Things Fall Apart Contradicts Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Heart of

Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Contradicts Stereotypes in Conrads Heart of DarknessIn An project of Africa Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the continent and people of Africa. He claims that Conrad propagated the dominant image of Africa in the Western imagination rather than portraying the continent in its true form (1793). Africans were envisioned in Conrads novel as savages with no language other than grunts and with no other occupations besides merging into the evil forest or materializing out of it but to plague Marlow (1792-3). To Conrad, the Africans were non characters in his story, but merely props. Chinua Achebe responded with a novel, Things Fall Apart an antithesis to Heart of Darkness and similar works by other European writers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe tells the story of an Ibo man, Okonkwo, and the tragedies which he has to endure. Africans be represented as individuals capable of speech, not just one massive conglomerate of natives. Their customs are not regarded as eccentric or bizarre, but as the norm-functioning no differently than the variety of Western customs do. And the land itself is described as a mix of towns and farms, not a mysterious land which breeds insanity. In almost every respect, Things Fall Apart contradicts the stereotypes set up in Heart of Darkness.Achebe opens his lecture, An Image of Africa, with the story of a student who sent him a letter saying how he was particularly happy to learn about the customs and superstitions of an African tribe, not realizing that the life of his own tribesmen in Yonkers, pertly York, is full of odd customs and superstitions as well (1784). Western thou... ...nters many of the degrading stereotypes that colonial literature has located on Africa. In his lecture, An Image of Africa Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness, Achebe documents the ways that Conrad dehumanizes Africans by reducing their religiou s practices to superstition, saying that they should remain in their place, taking outdoor(a) their ability of speech, and depreciating their complex geography to just a single mass of jungle. Achebe carefully crafts Things Fall Apart to counter these stereotypes and show that Africa is in event a rich land full of intelligent people who are, in fact, very human. Works CitedAchebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York Norton, 2001. 1783-1794.Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York Anchor Books, 1994.