions to acquire his ivory. caller-out Doctor’s comment stating that any change the men lowgo in Congo is internal (p 27), is a prefigure to the transition Kurtz goes through in the jungle. â€Å" wilderness” has changed him; he is no longer a member of a cultivated union having lived together with the natives in wilderness. Also, when the Manager claims that Kurtz’s â€Å"methods are unsound” (p 101), we start challenge the accuracy of the Manager’s own methods.\r\nThe company responsible for extracting ivory is operating(a) under a hierarchy, with many telephone circuit principles so since Kurtz is a part of this kitchen range, it can be argued that the methods of the colonizers are also as â€Å"unsound” as Kurtz’s. When Marlow agrees with the Manager and says that he sees no method at all in Kurtz’s actions, we can understand how Kurtz, as a colonizer has stranded himself from civilized methods. Therefore, in that respect is the contrast in between his reputation as a remarkable agent among colonizers, and his denial to play the game by the rules of a civilized society.\r\nOn the other hand, the colonizers in Achebes Things Fall Apart, are given a more humane approach. They, like the natives are set forth as ordinary people whom you can meet on the street, in your unremarkable life. Their most apparent feature are their arrogance and in accompaniment their lack of knowledge and understanding. Achebe also emphasizes the irony about Africans turning out to be more civilized than the colonizers in many ways.\r\nWhen there is a confrontation between missionaries and Africans caused by Mr. Smith, the new intolerant leader of the church, Ajofia’s words, â€Å"We cannot leave the matter in his pass because he does not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his,” (p191) show that in fact the villagers are wiser, more mature and more â€Å"civilized” in way of thought than the colonizers. Africans can accept to be rail at in certain points, whereas the colonizers disregard anything outback(a) their own agenda.\r\n charge if Heart of Darkness gives us a better picture about the cruel and uncivilized characters of the colonizers, Achebe also portrays the destruction of African villages so dramatically that in general, we can say that both works demonstrate the corrupted souls of the colonizers effectively. The erosive effects of colonialism are presented both by Achebe and Conrad, but Conrad does not bring up the criticism of colonizing a country, whereas Achebe underlines its tragic results clearly.\r\nAt the time Heart of Darkness was published, there were many people in the world who thought that there was nothin g ill-timed with colonialism and in fact it was the right bear to take for a powerful country. It was believed by many that the natives were nothing but savages. Therefore, what Conrad says about colonialism, is well ahead of his time, but still the argument of whether he had to go along with the idea of seeing natives as â€Å"dark savages” , is of course questionable. From the beginning of the novel, Conrad shows the suffering caused by colonization through Marlow’s observations.\r\nWe see natives each having an iron collar on their neck, all connected together by chains, empty paths that were used to belong to villages in which the population had cleared out. All these dreadful images show the devastating results of colonialism but since Marlow, who experiences these brutalities with his own eyes, does not reach to the conclusion that all these are a result of human greed, it is not possible to say that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a deal critique of col onialism.\r\nHowever Achebe, having lived in a colonized country, knows what it feels like to have lived under the command of others. He intentionally emphasizes the presence of a government, besides the church and shows that the white man, does not only want to shift the natives to Christianity or take away their ivory and gold but also wants to rule them. Achebe does not hesitate to show how Okonkwo’s own people, although they might not be from his own clan, have joined the colonizers and are serving them as their messengers.\r\nWhen the messengers tell the villagers that they should net profit a fine of two atomic number 6 and litre cowries to release the several arrested men from the clan including Okonkwo, they plan to keep the fifty cowries for themselves and give the rest to the district commissioner who had initially decided on the fine as two hundred cowries. As it is seen, colonialism has not only caused the suffering of many Africans but also it created such a depravity that the people of the same land terminate up betraying and fighting against each other.\r\nEven if both writers have based their story on the terrible outcomes of colonization, Achebe, as a representative of the African voice emphasizes the deterrent example tragedy that leads to the formation of a chain of never-ending treasons between Africans. Colonization may work for the benefits of the colonizers, but for those who are being colonized, it gives only suffering, death, loss of identities, in con destruction and humiliation. The general attitude displayed by the colonizers, in justifying their actions, is their claims of bringing civilization to savages, opinion and order to cannibals, technology or health care to the poor or ignorant.\r\nThe fact that Heart of Darkness, begins on the river Thames, right in the heart of London, the river described as console and beautiful, and moves into Congo river, its waters rough, full of dangers, dark, threatening, religiou s offering nothing but unexpected and unknown menaces, shows us the exact mentality of the colonizers, as they view Europe and Africa. It is a clear account of how they believe that, their civilization is superior, giving them the right to expand their interests to wherever they see fit. A boat trip on the Congo River, according to them, is a bill device which will reveal how primitive the Africans are.\r\nThe further you travel, the degree of primitivism rises. incisively as Thames River is the antithesis of Congo River or Africa, with Conrad, Achebes characters show that the Africans are not subhuman or part of a different species, but are members of the human race with their flaws and virtues. Achebes get words in Things Fall Apart are â€Å"The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the take down Niger”, the name of the commissioner’s book, is the very commonplace colonial powers live by. It is in fact the most tragic ending to these gloomy stories of shatt ered lives, erased cultures and a whole continent torn apart, by colonialism.\r\n'