Question

Write a paragraph evaluating Chinua Achebe’s claim about the depiction of Africans in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Examine whether or not the evidence effectively develops his argument.

In his essay "An Image of Africa," Chinua Achebe contends that Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness fundamentally dehumanizes Africans and therefore is an explicitly racist text; he supports this by close-reading Conrad’s recurring diction (words like “nigger,” “prehistoric,” and “rudimentary”), the narrator’s repeated stripping of names and subjectivity from African characters, the framing of Africa as an inscrutable “darkness,” and the way Africans function primarily as background props against which European psychology and morality are staged. Achebe’s evidence is powerful and persuasive in showing how Conrad’s language and narrative focalization routinely deny African humanity and agency: the textual examples he adduces make the pattern of objectification hard to dismiss and effectively shift critical attention to the story’s representational politics. That said, Achebe’s argument can be qualified—critics have reasonably pointed out that Heart of Darkness also contains overt indictments of imperial brutality and that Marlow is at times presented as an unreliable, morally compromised narrator rather than as Conrad’s unmediated voice—so some of the novel’s irony and critique of European hypocrisy complicate a wholly reductive reading.
Sample Response: Achebe effectively argues that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presents racist views of Africa and the African people. He primarily uses well–thought-out and thorough textual evidence to support his claim. This is best exemplified by a comparison of two descriptions from Conrad’s text. One is a description of a British woman, and the other of an African woman. The British woman is depicted in a positive light, while the African woman is portrayed negatively, using stereotypes and harsh terms. By examining this contrast, Achebe effectively shows Conrad’s biased point of view.

What did you include in your paragraph? Check all that apply.

Achebe’s claim
types of evidence
evaluation of evidence

Answer 1

Achebe argues that Heart of Darkness dehumanizes Africans, and he supports this claim with close readings of Conrad’s diction (words like “nigger,” “prehistoric,” and “rudimentary”), the stripping of names and subjectivity from African characters, the framing of the continent as an inscrutable “darkness,” and the use of Africans as background props for European psychological drama. These types of evidence are persuasive: Achebe’s examples show a consistent pattern of objectification in language and narrative focalization that makes the dehumanizing effect hard to dismiss. At the same time, the argument benefits from qualification—Conrad’s novel contains overt critiques of imperial brutality and an often unreliable, morally ambiguous narrator, which introduces irony and complicates a wholly one-dimensional reading—so while Achebe’s evidence effectively develops his claim about representational harm, it may overstate Conrad’s intent without acknowledging the novel’s critical tensions.

What did you include in your paragraph? Check all that apply.
- Achebe’s claim
- types of evidence
- evaluation of evidence