Things Fall Apart And Heart Of Darkness

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Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness

Things Fall Apart is a literary appreciation composed by an author of Nigerian Descent;

Chinua Achebe. The theme of the story revolves around the concerns that were addressed by the

life of Africans during the post and pre-colonial periods during the nineteenth century. The

setting of the story might have been based on African occurrences, but the specific events took

place in Nigeria which was the exact place the author grew up and writes as though he bore

witness to the events unravel. On the other hand, the Heart of Darkness was written by Joseph

Conrad who is of Polish-British descent. It was published in three sessions in the Blackwood’s

magazine. It is about a voyage that was meant to travel from River Thames in London towards

the Congo River in Congo Free State. However, the variation between the two in terms of the

way the story is presented is that the latter is told from a narrator’s perspective while the

aforementioned is written from a witness’ perception.

Heart of Darkness

At the beginning of the story, the author describes Marlow who had an in-depth fascination with

maps. The awkward thing about him is that he liked the parts that were blank. However, as he

grew up, such pieces became filled up and were no longer blank as they used to be initially. This

signified that they had been occupied in all manner of ways. The map is not the focus here but

rather the narrator; Marlow. He tells his fellow sailors aboard the board the story of how he

managed to become the Captain of the Ivory trading Company. What is for sure is that he had

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always been ambitious from the time he was young judging from the way he took a look at maps

and his fascination to blank spaces that gave him the implication that they were either

unoccupied or undiscovered.

“The vicinity is full of diseased Africans who waited earnestly for their deaths after

working tirelessly on the railroad as their bodies were sick and thin as air.”

This is the scene where Marlow first set foot on the banks of Congo River after their vessel had

docked there. After that, they had been taken by a steamer through a little sea towards their

preferred destination by a captain on a Swede. On their arrival at the location of Company

station, Marlow is saddened by what he sees. Uncountable Africans are lying helplessly as life

slowly seeps from them. Apparently, they had all been working on building the railway line for

the colonialists who had taken charge of their country. Marlow was able to discern this from the

onset where he saw others actively involved in removing rocks by using explosives to break

rocks.

The scene that Marlow witnessed that got him horror-struck was merely a tip of the

iceberg of the things that had been taking place in Africa that were attributed to the arrival of

colonial powers. He was profoundly hurt by the fact that the individuals he saw were helplessly

lying there waiting for their death as though they were not crucial to the whites they had been

working for the entire time since their arrival. This gives the outright implication to the reader

that the colonialists did not care about the Congolese they had conscripted to work for them at no

pay. This is because, to them, they were not essential and they were like donkeys who worked all

day tirelessly.

The European powers had taken control of Congo owing to its richness in minerals. The

latter made them forget that even Africans were human beings just as they were and deserved

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better treatment than the one they accorded to them when they arrived in Congo and took

control. From the perspective of Marlow’s narration, he is saddened by the scene he bores

witness to and how the Captain treats his ‘employees.’ When they set course for Congo, he

thought he would find a place as the one he had left in London where people were treated as

humans who had rights and freedoms that were observed at all times irrespective of the place

they stayed or their historical backgrounds but seemingly that was not the case. Judging from

Marlow's initially like for huge spaces on maps, it is evident that he chose to join the rest in the

sail to Congo due to its substantial appearance on the map as it was a vast nation.

By reading the chosen text above, one may feel as though they are physically taking part

in the voyage Just as Marlow did and was seeing everything he saw inclusive of the dying

people. The text drives the human mind back to the colonial times and the manner in which

things were handled. Also, it sheds light on the way Africans were treated; overworked all day

without rest and time to replenish or even take meals. The reader pities the individuals but then

there is no way to help them as the events had taken place in the past, but the human mind has

traveled to towards it as though it is still an ongoing process.

Before the advent of slavery, slave trade and colonialism, Africa was a peaceful continent

save for the minor cases of communal fights and disagreements which would always be solved

and the people would live to see another day as though the events ever took place. However, the

advent of colonialists disrupted all that as all the practices and values that Africans believed in

were tarnished and dragged away from them as they were busy working for the Europeans on

either place they were forcefully taken. They were made to operate against their will which

makes it even more painful as they were treated like animals who had no say on what was being

done to them at any particular point and time.

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Things Fall Apart

The book commences by describing a famous wrestler Okonkwo. Chinua Achebe spends more

significant time in the first part of the novel to give a narration of the things that Africans during

his season fancied. He succinctly describes the skilled fighter and how his back had never

touched the ground while in the fighting session thus made him one of the most acclimated

fighters. The author starts by talking about the actual events that take place in Nigeria which is

the setting of the story. African greatly valued their cultural practices and wrestling was one of

them. By so doing, it is apparent that the author appreciates his culture and beliefs. He then takes

us through the wrestler’s journey and how he used to travel from place to place staging fights

which he always emerged victorious. It is through Okonkwo that the reader gets to learn of the

advancement of the colonialists in Nigeria.

Some of the people revolt as they perceive them as being intruders thus gets them exiled.

The Europeans arrived in African lands in which they were not welcomed, and instead of being

kind to them, they take them to prison and forcefully settle on their land and do away with their

cultural and religious practices. They feel as though the spiritual practices of the Nigerians are

substandard and theirs is better. This is quite ironical as they feel the Nigerian's religion is weak

and lacks basis and feel that theirs is better yet they are the ones taking control of them by force

which does not portray any religious acclimation. Okonkwo hangs himself before he is taken to

court for fear that the colonial courts would judge him unfairly and get him exiled. He decides to

take the easy way out. This shows how much Africans had no faith in the leadership of the

colonialists. However, his action is against the traditions and cultural practices of the Igbo people

of whom he is a part. The fact that he chose to do it irrespective of the latter shows how

desperate he was to unchain himself from the colonial powers on their land.

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Conclusively, both stories give the reader the picture of how events unraveled during the

colonial regime by stating the bare facts and circumstances that made Africans feel oppressed.

Even though Conrad tries to make Marlow’s narration lively by giving the most painful

encounters that Africans went through, Chinua Achebe gives the events first hand through the

Protagonist Okonkwo and the mysteries he went through together with his fellow Nigerians. The

constant thing about them is that they both make the person reading the text feel as though they

are witnessing the events take place and even take them through the tiny details.

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