Heart of Darkness Essay - Race

This is an essay I wrote for English Lit, dealing with the privileging of white races in the text Heart of Darkness. It scored 23/25 :-)

Privileging Race in Texts – To be taken at face value?

The novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad portrays the privileging of the white race over the black natives of the Congo. The novel, written in the late 19^th Century, shows the white race in positions of power and dominance. The black natives of the Congo, by comparison, are downtrodden and subjugated. At face value Heart of Darkness appears to offer evidence inviting the reader to challenge the privileging of the white race over the native Congolese. However, a closer examination of the text reveals that what at first appears to challenge actually reaffirms the privileging of the white race. The privileging of white races is reaffirmed by the novel’s point of view, the dehumanisation of the natives, the opposition of physical and intellectual worth and the silencing of the natives.

Before examining this issue in detail the impact of the narrative point of view must be understood. Heart of Darkness is –essentially – told from the perspective of Marlow, despite that the story is actually pieced together by a narrator. Marlow’s perspective is Eurocentric; Marlow is a European, and his point of view is necessarily influenced by the values of his society. At the time the text was written Europe was the preeminent civilisation at the height of its power and glory. The extent of Europe’s power was such that it was said “the sun never sets on the British empire”. Marlow’s point of view places Europe as the center of importance, with all other cultures and places of peripheral importance. This can be seen by Marlow’s arrogant assumption that Africa is a “blank space” (Heart of Darkness, p. 21) on the map. This quote suggests that only the exploration of Africa by Europe can give Africa significance; until then it is nothing but a blank space on a map. The effect of this is to reduce the importance of other cultures, portraying them of a lesser significance than Europe. Marlow’s point of view promotes a (European) set of values that marginalises other cultures. This view frames the novel and must be considered when determining if the text invites the reader to challenge the privileging of white races. Later, when Marlow encounters the natives of the Congo, the European set of values inherent in his point of view encourages the privileging of white races when at face value the text appears to be inviting the reader to challenge this.

Marlow’s first encounter with the native Congolese Descriptions of the native Congolese presents, at face value, a rejection of the inferiority of black races. On route to the Congo, Marlow spots a pair of “black fellows” (p.30) who he describes as energetic and full of vitality, they “had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement” (p. 30). This description is our first direct glimpse of the Congolese, and the positive connotations of words such as “vitality” and “intense energy” conveys a sense of admiration for the black paddlers. In an environment where the Europeans are “dying of fever at the rate of three a-day” (p. 31), the natives are thriving. Strength is typically associated with power, and it would seem in this instance that the reader is being positioned to challenge the assumption that the black races are inferior by juxtaposing their strength and vitality with the weakness of the Europeans. By challenging the assumption of their inferiority, the reader is also positioned to challenge the privileging of white races over the native Congolese. However, upon closer examination of the text what appears at first to challenge the privileging of white races actually serves to reaffirm it.

What at first appears to be a description conveying the positive qualities of the Congolese (“vitality” and “intense energy”) acts, upon closer examination, to dehumanise them; reducing them to a status less than human. The black paddlers are defined solely by their physical attributes. Rather than challenging the assumption of their inferiority, Marlow fails even to recognise their humanity. The black paddlers are portrayed as nothing more than bodies defined by their physical actions and appearance. This view is supported when Marlow compares the black paddlers not to other humans, or animals even, but to the sea. Marlow comments that “They [the black paddlers] were a great comfort to look at” (p. 30), in much the same way that “…the voice of the surf heard now and then was a positive pleasure…” (p. 30). Marlow attaches no intelligence or humanity to the black paddlers; they are only significant to him in the distant way that the movement of the sea is. The black paddlers are only bodies to Marlow; not people. The dehumanisation of the black paddlers begins a trend that is evident throughout the novel. Soon after reaching the Congo Marlow encounters a group of black workers, which he describes as “Black shapes” (p. 36), who are “nothing earthly now” (p. 36), and just “moribund shapes” (p. 36); a “bundle of acute angles”(p. 36). Once more, Marlow reduces the natives to something less than human by failing to recognise that they are associated with anything other than physical attributes. This is supported when he refers to them as “these creatures” (p.36). Even while clearly horror struck at the poor treatment they have received, Marlow cannot –or will not - identify with them as human beings. On his journey upriver, Marlow describes the Cannibals as “…big, powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences…” (p.70). Here, clearly, the reader sees Marlow attributing the natives with a physical presence alone. Their physical presence is emphasised (“big, powerful men”), while their capacity for intellect or emotion is disregarded entirely. Far from inviting the reader to challenge the privileging of white races, a closer reading of the text reveals something altogether different. The description of the natives serves to reaffirm the privileging of white races, because the native Congolese are seen as something less than human. The subtle dehumanisation of the native Congolese also highlights an important tension in the text; the relative worth placed on physical and intellectual attributes.

The impact of Marlow’s Eurocentric point of view is pronounced when the impact of describing the natives solely in physical terms is analysed. European society places greater importance on intellect than physical attributes. By placing an emphasis on their physical attributes (their “wild vitality”, the “big, powerful men”) the native’s capacity for intellect is disregarded. As a result of Marlow’s purely physical descriptions of them, the natives are portrayed as unenlightened, unintelligent savages. The European values inherent in the novel’s point of view encourage the reader to view the native’s “wild vitality” as less important than the intelligence and civilisation of European culture. The text, by disregarding the native’s capacity for intellect, serves to reaffirm the privileging of white races because the white races are portrayed as smarter and more civilised. Excepting two occasions, the natives of Heart of Darkness are not even graced with language. Presumably this is because –having already disregarded their intellectual capacity – the natives are deemed by Marlow too rudimentary and uncivilised to possibly possess language. Throughout the text, the native Congolese are silenced because of this. Instead of language, Marlow hears only "a violent babble of uncouth sounds". Chinua Achebe, in his famous attack on racism in Heart of Darkness wrote “[In relation to] Conrad's withholding of language from his rudimentary souls. Language is too grand for these chaps; let's give them dialects!”. (Achebe, 1977) By withholding both intellect and language from the natives, the text reaffirms the superiority and privileging of white races.

While the reader is not positioned to challenge the privileging of white races, the reader may be positioned to reject the idea of colonisation. For example, descriptions of the white colonisers as “flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly” (p. 34), support the reading that the white’s colonising effort is motivated by greed, and money, as opposed to a philanthropic desire of “weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways” (p. 28). The description of the white coloniser as a devil positions the reader to condemn the idea of colonisation, by assosciating it with immorality. This is not the same, however, as challenging the privileging of white races over the native Congolese. The text still suggests that the black natives are inferior by failing to attach to them humanity or intelligence, and it is for this reason that white races are privileged with positions of power and authority. Regardless of the immorality of colonisation, the reader is not being positioned to challenge the supremacy (and hence privileged position) of white races.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents no evidence to indicate the reader is being invited to challenge the privileging of one race in the text, over another. This is due to Eurocentric point of view, which frames the text. The set of values promoted by the point of view encourages the privileging of white races. This must be taken into account when, at face value, the text might appear to be inviting the reader to challenge the privileging of white races. By taking the point of view and the values it promotes into account it is possible to see how an apparently positive and favourable description of the natives actually reaffirms the privileging of white races. Heart of Darkness dehumanises the natives by portraying them as bodies rather than people, disregarding their intellectual and emotional capacity and reducing them to something less than human. The native’s descriptions in solely physical terms also raises an important tension in the novel; the discrepancy between the relative values placed on physical and intellectual attributes. The privileging of white races is reaffirmed by the text when it dehumanizes and silences the natives of the Congo. At face value Heart of Darkness appears to offer evidence inviting the reader to challenge the privileging of the white race over the native Congolese. However, a closer examination of the text reveals that what at first appears to challenge actually reaffirms the privileging of the white race.