Achebe

After reading these two essays on racism in this novel, I did realize that racism was very present. However it is present only in strong under tones and is rarely blatantly exposed to the reader. Throughout his essay, Achebe talks of how Conrad used Africa as a background or setting only, and how he "set Africa up as a foil to Europe,"(Achebe, p.251). I interpreted this idea of Africa and Africans as more of …

…be completely turned upside down. Every person must decide for himself and only himself. Both Chinua Achebe and C.P. Sarvan did just that. Each read something that he did not like and wrote about what he thought to be true. When Achebe found Conrad to be a racist, he said so. When Sarvan found Achebe to be misleading, he said so. I found both to be misleading to the reader, and I said so.