This document provides an analysis of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart and Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. It argues that Things Fall Apart depicts the robust culture of pre-colonial Igbo society in Nigeria and shows the negative impacts of colonialism. Heart of Darkness reveals the evil and inhumanity that can result when people abandon moral restraints, as seen in Belgium's exploitation of Congo. Both novels remain relevant by critiquing imperialism, cultural arrogance, and the complex nature of race. They also encourage the reader to protect their own culture from invasion or unwanted change.

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My world’s Views based on Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart
Contacts for help:dorineadalyn@gmail.com
Contacts for help:dorineadalyn@gmail.com
Chinua Achebe “Things Fall Apart” is one of the acclaimed finest novels that depicts the
life of the Igbo or Nigeria. The novel was published in 1958 and since, the novel has sold many
copies and has been transplanted into many languages. The novel offer more than the precolonial
life to the readers, it is a window to accessing the life of the many societies in the world. The
ingenious cultures of Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori and the First Nations North and
the some Central America republic are some of the major societies which can best be explored
through the novel Things Fall Apart. Things Fall Apart establishes the validity of life during
precolonial times and instill relevant to the contemporary society today. Heart of Darkness by
Joseph Conrad reveals the atrocities of the European settlers in Congo. It exposes the ugliness of
people and uncensored nature of their characters. The evil inhumanity as reveled in the Heart of
Darkness can be when people as a result of people working on no moral restrain. This essay aims
at expressing my view of the world as explored in the novel Things Fall Apart and Heart of
Darkness

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Achebe in the novel paints a picture of life that is poignant, vivid but brutal, and with no
judgment hence he succeed in presenting community that is robust with strong values. There is
also morality uprightness in the manner in which African culture is presented. Thus the novel
enables me to understand that in society, despite having cruelty of life, there is value in being
solidified in the norms, culture and all that defines a society. Viewing the society from the
perspective offered in the novel Things Fall Apart, I am able to make inferences about high value
which accord solidarity, hospitality, kinship. Tribal society African before invasion by the
Missionaries was strong and functional and if the solidarity was tighten, the Christians
missionaries could not have made inroads into the society and cause ethnic discrimination, brutal
justice and religion invasion. Today. The novel is still relevant because, as a reader, I am able to
see the western culture still justified under the guise of moral concern and western style
governments often leads to political imposition and turmoil. The global civilization is
increasingly being cloaked in obstensility of concepts like self-determination, promotion of
democracy and women liberation. As the novel state, “a man who does not know where the
rains started biting him cannot know where he dried up” This statement curve a question that if
we are to be independent in the society, we must start looking at out cultures and safe guard it
strongly. The novels traces the modern tragedy of dehumanization based on absolutism and
cultural arrogance and how these approaches manifest as amoral arms of cynical campaigns.
These campaigns are still present in the modern world as shown in nations like Afghanistan and
Iraq (Malic 1).
Achebe is not direct in dispelling the western cultures, but rather he is concerned with the
invasion of the African cultures. In so doing, he realized that there exist an opportunity to
express the African culture and what he imagined as a perfect society by taking a more mature

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stance. This made me realize that there is need to be honest and have an aggressive defense of
what is deemed noble to the people. Defense in Achebe’s perspective of culture is representation,
however, one must remains true to its original identity. As explored by Chimanada Ngozi
Adichie, Africans have not told their cultures; the culture’s that Africa relates to are from the
west and even many decades passed since the novel was written, still there is only a single story
about Africans (Brown 2013). The cultural erosion is still relevant in the modern day as many
people, specifically the African and some Asian communities are still drawn by the western
civilization and cultures at the expense of their own. For instance, skin bleach is one way the
Africans aspires to be like the western yet, the dangers of skin bleach are horrific. The African
concept of beauty has changed and what Africa admires is the western dictates of beauty. The
implication of these cultural erosion is the lack of authentic African story and standing with what
is African. When western cultures were installed among the Igbo, it was logical that their culture
was to be the dominant culture among the Igbo.
People become more evil when the norms and morals are abandoned and they cannot
chose from what is right or wrong. One of the reasons for this statement is there is a higher
power that has great impact on people’s lives thus brainwashing people’s minds. Joseph Conrad
in the novel Heart of Darkness writes that “I’ve seen the evil; the devil of violence and the devil
of greed, devil of desire pp1(55). This notion resonate with the contemporary view of the modern
employees. The evil of violence, desire and greed as not only been seen in the contemporary film
but in global scieties. Such include the atrocities orchestrated by people like Hitler with his aim
of switching people to shift their sense of what is right. A single evil can find itself in one person
and can have devastating impact in the society and can change out moral self-control. Conrad
reveals in the novel Heart of Darkness that people can break down and abandon their moral

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standards. Whether this is transformations is from happiness to oppression or from good to evil,
it is caused by a compelling force. The greed in people cause a worker to still from the boss, still
it can cause the boss to be madly at his workers. Conrad writes that the “ivory was ringing in the
air, was whispered and you could think that they were praying on it”. Cunard 166). Not only
does Conrad reveal the true nature of evil, but he is able to reveal what can happen to someone
when no one is watching.
Conrad in the novel Heart of Darkness argues that there is lack absolute essential
difference between the so called primitive societies and civilized cultures. This statement is true
based on the 19 centuries spurious theories regarding racial superiority which were used to
legitimate building of colonies. This was used to justify the European rule over native
populations, a people who had their own institution and rights. This is a manifest of the European
cultures that was imposed on other cultures based on their ground of complexion. Heart of
Darkness suggest that western cultures are not essentially more enlightened than the people they
invade; thus managing to punctures on race theories. Today, there are organization which have
been formed for the suppression of cultural customs, the European nations control aspect of
some nations as they take their influential cultures to such nations. Conrad tended to be right on
the ground of global politics especially the presentation of Kurtz as an extremist demagogue thus
expressing the habitual pessimism about mass democracy. Still in the reference to the totalitarian
regimes that existed among the Russian, Germans and Italian are a ministered of the Kurtz
combinations of irresistible charisma with mega-colonial brutality. The recent democracy
process in the UK and United Kingdom can be observed in the Herat of Darkness in realism of
political populism. An absence of rhetorical flair was demonstrated on the 2016 US presidential
election as it showed no handicap in the arena of contemporary populist debate.

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Heart of Darkness portray the European views of Africans as primitive and uncultured.
Hearts of Darkness presents a queer critique of the imperialism in Africa which Cunard
condemns as “rapacious and pitiless folly”. The systematic abuse and exploitation of the
indigenous Congo inhabitants began after the 20th
century, however, Conrad was able to see the
racial superiority and imperialism, about European belief before they could take deeper root in
the Congo. However, the presentation of the African in novel shows that they were inferior,
perhaps due to lack of more rounded character (Wasney 1). This is shown by Marlow limited
perspectives thus Heart of Darkness critique how people see other peoples’ cultures. Often,
people considered their cultures as superior to other while demeaning others cultures. Race as
presented in the Heart of Darkness is not stable thus deconstructing the European and the
Victorian notion of race. In s doing, the Heart of Darkness manages to shift the debate on race
into its complex nature.
Things Fall Apart deal with issues of culture at the verge of change thus imprng the
reader to protect invasion or change in the society. In this views, the novel shutters the
stereotypic nature of the European culture while exploring African to defend what is theirs. It
enables me to see the tensions of change when there is cultural class. Heart of Darkness reveals
the ugliness of people when a compelling force of changes corrupts peoples’ mind to do evil.
The novel might be shocking on the issue of racism, imperialism and evil of people but it only
revels the true nature of people in a honest manner based on what the author saw in Congo thus
divulging the darkness wrapped in people’s hearts.

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Works Cited
Brown, Annie. Chimanada Ngozi A:Dangers of a Single Story. (2013). P.1 Retrieved from:
https://lanetwork.facinghistory.org/the-danger-of-a-single-story-2/
Malik, Nesrine. “Chinua Achebe’s Anticolonial Novels Still relevant Today”. The Guardian.
(2013). P.1 Retrieved from:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/24/chinua-achebe-colonial-
novels-relevant-
west#:~:text=His%20seminal%20work%2C%20Things%20Fall,colonialism%20of%20C
hristian%20missionaries%20arrived.
Wasney, Michael. Heart of Darkness. Britannica. (2020). P.1 Retrieved from:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heart-of-Darkness